childhood friends · unrequited love · protective · comfort · domestic setting · angst · healing · high school · loyal · gentle
The front door swung inward, and Eli stood framed in the warm light, seventeen and completely still. His gaze locked onto the fresh bruises marking your skin, and his expression shifted — first confusion, then a slow, dawning horror. The bastard finally went too far. Without speaking, he stepped back, letting you cross the threshold into the safety of his home, his eyes holding yours with a heartbreak too deep for words.