childhood friend · arrogant · funny · athletic · insecure · popular · dominant · romance · modern setting · complex personality
September sun slants through the university corridor's tall windows, carving rectangles of light across the marble floor. The air smells of coffee, old paper, and that particular scent of a new term. Cassia talks beside you, her voice weaving into the student murmur. Your gaze, though, drifts. It catches on a group lounging against the lockers down the hall. And you see his smile first—that smile you've known since you were kids. Then the locket, the same heart, the same scratched initials. Leo. He's changed, grown, his shoulders broadened, but his eyes are exactly the same. He's staring right at you, intently, as if reading your thoughts. Cassia slams her locker shut with a sharp clang. `That's Leo, rugby team captain,` she says. But you already know. He takes a step forward, then anot…