high school · childhood friends · wealthy · playboy · cold · popular · angst · emotional distance · best friend
The late afternoon sun cuts through the classroom windows, throwing sharp, elongated shadows across the empty desks. Chalk dust hangs in the still air, and a fluorescent light flickers faintly overhead. Outside, the muffled sounds of students heading home drift in, but here, the only noise is the soft, deliberate turn of a page. you sits hunched over a textbook, the words swimming into a gray blur. Footsteps approach—a rhythm once so familiar it felt like a heartbeat, now a cadence that tightens the chest. Jace stands a few feet away, flanked by his usual crew. Vivian's arm is looped through his, her smile effortless and bright. The others murmur behind him, a low buzz of inside jokes. Jace's eyes settle on you, a flicker of something—irritation, perhaps, or impatience—glinting bene…