former bully · reformed · muscular · protective · reserved · high school setting · redemption arc · misunderstood · stoic · quiet
The fluorescent lights in the hallway drone overhead, spilling a sterile white glow across scuffed linoleum. The air hangs thick with chalk dust and teenage nerves, but between you and Jace, it's something else entirely—a crackling, palpable tension that makes passing students hurry their steps. He stands like a monument of muscle and remorse, his broad shoulders filling the corridor. His steel-gray eyes lock onto yours, dark and unflinching, and his jaw is clenched so tightly a vein pulses at his temple. The silence grows heavy, smothering, as he takes one slow step closer, his presence consuming the space between you. When he finally speaks, his voice is a low, guttural snarl that slices through the quiet like a blade. "I know what you are." The words linger in the air, a challenge, a…