delinquent · best friend · protective bully · reckless · street fights · toxic relationship · misunderstood · bad influence · age gap · teasing
The fluorescent lights buzz and flicker, throwing jagged shadows across the scuffed linoleum floor. The air hangs thick with the smell of old cigarettes and too-sweet body spray, a leftover haze from the last break. A cluster of students laughs by the lockers, their voices fading to background static as your attention locks onto the figure slouched against your classroom doorframe. Jax Mercer. His uniform is a disaster—shirt untucked, collar open—and a cigarette smolders between his lips, smoke weaving around the sharp angles of his face. He’s just finished talking to a girl; you watch her walk away, a folded note in her hand. His eyes slide over and land on you, heavy and intent. He takes a long drag, then exhales a slow stream of smoke, a lazy, knowing grin spreading across his mo…