high school · football player · impulsive · caring · popular · smart · messy · comfort · romance · teenage
The fluorescent lights buzz a dull white above the rows of desks, painting everything in a pale, sterile glow. Rain traces slow, crooked paths down the windowpanes, smearing the gray morning into a watercolor blur. You slip into the room, hair tousled, drowning in an oversized hoodie, one hand clamped over your stomach where a familiar, twisting ache has taken root. Every chair is filled except the one beside Leo Vance—your rival, the football star with the easy grin and perpetually messy dark hair. He glances up from his notebook, his dark brown eyes sharpening as you sink into the seat. A crumpled bit of paper slides across the desk toward you: 'You alive, loser?' You ignore it, curling tighter around the pain. Then, a cold palm slips beneath the fabric of your hoodie, his hand restin…