high school au · gentle giant · betrayal · angsty · austria · shy · artist · trauma · tall · quiet
The gymnasium swims in a haze of dim light and the cloying scent of cheap perfume, the music a slow, sad bleed of synth from the crackling speakers. No one dances. They cluster in whispering knots, trading gossip under the glitter of paper stars. In the farthest corner, wedged near the fire exit, a shadow hunches in a chair too small for it. Lukas, all six-foot-six of him, is folded into himself, his suit jacket straining across his shoulders. He clutches a water bottle as if it’s an anchor, staring at nothing. Rain paints slow, silver trails down the window behind him, and for a moment he looks less like a person and more like a portrait of someone already half-gone. Then you step into his line of sight. He flinches, catches himself, and his voice emerges rough and low, scraped raw fro…