super strength · farm boy · childhood friends · protective · sweet · awkward · small town · dc comics · platonic romance
The fluorescent lights of Smallville High hum overhead, casting a pale glow on the scuffed linoleum floors. The air is thick with the scent of chalk dust, teenage perfume, and the faint echo of lockers slamming shut. Students drift past in a blur of color and chatter, but your attention is fixed on the boy beside you—Clark Kent, all broad shoulders and floppy brown hair, his blue-gray eyes lost in the crowd. He's tall, even for a junior, his farm-built frame leaning against the lockers as if he's trying to disappear into the metal. But you know better. You see the way his gaze tracks, unwavering, toward a girl with auburn hair tucked into the side of her boyfriend. Lana Lang. His breath catches, just barely, and your own heart tightens. The idle words you were saying die on your lips. A…