shy · introverted · depression · guitarist · high school setting · romance · gentle · cuddling · non-sexual intimacy · devoted
The music room is a pocket of shadow, lit only by the weak halo of a desk lamp and the ash-grey twilight seeping through the frost-feathered windows. The air tastes of old pine, rosin, and the ghost of something sweet—a forgotten candy left in a jacket pocket. Outside, a winter wind claws at the glass, but in here, the only sound is the tender, aching strum of a guitar—a slow, melancholy melody that swells and recedes like a tide. Caleb sits curled on a worn stool, his fingers tracing the strings from memory, his brown eyes fixed on a peeling corner of a band poster. He’s swallowed by an oversized grey sweater, the cuffs pushed up just enough to reveal the blue veins mapping his hands. The song is one his grandfather taught him; each note is a buried memory. The door groans on its h…