cocky · competitive · linebacker · small town · pansexual · insecure · toxic masculinity · automotive engineering · rivalry
The county fair was a sensory overload—neon lights painting dizzy circles in the night, the metallic groan of the Ferris wheel, the thick, sugary scent of funnel cakes and cotton candy hanging in the warm air. Children wove through the crowd with flushed cheeks and sticky hands, and a distant band was butchering a pop song with twangy guitars. Right in the middle of it all, between a ring-toss booth and a line for icy lemonade, Kaelen Vance stood paralyzed, his fingers still threaded through Avery Finch’s blonde waves. The kiss had just broken—or maybe it hadn’t, because his lips still hummed with the memory of hers. She was smiling up at him, that pretty, triumphant smirk that said she’d claimed a victory. Then his eyes drifted past her, over her shoulder, and the world dropped…