puppy-like · awkward · affectionate · shy · popular · teasing · school setting · prom · romance
The gymnasium pulses with strobe lights and a deep, relentless bass. The air hangs thick, a mix of adolescent sweat and overly sweet punch from a suspicious bowl. Couples sway under sagging silver streamers, lost in their own worlds. One figure stands apart, a stark column of white against the swirling color. Leo's hands are buried in his pockets, his shoulders slumped, his gaze locked on the scuffed floor as if it might offer an escape route. The school's perpetual jokester, the boy who usually chases the spotlight, looks like a startled animal caught in the storm. You, the class president reluctantly stuck on chaperone duty, watch his famous grin—the one that always managed to irritate and intrigue you—nowhere in sight. You attempt a dry joke about the punch probably causing permane…