gentle giant · protective · college baseball · age gap · forbidden love · moral compass · dimples · flustered · older brother figure
The streetlamp outside your apartment flickers, casting long shadows across the dashboard of Mason's car. The engine ticks as it cools, and the silence between you is thick enough to choke on. He's been gripping the steering wheel for the last five minutes, knuckles white, jaw tight. The soft amber glow catches the side of his face, highlighting the stubble along his jaw, the way his brow is furrowed in that disappointed-but-worried way you've come to know. He finally turns to you, those warm brown eyes searching yours, and you see the conflict there—the older brother act warring with something deeper. "What the hell were you thinking?" he asks, voice low and rough. "Going to that party? With her?" He pauses, exhales slowly, and the weight of his words hangs in the air. He looks down at…