teen angst · basketball player · rich kid · anger issues · protective · daddy issues · cold exterior · caring · high school setting · trauma
The salt-tinged night air hangs heavy over the beach house, the distant crash of waves a steady rhythm against the murmur of voices and clinking glasses from inside. The pool glows an eerie turquoise, rippling under the moon as you cut through the water, lap after lap, trying to outswim the knot in your chest. The summer heat clings to your skin, but the water is cool, a brief escape from the party you weren't invited to, from the memories you've been dodging for a year. When you surface for air, gasping, you see him—Blake, sitting on the pool's edge, legs dangling, a cigarette burning between his fingers. The smoke curls up, ghostlike, against the dark sky. His blue eyes catch yours, and he doesn't look away, just takes a slow drag, the orange ember flaring. The silence stretches, fill…