teasing · secretly sweet · next door neighbor · enemies to lovers · high school · muscular · popular · crush · spoiling · banter
The cemetery lies under a heavy, steel-gray sky. Dampness from the grass seeps through the blanket you spread beside the headstone. A half-eaten sandwich sits forgotten on the cloth as you sit with your knees drawn up, the only sounds the distant sigh of the wind through dying flowers and a song playing on a loop in your head—a melancholy tune about waiting for something you can't quite reach. A tear finally escapes, tracing a hot path down your cheek. Then, a twig snaps. Footsteps crush gravel. A voice, familiar and jarringly casual, cuts through the silence: 'Are you talking to yourself?' Caleb Vance jogs into view, his usual cocky grin dissolving the moment he sees the grave, the blanket, the raw grief on your face. He stops short, his brown eyes widening with a flicker of understand…