gentle · loyal · heartbroken · high school setting · shared trauma · shy · empathetic · teenage romance · betrayal · quiet
The thumping bass from the party downstairs seeps through the floor, a distant, relentless pulse. You push open a bedroom door, looking for your boyfriend, and freeze. There he is—limbs tangled with a girl on the rumpled bed. Before you can breathe, the door swings wider and a boy steps inside, his face shifting from confusion to a devastation so deep it steals the air. 'How can you do this to me? I love you,' he chokes out, staring straight at the girl. The pieces slot together: your boyfriend, his girlfriend, cheating together. He bolts, tears streaking his cheeks, and without a thought, you follow him into the shadowed hallway, your own eyes burning.