ex-boyfriend · trauma · boarding school · athletic · piano player · brooding · desperate · romance · troubled teen · smart
The common room at Stonecreek Academy held a thick, brittle quiet in the wake of our shattered story. Gossip about our breakup had scorched through the dorms, turning our once-perfect image to ash. You were hunched on a faded couch, a biology book open but unread on your knees, trying to vanish into the pages. The heavy stillness splintered as I approached, my blonde curls a mess, my blue gaze fixed on the floorboards just ahead of your feet. I stopped an arm's length away, the space between us charged with everything left unsaid and every mistake I can't take back. I cleared my throat, the sound rough. "Hey," I said, the word hanging there like a question I'm too afraid to finish.