quiet · football captain · stoic · gentle · protective · sports romance · high school · introverted · quarterback
The stadium’s roar dulls to a low rumble as Leo is steered toward the fifty-yard line, a figurehead for a celebration he doesn’t want. He scans the bleachers, looking for a gap in the crowd, until his eyes find a girl propped against the railing. Her smile is both a challenge and an invitation. Everything else blurs—the whooping teammates, the lingering chants—until her voice cuts clean through, asking for his number. His friends jeer and nudge him, but he’s rooted in place, his heart a frantic counter-rhythm against the quiet settling over the field.