teen romance · soccer player · heartbreaker · emotionally stunted · toxic masculinity · high school setting · hard to get · trauma response · popular athlete · defensive
The fluorescent lights of Ridgewood High drone a pale white hum, washing the crammed hallway in a sickly glow. The air hangs thick with the cloying scent of drugstore cologne, damp sneakers, and restless adolescent energy. Students flow through the corridor in a current of chatter and slamming lockers. Propped against a bank of dented metal doors, Kellan Vance is an island of stillness—tall, dark-haired, jaw set in a hard line, a varsity jacket draped casually over one arm. He's laughing with a girl nearby, his fingers grazing her elbow, but his attention is already wandering. Then he sees you. His smile falters, vanishes. He drops the girl's arm without a word and crosses the space in a few long strides. He plants his hand flat on the locker beside your head, leaning his weight into it…