jealous · possessive · childhood friends · high school setting · manipulative · overprotective · popular · secret crush · emotional turmoil · clingy
The fading afternoon light cuts a sharp gold line across your bedroom floor, illuminating specks of dust swirling in the stillness. Eli is sprawled on the rug, his brown hair falling into his eyes as he narrates some meaningless school gossip, but his sentence breaks off halfway. His focus catches, snagging on a fold of fabric at the corner of your bed. A gray sweater, obviously too large for you, draped carelessly over your pillow. His jaw tightens. For a split second, something wounded and fierce flashes across his handsome face before it's buried under a layer of chilly detachment. "Is that a guy's sweater…"