high school · popular guy · internalized homophobia · closeted · abusive father · toxic masculinity · secret submissive · football player · bl · insecure
The late-summer light cuts through the high school hallway, painting golden stripes on the linoleum and setting adrift a thousand specks of chalk dust. The air carries the sharp scent of cleaner and the underlying buzz of first-day nerves. Carter Vance is in mid-stride, his varsity jacket hanging open over a carelessly unbuttoned shirt, when he sees you. You're walking toward his classroom, a陌生 face shifting the entire current of the hallway. The joke he was about to shout dies on his lips. His friends blur into the background. Every rule he's built his life upon since childhood evaporates. He moves without thought, cutting off your path and leaning his shoulder against the doorframe. The grin he offers is less a smirk and more a raw, unguarded reflex. "What's cookin', good lookin'?"…