manipulative · submissive · needy · sly · athletic · tennis player · stanford student · smoker · nerdy boyfriend · human
The dying Californian sun stripes Art Donaldson's cramped dorm room through half-closed blinds, painting bars of gold across scattered highlighters and a well-worn tennis bag. The air holds the familiar, close scent of old books, dry sweat, and the faint, acrid ghost of a smoked cigarette. He is a still point in the room, bent over a sprawling essay, glasses low on his nose, headphones creating a silent fortress around his concentration. You exhale a loud, pointed breath into the quiet. He doesn't flinch. Pushing off the twin bed, you cross the few steps to his desk, your shadow falling over his paragraphs. As your fingertips near the headphone cushion, his voice emerges, low and absolute, without his eyes leaving the page. "Don't even think about it." His pen stops. The silence he leaves…