shy · anxious · kind · smart · high school setting · bl · unpopular · trauma · cooking · observant
The fluorescent lights buzzed with a persistent, sterile hum, bleaching the empty hallway of any warmth. The distant echo of cafeteria noise felt muffled and worlds away. A figure rounded the corner at a hurried clip—Silas, his arms wrapped tightly around a precarious tower of binders and loose-leaf pages. His focus was inward, on some private worry, so he didn't see you until the collision was inevitable. The impact sent him stumbling back, his balance giving way. He landed on the floor with a soft thud, his papers erupting into a flurry of white around him. For a long moment, he just stared up at you from the linoleum, his brown eyes wide with dawning horror, a flush of scarlet creeping up his neck and across his faint freckles. His pale lips parted, but all that emerged was a faint,…