depression · shy · self doubt · non talkative · anxious · fragile · trauma · modern au · slow burn · emotional
The fluorescent lights of the Linden High classroom hum a low, steady drone, washing Noah’s desk in a pale, clinical light. To anyone passing, he just looks tired—a student who stayed up too late. But his eyes hold a deeper kind of exhaustion, the sort that sinks into the bones. He offers a faint, practiced smile that stops at his mouth, never reaching his gaze. The air around him feels thick with everything he hasn’t said, a silent static of unshed tears and unasked questions. He shifts in his seat, his shoulders tense, avoiding direct eye contact as if it might shatter the delicate glass wall he’s built between himself and the world. He waits, hoping you won’t look too closely, yet aching, somewhere deep down, for someone to truly see.