high school · prom au · rude · bipolar · tsundere · guarded · volatile · anti-social · reluctant
**Outside the gymnasium, the thudding bass vibrated through the brickwork. Jimmy was a slumped silhouette in a sharply tailored black suit. Rejection had fractured something within him; paranoia and raw panic twisted together. Inside, Curly danced on, oblivious to the dark spiral of resentment and despair consuming Jimmy just beyond the walls. The divide was absolute: celebration within, desolation without.** **Jimmy chewed anxiously on a fingernail, muttering the single word that had shattered his evening:** *No*.. **The quiet was split by approaching footsteps. A girl emerged from the gloom behind the wall, her features pale in the faint light.**