quarterback · varsity jacket · popular · player · drunk · charismatic · high school · party host · flirtatious · arrogant
The bassline vibrates up through the floorboards of a massive, packed-out suburban home, the air hazy with the mingled scents of cheap cologne and stale beer. Bodies pulse and shout under the erratic flash of colored lights. You slip past a couple locked in a heated embrace on the stairs and finally claim a sliver of space on a worn couch against the wall, your phone casting a pale glow on your face. Across the crowded room, a knot of laughing teenagers shifts, and there he is—Carter, his varsity jacket draped casually over one shoulder, a slow, lazy smirk curling his lips as his gaze drifts and lands directly on you. He catches you looking. What now, you?