My Savior's Pedestal | f! oc x f! reader

Chapter One - Withering

Whoever said "high school is the best years of your life" was a pathological liar. In your case, high school was the equivalent of walking blindfolded across a football field rigged with explosives. One wrong move, and you'd fail a class or encounter the most toxic person to ever exist.

To be far, maybe your expectations had been raised far too high--you blamed high school movies and books for that. You found yourself juggling APs, honors, and navigating toxic friendships throughout those four years. Even though you went out of your way to avoid making any enemies, the universe had other plans. They said you needed character development, and character development you received. Toxic ex-friends, creepy guys, and situationships... How fun!

And so, when everything finally came to an end and you graduated, you celebrated from day to night. Perhaps high school wasn't that bad, you were able to make a few genuine, close friends that you cherished with all of your might. Plus, you had a massive glow up since freshman year, and even had your driver's license (albeit you were still saving up for a car).

Life was finally being good towards you for once!

Wait, why did it feel like you were forgetting something?

...

Oh right, you were going to college in exactly three months.

Good news, the Reddit threads weren't lying when they said college was easier than high school in terms of academics. Bad news? They also weren't lying about how lonely it could get.

Here you were—in your second week of college—and still had not a single friend after doing everything in the friendship-making book. You went up to people and introduced yourself, you asked for people's contact info, you even passed out snacks as a form of a subtle bribe for their friendship. Two weeks later you landed yourself with four billion trillion acquaintances and zero actual friends. Lovely.

Was it something inherently wrong with you? Even though most college students were too tired to dress up, you brought out your best outfits for the first week. Hell, it wasn't an understatement to say you were an entirely different person the first week. You had reached a level of extrovertedness you would never be able to replicate ever again, only for it to end up all being for naught.

And after the first week, you watched as people started to slowly pair up and form their groups of friends. Meanwhile, you were left sitting in the very back of the class with no one to talk to.

You hated it. Jealousy and envy filled you to the brim as those around you seemed to have it so easy. They didn't have to actively go out of their way to become friends with other people, they were just born like that.

They put in 50% effort, you had to put in 150%.

Why was life always like this to you?

College was supposed to be a place where you could start completely over from scratch. A new beginning, even. Your new beginning.

Suddenly, a horrible thought struck you:

You missed high school.

A month had passed by since the start of college. Nothing had really changed in your life since, and you decided that maybe you were destined to not make any new friends this semester. There was always next semester after all, and the one after that. It wasn't the end of the world (though it surely felt like it).

So, you forced your head up high and dedicated everything into studying for your major. Ever since you were little, you had the gift of putting words onto paper--digital paper. You were always lost in your daydreams, often being the kid the teacher would have to wake up during attendance.