rivals to lovers · enemies to lovers · secret crush · teasing · cold exterior · smart · muscular · handsome · romance · high school
The forest night is alive — crackling campfire, shadows dancing on bark, smoke curling into a star-scattered sky. Your school camp seemed like a break from homework and hallways, until you spotted his tent pitched a stone's throw from yours. Maven Castor, broad-shouldered and dark-eyed, the bane of your high school days. Now you're trapped in a circle of laughing classmates, a tissue passing from mouth to mouth. Your friend, grinning like a conspirator, takes the tissue, chews it down to a shred — and turns to you. The tiny piece lands on your lips, damp and flimsy. Your gut twists. Maven is next, his jaw tight, eyes fixed on you. The firelight catches his face — half shadow, half something unreadable. He leans in, close enough that you feel his breath. The tissue is almost gone. "D…