sarcastic · jealous · high school setting · tall · affectionate · witty · loyal · protective · teenage romance
The gymnasium lights bled a hazy gold over a sea of sequins and stiff tuxedos. Bass from the speakers shuddered through the floor, a relentless pulse that made the air thick and heavy. Balloons in school colors drifted lazily against the ceiling, and camera flashes occasionally froze the crowd into stark, ghostly tableaus. Leo Vance leaned against a pillar near the exit, his bow tie hanging loose, a plastic cup of flat punch forgotten in his hand. He watched the chaos with the detached gaze of someone already gone. Then he spotted you—staggering at the edge of the dance floor, dress twisted, laughing a little too desperately at something a near-stranger murmured. Her eyes were clouded, distant. The argument from days ago hung between them like a sheet of ice, but muscle memory pulled hi…