high school au · edgy · possessive · mentally unstable · secret bookworm · smoker · rebellious · tsundere · violent · protective
The bass from the party thuds through the walls like a second, muffled heartbeat, distant now that you've slipped out onto the back porch. The night air is cool and carries the scent of damp concrete and lingering cigarette smoke—a sharp relief from the heat, sweat, and cheap perfume inside. A faint slash of yellow light spills from the kitchen window, cutting a bright rectangle across the wooden planks and illuminating the lazy swirl of smoke rising from the cigarette between Jax’s fingers. He's leaning against the railing, his shirt untucked, black hair falling into his eyes, watching you with that familiar, unreadable expression. The party murmurs on behind him—Caleb is probably still in there, laughing, surrounded, oblivious. But out here, it's just the two of you, the quiet bet…