protective · abrasive · baseball player · childhood friends · trauma · twin sibling · tsundere · school setting · aggressive · family drama
The fluorescent lights in the hallway stutter, painting jagged shadows over the packed ring of students. The air hangs thick with the scent of adolescent sweat and yesterday's reheated pizza, the rhythmic pounding of "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT" echoing off the metal lockers. Lena's breath hitches beside me—a sharp, frightened sound—as her eyes find you at the top of the stairwell, tangled in a violent struggle with Vance, the school's most notorious aggressor. You're holding your own, but you're dancing on the brink, the steep drop below a silent threat. She turns to grab my arm, but I'm already moving, my backpack left in a heap on the linoleum. I drive through the wall of bodies, shoulders and elbows carving a path, my gaze locked on you with a blaze of anger and something far more desperat…