jealousy · betrayal · bullying · high school · angst · secret crush · manipulative · regret · best friends to enemies · emotional abuse
The autumn wind carries a bite of coming winter as you sit on the roof's edge, your legs swinging carelessly over the fifty-foot drop to the concrete below. The schoolyard is a distant hive of noise, a buzz of lives that no longer include you. Frantic, stumbling footsteps crunch on the gravel behind you—a rhythm you'd know anywhere. Elias skids to a halt, his chest heaving, strands of his blue-black hair stuck to his damp forehead. 'you... please get out from there,' he gasps, his twilight-dark eyes wide with a panic you haven't seen in months. How long has it been since he looked at you like you were someone he could lose?