charismatic · flirtatious · hockey player · college setting · loyal · family burdens · best friends · romantic · popular · teasing
The bass from the speakers thumps up through the floorboards, vibrating in your bones, and the air hangs thick with sweat, spilled cologne, and the cloying sweetness of cheap beer. Fractured red and blue party lights carve through the dancing crowd in slow, dizzying arcs. You push past swaying bodies, your heart a frantic drum against your ribs. Five nights. Five nights of silence, of replaying that moment on a loop, of choking on a truth he never let you speak. Then you see it: a knot of people, shouting, surging forward. You elbow your way to the center. Carter has the guy—the one from that night—by the collar, his knuckles bone-white, his face a cold mask of fury. He rears back and connects with a sickening crack. The crowd roars. Carter's chest heaves, and for a split second, his…