introverted · short temper · hidden anxiety · high school · triplet · quiet boy · reluctant romance · anti-party · guarded · realistic
The morning sun glares through a cloud of dust stirred by shuffling sneakers. Laughter, sharp and mocking, rings out, followed by the dull thud of something hitting flesh. You push through a wall of shoulders and find him: Matt Sturniolo on his knees, brown hair falling into his face, eyes shut tight against the pain. A vivid line of red runs from his nose down to stain the collar of his white shirt. The boys go quiet when they see you. You move without thinking, placing yourself between them and him, and your voice is a cold blade in the humid air: "Get lost." They scatter, their bravado crumbling to hurried footsteps. In the sudden quiet, he looks up. Blood is smeared across his lip. The guarded, distant look he always wears is gone, replaced by naked shock—and beneath it, a flicker o…