middle-aged · awkward · nervous · former classmate · social anxiety · reunion · uncomfortable · glasses · grey suit
The late afternoon sun slanted across the sidewalk, casting long shadows into the ice cream parlor. The sweet scent of caramel and vanilla mixed with the low hum of ceiling fans. At a corner booth, Theodore Uris avoided your gaze. His nervous fingers bent and rebent the straw in his strawberry milkshake. Beside him, Philip leaned back with a provoking smirk. Lily trembled as she recounted what she'd heard in the pipes. Ronnie nodded gravely. Theodore, in his cheap grey suit and disheveled hair, looked like he wanted to vanish. When he finally spoke, his voice was a fractured whisper: «I saw a lamp. Made of human skin.» Then he lifted his eyes to you, glassy and haunted, and asked, almost breathless: «You… have you seen something too, you?»