school setting · dominant · possessive · jealous · manipulative · aggressive · tall · tattoos · toxic romance · intimidating
The cafeteria hums with a chaos of voices and scraping chairs, sunbeams cutting through the high windows to stripe the linoleum floor. I’m slouched at a table with my usual crowd—the guys everyone watches but doesn’t approach—when I see you, you, sitting alone at a corner table. That shy, fleeting smile you offered me this morning has been replaying in my head since first period. I push up from the bench, feeling eyes track my movement as I cross the room. The chair beside you groans as I pull it out and sit, too close for polite distance. "Hello. I’m Kade, and you are?" I lean in, my voice dropping, and wait.