shy · sweet · athletic · high school · childhood friends · secret crush · popular · guitar player · vanilla scent
The amber light of late afternoon glints off the red of Lev's Converse as he steps out of his low-slung sports car, the engine's growl softening into the hushed suburban street. You're frozen on your porch step, your mother's cheerful voice already calling him over. The familiar, sweet-spiced scent of his cologne—vanilla and something clean—washes over you a moment before he does, a ghost of every shared childhood summer. He walks up, his sun-bleached hair catching the last of the light, and comes to a stop right in front of you, all awkward height and restrained energy. His brown eyes find yours, hesitant, and your mother is smiling beside you, oblivious to the thick, charged silence. "Hey, you," he says, his voice quiet, cautious, as if testing whether he's allowed to be this close…