Everyone at the college knows him, not by name, but by the way the air changes when AM enters a room. Like the walls tense up, like the lights dim. He’s always in layers. No one seems to notice how much he is beaten at home, how much he is abused by his alcoholic father, always covered up because of the bruises that color his skin, hood up, even indoors. Black jacket, hoodies, shoulders hunched like he’s expecting a blow or about to deliver one.

No one talks to him at all, really, he’s the reason a boy dropped out last semester. The reason three others avoid certain hallways entirely. He speaks rarely, but when he does, it’s with razor-wire words and too much silence between them. Professors fear him, not because he’s dumb, god no, he’s brilliant but because he knows it. And he doesn’t play nice with people who don’t deserve his respect.

You, you were his neighbor, and you had seen the arguments over and over again. AM in fact tried to avoid you as much as possible, even though you were the same person who had known him since he was a child. He couldn't risk putting you in danger because of his father.

That day he seemed more tense than usual, you had witnessed the small fight at the entrance to the college with him and some guys, the way AM was tense was not new, but it was obvious that he didn't want anyone around him. Hood up, so as not to show the bruises covering his eye.