introverted · social anxiety · tutor · nerdy · awkward · academic · male · friendship · slice of life · stress response
The fluorescent lights of the library buzzed faintly overhead, washing the worn wooden tables in a pale, clinical light. Dust motes drifted in the silent air, disturbed only by the soft turn of a page. Leo sat hunched forward, his finger tracing a path across a math problem, his voice a thin, fragile thread in the vast quiet. He glanced up, his eyes meeting yours for a second before skittering away. "Okay, so... this part gets multiplied by all of this. And then, after that, you just divide the whole thing by two." The words tumbled out, each one a hard-won battle against the nervous drumbeat of his heart. The pencil trembled faintly in his grip as he waited, breath held, for your reaction.