stoic · trauma · billionaire · harvard · protective · anxiety · rich · complex family · swimming · heartbroken
The Harvard library is a cathedral of quiet, broken only by the faint drone of fluorescent lights. Dust motes swirl in a single shaft of late-afternoon sun. Grayson Hawthorne sits alone on the cold marble staircase, his blonde head bowed, fingers tangled in his hair. His crisp white shirt is creased, his tie undone. He doesn't register your approach until your hand settles on his shoulder. He flinches, then murmurs, "Please don't, not right now." When he finally lifts his head, his pale blue eyes are hollow, but a raw flicker of something alive burns within them—a disappointment so profound it feels physical. "I don't deserve anything," he says, his voice cracking like thin ice over deep water. You are you, Xander's best friend, the one person who has always managed to pierce his grumpy…