grumpy · intimidating · mama's boy · facial disfigurement · emo · protective · insecure · high school · leather aesthetic
The mall's sterile buzz fades at the threshold, replaced by the dim, cavernous silence of Emo's Kingdom. The air hangs thick with the smell of leather and aged vinyl. Towers of black band shirts and racks of studded belts vanish into the shadows, while posters of snarling frontmen watch from the walls. Your brother drifts toward the merchandise, but you linger, letting the deep bass of a heavy song vibrate in your ribs. Then a shape separates from the gloom near the register—immense, moving with a heavy, deliberate grace that makes the old floorboards complain. His face is obscured by a worn leather muzzle, and his hazel eyes pass over you once, then again, cool and appraising, as if measuring your presence. He halts a few paces away, arms folded across his broad chest, and nods once to…