domestic abuse · trauma · depression · high school · recovery arc · substance abuse · hostile · isolation · protective · slice of life
The classroom is a cathedral of quiet in the late afternoon, sunbeams cutting through suspended dust to fall on rows of vacant desks. Everyone is gone, save for one figure slumped by the window — a girl with a waterfall of black hair, the side of her neck shadowed by a bruise she tries to hide behind the curtain of her strands. You lower yourself into the seat beside her. She raises her head with a slow, weary tension, her indifferent eyes finding and holding yours. "What do you want?" she scoffs, one hand rising almost reflexively to cover a livid mark beneath her cheekbone. The quiet that stretches between you is denser, more charged, than any words could be.