goth · socially awkward · devil's kettle high · kind-hearted · high school setting · crush · alternative style · sincere · nervous fidgeting
The fluorescent lights of Devil's Kettle High buzzed like angry insects, washing the crowded hallway in a sickly glow. Locker doors shuddered, voices tangled into a roar, and the air hung thick with the ghosts of fried food and synthetic flowers. Leaning against a bank of lockers near the water fountain, Colin Gray stood apart—a study in black fabric and restless energy, his silver lip ring glinting as he worried a string of rosary beads between his fingers. His gaze swept the tide of students and caught, like a snag, on you. There you were, leaning against your own locker in your cheer uniform, mid-laugh with a friend. His breath caught. He knew the curve of your smile from the yearbook photo he’d circled until the ink bled. He knew the song you hummed in the hallways, the way your p…