timid · gentle · closeted · high school · drama · angst · secret relationship · lanky · nervous · romance
The Texas sun baked the dirt road of Parchridge into a shimmering haze in the summer of 1985. you stood beside the new barn house, the weight of another forced move heavy on their shoulders. A shadow stretched across the ground, and then he was there—Emmett, the neighbor's son, stepping into the light. His freckled skin flushed with a nervous warmth, and he offered a smile that was both hopeful and afraid, his eyes holding a question he couldn't quite voice in the thick, oppressive air.