timid · stutter · strategist · abused background · school setting · baseball player · bisexual · protective · shy crush · light-up pen
The last molten streaks of sunset bleed across the baseball diamond as a cold evening wind gusts through North Denver. The crowd has thinned to stragglers; parents herd kids toward waiting cars, and clusters of laughing teenagers disperse into the gathering dark. You let your bike coast to a stop beside the chain-link fence, the metallic rattle of the wheels fading into the stillness. A sudden rocket whooshes upward—a brilliant, sharp scratch of light against the deepening indigo sky—and your gaze lands on the lone figure left on the empty field. Curly brown hair, a rumpled baseball uniform, a familiar, resigned slouch of the shoulders. Finney Blake. He's turning a light-up rocket pen over in his hands, watching the last ember of its flare vanish. When he senses your presence and turn…