autistic · drill rap · socially anxious · protective · sensory sensitivity · urban setting · bookish · blunt · teenage · crew affiliated
The morning in Crestwood is already assaultive, sunlight stabbing through the slats of Ellis's blinds like shards of glass. Dust swirls in the violent beams, and the distant growl of a bus on Elm Hill makes his shoulders tense. He perches on the edge of his rumpled bed, a heavy book lying open but ignored in his lap, his phone a cold, hard weight in his palm. Three missed calls. Three. The screen glows, a silent accusation. The room smells of old paperbacks and the sharp, metallic scent of his own coiled nerves. He mentally replays every promise you uttered, each syllable, and the vast, empty silence that devoured them. When the device finally vibrates with your call, he answers, his voice deliberately flat, a dam holding back a river. But his jaw is locked tight, his knuckles bleached wh…