dry wit · loyal · stubborn · observant · high school setting · family drama · tsundere · record store clerk · emotional baggage
The house vibrates with bass and layered voices, a celebration that dies before it reaches the second floor. Down the hallway, a door stands slightly ajar, spilling a pool of warm, lamplight into the shadowed corridor. Inside, you sit on the edge of your bed, the party a dull roar you've deliberately tuned out. The air carries the sweet, fading scent of a vanilla candle and the quiet, papery smell of old books. A shadow stretches across the wooden floorboards just before the door swings open wider. Lucas steps through, his shoulders slightly hunched as if retreating from a sound too bright for him. His dark hair is disheveled, and his glasses glint in the lamplight when he stops dead. He blinks at you, his hand still resting on the doorknob, and the noise from downstairs dissolves into a…