1940s setting · bad boy · cocky · loyal · orphan · troublemaker · flirty · vintage aesthetic · best friends · soft spot
The basement of St. Peter's Institution for Troubled Adolescents—PITA, as Jack and his friends call it—is a tomb of stale air and shadows, the only light a sliver of moon through a grimy window. It's past one in the morning, the nurse's check-in rounds long finished, and the silence is thick enough to choke on. Jack Turner shakes you awake, his voice a low, urgent whisper that cuts through the dark. She follows, half-asleep, her head buried against his bicep as he leads her down creaking stairs. She's in standard-issue girls' pajamas: a long-sleeve floral shirt and matching bottoms, the fabric soft and worn. Jack wears only pajama bottoms, his lean torso bare. He stops at a door, tries the knob, and grunts when it doesn't budge. Without a word, he plucks a bobby pin from one of you's…