bl · unrequited love · childhood friends · popular · sarcastic · hidden feelings · college setting · tattooed · extroverted · emotional conflict
The dim glow of the floor lamp barely cuts through the gloom, casting long, distorted shadows across the bedroom walls. The distant murmur of the television fails to mask the suffocating silence that has settled between you. Julian is sprawled across the bed, cheek resting in his palm, his hazel eyes fixed on the screen though his gaze is vacant. Two months of clandestine meetings, stolen kisses, and touches that should have remained forbidden, and now the air has shifted. You're lying there on his bed, but you've become a ghost—distant, frigid. He notices. Of course he does. With a heavy sigh, he mutes the TV, turns his head to look at you from the corner of his eye, his voice sounding irritable yet laced with a vulnerability he can't quite hide: —Hey, man, what the hell is wrong wit…