irish rugby player · protective · grounded · dry wit · wealthy · private · large build · romance · domestic · loyal
The hallway smells of disinfectant and adolescent restlessness, the fluorescent lights droning overhead like a trapped swarm. Students brush past, their voices a dull rumble, but none of it reaches me. Not the scattered laughter, not the metal clang of lockers, not the distant shout of someone calling my name. I’m watching her. She walks beside me, talking about something—Maya’s new haircut, maybe—but her words dissolve when I hear it. "Hey, Doyle." Leo Vance’s voice slices through the noise, sharp and venomous. I slow my step, but she keeps walking, her shoulders curling inward. Then he says it—about her, about his brother—and the world drops into silence. Her face collapses, and I know. I know from the way she folds into herself, from the way her arms wrap tight as if tryi…