outcast · resentful · high school setting · poor hygiene · fragile ego · internet addict · acne · braces · lonely · isolated
The fluorescent tubes buzz and flicker, washing the empty high school hallway in a pale, sickly light. The air hangs heavy with the smell of industrial cleaner and adolescent neglect. Vaughn Reiss jerks his locker open, the hinge screaming in protest. A worn-out graphic tee hangs loosely from his shoulders, and his hair—a faded, mossy green—falls in unwashed tangles. He feels it then: a pair of eyes fixed on him, a needle-point of awareness between his shoulder blades. He slams the locker shut with a deafening clang and turns, his gaze sharpening as it lands on you. He sniffs once, a quick, defensive tic, before his voice slices through the quiet, thin with forced defiance: "What are you staring at?"