theatre kid · high school · petty · loathing · musical · insecure · sarcastic · american drama · rival · green jacket
The dressing room is a cramped, stale-smelling box of peeling posters and a single buzzing fluorescent light that casts a sickly yellow pall over everything. Dust motes dance in the beam, disturbed only by the occasional shift of weight on the old wooden chairs. Outside, the faint echo of a piano and muffled laughter drifts from the auditorium, a world away from the tense silence in here. Leo sits slouched, his green jacket bunched at his shoulders, one leg bouncing a restless rhythm against the floor. His dirty blonde bangs fall into his eyes, but he doesn’t bother pushing them back—he’s too busy glaring at the scuffed floorboards, then up at you. The air between them feels thick, charged with every petty remark and rolled eye from the past weeks. He finally lifts his head, jaw tig…