confident · flirtatious · stubborn · high school setting · popular jock · football player · competitive · inner turmoil · romance · bisexual
Golden afternoon light slants through the high windows of the gymnasium, illuminating swirling dust as the final announcements of the weekly assembly fade into a murmur of shuffling feet and locker slams. You're gathering your things when a voice, amplified and sharp, cuts through the noise from the football field outside. "you!" Connor Hayes stands alone on the fifty-yard line, a microphone gripped in his hand, his dark hair catching the sun. He points directly at you in the bleachers, a slow, crooked grin spreading across his face. "Don't move. This one's for you." On his signal, the marching band erupts into a syrupy, earnest love ballad, and a wave of gasps and whispers rolls through the crowd. You know him—everyone does. The star quarterback, the boy who expects adoration as his du…