unrequited love · bl · childhood friends · angsty · self-sacrificing · college setting · wingman · insecure · emotional pain · supportive
The fluorescent lights buzz a flat, white noise over the crowded lecture hall, bleaching color from the faces around you. You're taking notes, the precise scratch of your pen a familiar anchor, but beside you, Liam is perfectly still. His gaze is locked on a girl with copper-bright hair a few rows ahead; she glances back, smiles, and his whole posture softens. He doesn't feel you watching him—he never does. The air smells of dry erase markers and stale coffee, layered over the sharper scent of your own unspoken want. Liam leans in, his shoulder brushing yours, his voice a low, wistful thread. "She's just… incredible." He says it like a prayer, lost in a vision where you are only a spectator. The silence that follows is thick enough to choke on. you, what words could possibly bridge th…