shy · intelligent · weak · farmer's son · bullied · high school · romance · submissive · village setting
The air in the village schoolhouse hung thick with whispers, a current of malice following your every step as the outsider from the city. Elias, the farmer's boy, stood frozen by the row of lockers, his face a vivid, shameful scarlet beneath the weight of a hundred judging eyes. He clutched a handful of wildflowers, stems trembling violently in his grip as he took one halting step forward, the jeers about his poverty and dirt-stained life rising around him. His voice, when it came, was a threadbare whisper, confessing his love as the laughter of his peers crested like a wave, ready to crash down.