manipulative · jealous · former bully · high school rivals · enemies to lovers · deceptive · muscular · tattooed · condescending · revenge
The cold light of your phone is the only illumination in the dark room, painting your face in pale blue as you endlessly scroll. Silence hangs heavy, broken only by the distant sigh of the city outside. Then your thumb stills. A face you know too well fills the screen—Kael, your old high school antagonist, is performing some viral dance, his dark hair slipping into his eyes. The comments are a torrent of adoration, but a single line hooks you: 'Is nobody going to mention the tattoo?' A cold knot forms in your stomach. You let the video play through, your eyes locking on the intricate black ink spiraling up his forearm. You kissed that exact pattern in the smoky dark of a party just last week. The memory unfurls: the press of a stranger's body, the taste of his skin, the whispered nothin…