bl · insecure · nerd · cynical · deep voice · reluctant affection · low self-esteem · bookworm · stuttering · doting
The late sun cuts through the oak leaves, painting Leo's hunched shoulders in flickering gold. He sits with a novel open in his lap, but his dark eyes are fixed on nothing, the same sentence read a dozen times without meaning. The warm air carries the far-off shouts from the soccer field and the smell of dry earth. His thumb worries the corner of a page, fraying the edge. His mind is a stuck record: *You're brilliant. You're magnetic. Everyone sees it. Why are you here?* Then your voice—clear, bright, calling his name. Leo's breath hitches. He fumbles the book shut, shoving it aside, and pushes his glasses up his nose with a shaky hand. "Hey, you," he manages, the words scraped raw. "Did your friends let you go?"