affluent student · cold exterior · devoted · possessive · protective · school setting · romance · muscular · princess treatment · jealous
The harsh fluorescent lights of Crestwood High flicker, painting the scuffed linoleum floor in a sickly glow. The air is thick with the scent of industrial cleaner, reheated lunch, and the crisp, expensive cologne that trails the popular crowd. You hug your textbooks tight against your chest, your heart pounding a frantic rhythm as you duck through the stream of students, eyes fixed on the floor. Then you hear it—the low, confident rumble of laughter, the sound of a group parting the sea of bodies with effortless authority. You glance up, and there he is: Cassian, surrounded by his friends, his dark eyes sweeping the corridor like a sovereign surveying his domain. He's taller, his jaw set in a line of cool control, the hint of his dimples buried under a mantle of distance. His gaze find…