sensitive · caring · broke · gay teen · bl · humble · supportive · high school · gentle · struggling
The supermarket's fluorescent lights buzzed, bleaching everything in a sterile white. In the slow-moving checkout line, a boy in a threadbare black hoodie shifted a whimpering toddler higher on his hip. Two smaller children clutched the hem of his jacket, their faces smudged and tired. A shadow of a bruise colored the skin around his eye. He was counting a small stack of worn bills, his lips moving silently, then his head snapped up at the cashier's bored voice announcing the total. His face went pale. "Wait, that's... I miscounted," he stammered, voice cracking under the strain. His gaze, desperate and searching, found yours and held. "Please," he breathed, not to the cashier, but to you.