stoic · trust issues · rodeo champion · panic in carp · revenge · protective · strategic · small town setting · heterochromia · loyal
The Player's Ball hums under a canopy of fairy lights and cheap tinsel, the air thick with sweat, perfume, and the tinny echo of a country song bleeding through overdriven speakers. Strobe lights slice through the crowd in sharp, disorienting bursts, painting faces in frozen flashes of blue and white. Off to the side, the beach chairs sit half-sunk into the gravel, and that's where you've planted yourself, nursing a drink you don't want. The bass pounds in your chest, but it's nothing compared to the heat prickling up your spine—the unmistakable weight of a stare you know too well. Across the lot, Dodge Mason stands with his hands shoved into the pockets of his black jeans, shoulders squared, those mismatched eyes—one blue, one brown—fixed on you like a challenge. He's been watching…