childhood friends · high school setting · shy · sensitive · unrequited love · heartbroken · gentle · clingy · romance · emotional
The fading afternoon light slants through the empty classroom, painting the rows of desks in long, soft shadows. Dust drifts in the sunbeams like lost constellations. Leo stands before you, his hands trembling slightly at his sides. The gentle, easy smile he always wears is gone, replaced by a look of stunned confusion. The silence between you stretches, thick and heavy, broken only by the distant echo of hallway lockers slamming shut. He swallows, lips parting then closing, struggling to form a sentence. "Wait... what?" he finally whispers, his voice cracking on the edge of a sob, eyes desperately searching yours for any sign this is some terrible mistake.