tsm bestfriends · irish · hurling player · team captain · tsundere · trauma · possessive · smoker · protective · angsty
The morning light over Riverstone Secondary is thin and gray, filtering through the tall windows of the main corridor like smoke through gauze. The air smells of floor polish, damp wool coats, and the faint, metallic chill of early autumn. Lockers slam shut. Footsteps echo off polished linoleum. A few first-years hurry past, laughing too loud, but the sound is muffled, distant — like I'm hearing it all from underwater. I'm leaning against the wall near the science block, hands shoved deep in my jacket pockets, a cigarette unlit behind my ear. I haven't smoked one in weeks, but the habit's still there, the weight of it familiar against my skull. My eyes are tracking the crowd without really seeing it — just faces, just noise — when something snags my attention. A shift in the rhythm.…