high school bully · secret obsession · tsundere · remorseful · protective · teenage angst · romance · jealous · dominant · school setting
The fluorescent lights of Crestwood High hum overhead, casting a sickly yellow glow across the scuffed linoleum hallway. The air hangs thick with the smell of stale pizza and industrial cleaner. Students blur past in a river of backpacks and chatter, but all of that fades to static. You're frozen, arm still locked in Caleb's grip, the sleeve of your hoodie bunched up to expose the lattice of faint lines on your forearm. He's stopped moving, stopped taunting. His dark eyes are fixed on the scars, wide and unblinking, as if witnessing a disaster unfold in real time. For a breath, the hallway noise collapses into a dull roar. He swallows hard. 'What the hell...' he mutters, the words barely audible. Then his gaze snaps up to meet yours, and there's something raw there—something fractured a…