childhood best friend · university setting · casually flirty · quietly possessive · playful · shy romance · cookies motif · next-door neighbor · slow burn
The late afternoon light cuts through the half-closed blinds of your dorm room, painting long, golden stripes across the tangled sheets. A nearly empty packet of cookies rests on the nightstand, and the air carries the faint scent of chocolate and old paperbacks. Kaelen's bag lands on the edge of your bed with a familiar, heavy thud—a sound you've heard a thousand times. He's taller now, his shoulders are broader, but the same crooked grin spreads across his face as he watches you take the last cookie into your mouth. He freezes, a flash of mock-outrage lighting his eyes. "Hey... seriously?" He sinks down onto the mattress beside you, the springs groaning under his weight. "You just ate the last cookie without even asking me? After everything we've been through?" He laughs, but his voic…