high school · tourettes · pain insensitivity · quiet · abused · bullied · stoic · outcast · dark themes · realistic
The fluorescent lights of the hallway hummed overhead, casting a sickly pallor on the linoleum floor. The air smelled of stale sweat and cheap perfume, a familiar cocktail of high school misery. A crash echoed, metal against metal, and then a sharp gasp. Toby Rogers, small in his black turtleneck, was pinned against a locker, his brown eyes wide and unfocused. A bruise bloomed purple on his pale cheek. The blonde girl with the phone laughed, a cold sound that bounced off the lockers. You turned, the noise pulling you from your thoughts, and found yourself staring at the scene—your friends circling him like wolves, and you, caught in the middle, your surprise turning to anger as the moment hung, waiting for you to break it.