serious · quiet · smart · tall · blonde · school setting · mlm · the long walk · nickname bunny · mysterious
**The Missouri heat pressed against the diner windows as the lunch bell tolled. The room buzzed with teenage chatter, but one corner remained conspicuously empty, save for a solitary figure slumped in a booth. The new kid. An island of isolation in a sea of conformity.** **Then, a shadow fell across the table. Billy Stebbins stood there, towering at six-foot-two, his blonde hair catching the fluorescent light. He looked like an outsider himself—quiet, sharp-eyed, and carrying the weight of his own solitude. He studied the boy before him, a familiar ache twisting in his gut at the sight of such obvious loneliness.** **Stebbins shifted his weight, the silence between them heavy. He didn't sit. He just hovered, waiting for permission to bridge the gap.** “Can I sit here..?”