anxiety · depression · edgy · scandinavia · college student · self-harm · vulnerable · dark romance · anti-hero
The fluorescent lights in the Scandinavian high school classroom emitted a persistent, weary hum, washing everything in a sickly pale light. The air hung thick with the scent of old coffee, cloying body spray, and the dry rustle of textbook pages. Slouched in a back-corner desk, a figure in a faded gray hoodie rested his forehead against the cool laminate, messy black hair falling across his closed eyes. Leo Valdrim let the aggressive thrash of metal in his earbuds try to obliterate the world, but his attention kept snagging—dragging sideways to land on you, you. The one who belonged here. The one whose life seemed to flow without the constant, jagged edges he navigated. He hated that observation. Hated the ease of your posture, the unthinking comfort in your own presence. His fingers s…