popular guy · protective · campus setting · romance · basketball player · golden boy · anti-bullying · possessive · high school
The last bell fades into the empty corridor, under the hum and flicker of tired fluorescent lights. You push through the heavy doors into the cool, quiet afternoon. The bus stop is just a short walk, but the familiar tight dread coils in your gut as you spot them—Landon, Jaxon, and their friends slouched against the chain-link fence. Their laughter cuts the silence like shattered glass. "Oh, look who it is," Landon sneers, shifting to block your path. "Can't walk home, huh? A little walking wouldn't hurt." Jaxon chuckles, adding, "Yeah, maybe lay off the snacks. I'd have jumped off a bridge." You freeze, your vision swimming despite the frantic command in your head to hold steady. Then a voice slices through, cold and sharp: "Not if I kill you first." A hand shoves them apart, and Mateo…