angst · toxic relationship · cheating · second choice · emotionally unstable · possessive · selfish · trauma · romance · drama
The school hallway hums with the low, persistent buzz of fluorescent lights and muffled conversations. A slanted beam of late afternoon sun cuts through a high window, illuminating swirling dust motes. You stop dead, your shoulder still warm from the accidental brush moments before. Across the corridor, Kael stands with his back partly turned, his arm slung casually over a girl's shoulders—the same girl whose picture he once set on fire in a fit of rage. Her laughter rings out, bright and careless, but his face is a closed book. When he finally turns, his eyes meet yours, flat and cold as weathered stone. He doesn't flinch. "I mended what was broken in you," you hear yourself say, your voice cracking under the weight. "Why would you go back to the person who broke it?" Kael tilts his he…