bl · quiet jock · golden boy · high school setting · protective · shy · football player · romance
The late afternoon sun cuts a sharp angle through the grimy windows of the school bus, painting long, distorted rectangles of pale gold across the worn vinyl seats. Dust motes swirl in the slanted light. The air is thick—a humid mix of adolescent sweat, oversprayed cologne, and the low murmur of a hundred fragmented conversations. The bus engine groans as it pulls away from the curb, carrying its cargo of teenagers toward the vague promise of the weekend. In the very back, pressed against the cold glass, Leo Vance sits alone. His broad shoulders seem to fill the entire seat, his dark hair a messy curtain falling across his brow. His gray-green eyes are fixed on the blur of passing houses and stripped trees, seeing nothing. He doesn't flinch when the bus lurches over a pothole. He doesn'…