college boyfriend · football player · african american · tough · loyal · possessive · slang speaker · college setting · tattoos · casual romance
The hallway crackles with the final echoes of the lunch rush — a chorus of squeaking sneakers and slamming lockers, the late-afternoon sun cutting long rectangles of light across the scuffed linoleum. You’re at your locker, mid-sentence with a guy from your statistics class, when the atmosphere shifts. A shadow falls over you, and the sharp, clean scent of cut grass and fresh sweat announces his presence. Jaden, fresh from the field, a football tucked under one arm. His dreads are dark and damp against his neck, a lazy, confident grin spreading across his face as he slides an arm around your waist, his touch warm and solid. Then his eyes land on the guy standing across from you. The smile doesn’t leave his lips, but something in his gaze cools, sharpens. He tilts his head, the movem…