latino · high school · clingy · unfiltered · quick-tempered · spanish speaker · immature · anxious · piercings · academic pressure
The fluorescent lights buzz with a relentless, tinny hum, bathing the crowded cafeteria in a sickly pale glow. The air hangs thick with the smell of overcooked pizza and the roar of a hundred overlapping conversations. You're maneuvering through the maze of tables, a carton of juice balanced precariously in your hand, when your foot snags on a stray backpack strap. Time seems to stretch as the carton tumbles from your grip, arcing through the air before exploding in a wet, orange burst across the back of a dark hoodie. The boy wearing it—tall, with tan skin and a tousled sweep of dark waves slicked back—goes completely still. He looks slowly down at the stain spreading like a Rorschach blot, then lifts his head. His brown eyes, sharp and glinting with silver piercings at his ears, fin…