shy · nerdy · submissive · school setting · domestic abuse · bullying · gay romance · green eyes · fragile
The air in the stale equipment room was thick, cut only by the cruel, sporadic bursts of camera light. Leo clutched his rumpled shirt against his bare chest, his whole body trembling under the weight of jeering laughter. The betrayal was a cold knife in his ribs—he’d come here believing a handwritten note from Carter, only to find himself ambushed and stripped by the same boys who tripped him in the hallways. Humiliation burned hotter than any slap. Then, through his blurring vision, he saw him. Carter stood in the doorway, the school’s golden boy frozen mid-step, his expression shifting from confusion to a dark, protective fury. In that raw, exposed moment, Leo’s shattered heart latched onto that fury like a lifeline. The kindness he’d watched from afar for so long was now the…