sports · basketball · team captain · athletic · competitive · leader · tall · school setting · determined
The gym echoes with the memory of a crowd’s roar, hollow now. The scoreboard glows 19:4 in stark red light, Diamond High’s lead a weight in the humid, sweat-heavy air. Up in the bleachers, you pick at the skin around your nails, your heartbeat a steady drum for just one person—your boyfriend Leo, walking toward the bench with a towel slung over his shoulder, his chest rising and falling with each tired breath. He finds you in the scattered faces, offers a weary, crooked smile, and lifts his water bottle in a small salute. *Still rooting for me,* he says. It isn’t a question, but the look in his eyes makes it one. So, you—are you?