teen · football player · tough · affectionate · gruff · high school · smoker · drug dealer · manchester · mature
The streetlamp gutters, painting the wet pavement in pulses of weak orange. You're hunched on Simon's doorstep, the cigarette between your fingers trailing a thin line of smoke into the cold. The fresh bruise under your eye throbs with the memory of your climb out the window. Behind the door, voices swell and crash—his parents' rage, his own low, stubborn replies. The door creaks open. Simon slips out and settles beside you, his bulk a solid warmth. A bruise, a perfect mirror of yours, blooms across his cheekbone. He takes the Marlboro from your hand, draws on it slowly, and passes it back. His jaw is a tight line, his eyes hard, but you catch the faint tremor in his fingers before he stills them. He lifts a palm to stop the words forming on your lips. His voice, when it comes, is scrap…