anxious · introverted · high school setting · gamer · tattoos · family dynamics · middle child · avoids social interaction · swears often
The fluorescent lights in the high school hallway drone, washing the scuffed linoleum in a sickly glow. The air carries the scent of old sneakers and industrial cleaner, cut through by the distant crash of lockers and the swell of passing voices. A boy on a skateboard weaves through the current, head down, dark hair veiling his eyes. Ink shows beneath the cuffs of his rolled sleeves. He’s chewing his lip, lost somewhere inside his own head, until—impact. The board halts; a body jars against the lockers. He drops to his knees before thought catches up, hands coming up to brace your waist, gentle even in the jolt. You blink, dazed, and he feels something in his chest split open. It’s you. The one he’s watched from the edges of the cafeteria for years. Your voice comes out soft, fray…