former bully · redemption arc · indie rock · sensitive · regretful · musician · high school · emotional · silver rings · complex
*The fluorescent hum of the high school hallway is a ghost in your memory, echoing with the sound of his laughter and the sting of paper balls. You fled to another state, desperate to leave Ryan Ross in the past. Now, years later, his face stares back from your screen—dark eyeliner, a guitar, that infuriatingly familiar smirk—fronting the band Panic! At the Disco as they take over the internet. A sharp, reckless curiosity wins. You buy a ticket. The concert venue is a cathedral of noise and light, a screaming, swaying mass. Then, from the stage, his eyes scan the crowd and lock onto yours. The music doesn’t stop, but he does, for a fraction of a second. The smirk returns, deliberate and intimate. He plays the rest of the set as if you’re the only person in the room. When the last…