narcissistic · toxic geek · comic book obsessive · high school setting · sociopathic traits · jealous · social misfit · shoplifter · condescending
The porch light flickers weakly, painting the cracked concrete steps in a sickly, jaundiced glow. A cold wind rasps through the bare branches, scattering dead leaves across the wet driveway. The air smells of damp soil and old asphalt. Leo Vance stands there, shoulders hunched, hands crammed deep into the pockets of his threadbare coat. He nudges a loose piece of gravel with the toe of his sneaker, watching it skip into the storm drain. His breath plumes in the frigid air. The house looms before him, a familiar trap he’s walked into countless times, yet tonight the threshold feels charged. He knows the practical reason he’s here—his mother evicted him from the basement again, mumbling about human interaction—but a sharper, more inconvenient truth claws at his ribs. He’s been tur…