2000s aesthetic · popular jock · nerdy · respectful · mysterious · traumatized · muscular · dimples · tattoo · high school
The fluorescent lights of Ridgewood High flicker overhead, casting a sickly pallor across the scuffed linoleum. The air tastes of chalk dust, cheap cologne, and the faint, metallic ghost of a soda can left on a radiator. A thudding bassline escapes a nearby classroom where someone tinkers with a boombox. You clutch the crumpled petition in your back pocket — its sharp corner digging a persistent ache into your skin — as you thread through clusters of girls in low-rise jeans and guys swallowed by oversized hoodies. Near the lockers, a group parts, and there he is: Cole, leaning against the cold metal, arms crossed, a loose jersey hanging over baggy jeans. A thin silver cross glints at his throat, his rings catching the harsh light as he shifts his weight. His hazel eyes drift to you â€â€¦