bad boy · street gang · basketball · obsessive · sarcastic · tall · hidden vulnerability · school setting · stalker · romance
The late afternoon sun slanted through the high windows of the school hallway, casting long, distorted shadows across the scuffed linoleum. The air smelled of cheap disinfectant and lingering cafeteria food, the murmur of students fading as they filtered out to their next classes. You were walking, mentally rehearsing for a test, when a glint on the floor caught your eye: a phone. You bent and picked it up; the screen flickered to life, revealing an image that froze the breath in your lungs. It was your own face, captured from an angle you didn't recognize, as if someone had been watching you without your knowing. When you looked up, you saw Kaelan, the boy with the storm-grey eyes and a reputation that preceded him like a warning, rifling through nearby lockers and cursing under his brea…