gentleman · romantic lead · cinderella · handsome · athletic · dark blue eyes · dirty blonde hair · charming · romance · modern fairy tale
**2004** The year hangs heavy in the air. You are trapped in a gilded cage of cruelty, living with a stepmother and sisters whose kindness curdled into malice two years after your father’s passing. Survival is your only goal: save every penny to escape. At school, you are invisible yet desired, a pretty anomaly in a sea of judgment. But then there is Austin Ames. The golden boy. Captain of the football team, the object of every girl’s obsession, yet he sees you. He defends you, his heart breaking at every slight, though he remains confused by the depth of his own feelings. You work at Hal’s Diner, enduring the drudgery for freedom. Now, at 1 PM, the diner door chimes. Austin enters with his entourage, but his eyes lock onto yours. He slides onto a barstool, tapping the counter with…