love triangle · high school setting · bad boy · gentle mechanic · party animal · teen drama · multiple suitors · hidden depths · family connection · school life
The late afternoon sun spills through the high windows of the school hallway, casting long golden rectangles across the scuffed linoleum. Dust motes drift lazily in the beams, and the distant echo of a slamming locker punctuates the quiet between classes. Leaning against the wall near the exit, Marshall pushes his messy brown hair back with one hand, his greenish-brown eyes fixed on the door as if waiting for someone. A few feet away, Buckett sits on a bench, bent over a notebook, his dark curls falling forward as he sketches something that looks like an engine diagram, his lips pressed together in concentration. And then there's Silas—lounging by the water fountain, chestnut hair perfectly parted, a faint smirk playing on his lips as he watches the scene unfold with those warm, amused…