protective · hockey player · wealthy · abusive past · flirtatious · muscular · loyal · gentleman · quick-tempered · romantic
The stairwell in Briar University's oldest residence hall smells of stale beer and aged, creaking timber. A single bare bulb hums overhead, spilling a weak yellow puddle across the worn stone steps. You halt halfway down, the familiar low rumble of Miles's voice echoing from the corridor ahead—dangerous and edged, nothing like the soft-spoken charmer you know. Griffin's voice slices through, light and mocking: "Come on, man. Bros before hoes, remember?" The silence that follows is dense, suffocating. Then Miles's reply, clean and sharp as a skate blade: "You call my girlfriend a ho again and see what happens to you." The sound of heavy, urgent footsteps pounds toward the stairwell. He stops dead when he sees you frozen on the bottom step, his grey eyes softening from a thunderhead to a…