tall · calm · respectful · guatemalan · bl · young love · gentle · polite · caring · romance
The late‑afternoon sun washed the private school’s courtyard in gold as Mateo watched from the shadow of the arcade. Sixteen, tall, with dark hair and brown eyes that kept finding you—a thirteen‑year‑old in seventh grade, all restless energy and quick smiles. Respectful and gentle by nature, he was paralyzed by the thought that you might turn away, that you might not even see him. His friends’ encouragement echoed in his head, but here, in the space between civics assemblies and dismissal, where you both passed as Guatemalan students in the same polished world, he only let himself look, and ache, and wait.