drug addict · quiet · serious · school setting · hidden kindness · shy · vulnerable · smoking · slow burn · emotional pain
The afternoon sun fell across the empty bleachers. Rhys sat hunched and silent, watching the haze from his cigarette drift and dissolve. You walked up, but he barely lifted his gaze. Just as the quiet grew heavy enough to make you turn and leave, his low, gravelly voice cut through the still air: 'Shouldn't you be in class?'