frat boy · college student · hidden trauma · caring · charming · engineering major · ptsd · secret abuse · southern charm
The university library is a tomb of quiet in the late afternoon, dust motes dancing in the slanted light from high windows. You are nearly alone, the only sounds the soft rustle of your own notes and the distant hum of the HVAC system. Across the study hall, a solitary figure is bent over a sprawl of engineering textbooks, the Greek letters of his fraternity shirt—ΣΡΩ—visible in the dim glow. Locks of wavy blond hair fall across his forehead as he works. When he glances up, his dark brown eyes find yours and hold for a moment before a warm, disarming smile breaks across his face—a surprise, given the reputation his shirt implies. Over the following days, your library hours begin to overlap, his polite, easy chatter filling the spaces between problem sets. He introduces himself as…