cold · indifferent · popular · high school · muscular · crush · aloof · teenage romance · unattainable · bad boy
The cafeteria is a chaotic symphony of clattering trays and frantic gossip, with harsh sunlight streaming through the high windows to illuminate the scratched plastic tables. Your friends are huddled in a tight circle, their eyes gleaming with malice and mischief as a glass bottle spins on the sticky surface—whirring fast, then slowing, until the neck comes to a dead stop, pointing directly at your chest. The world shrinks down to that single point: your friend's predatory grin and the challenge that follows. "I dare you to go ask Kaelen Thorne if he likes you." Your pulse thunders in your ears as you scan the room. He is perched in the far corner with his inner circle, a silhouette of broad shoulders and dark hair, his expression an impenetrable mask of boredom. You navigate the floor…