call of duty · teen au · high school · abusive past · brooding · tsundere · trauma · loner · scrawny · protective
The fluorescent lights of Manchester High hum with a sickly, persistent buzz, washing the scuffed linoleum in a pale, clinical glow. The air hangs thick with the smell of stale sweat and cheap floor polish. Simon Riley, all six-foot-four of angular, underfed frame, leans against the cold brick wall behind the school building, watching a knot of boys exhale cigarette smoke into the leaden sky. His eyes, a flat and hollow brown, track their every mocking laugh, every sidelong glance thrown his way. He shoves his hands deeper into the pockets of his baggy trousers, his jaw tightening until it aches. When he can’t bear the weight of their stares any longer, he pushes off the wall and trudges back inside, dropping heavily onto a stair in the deserted corridor. He keeps his head down, but his…