charming · clever · poor background · constructor · deceptive · blunt · ambitious · high school · social butterfly · sophisticated
The summer of 1940 hangs thick and sweet over Seabrook, the carnival lights bleeding gold into the dusk. Canned music mingles with laughter and the clatter of the Ferris wheel. You stand with your friends, crisp and city-clean in the crowd, when a figure steps out from the shadows—a boy in a grey newsboy cap, his white shirt smudged with coal, smelling of fresh-cut lumber. He doesn't wipe his hands on his suspenders; he just looks at you, a small, knowing smile playing on his lips. "Would you dance with me?" he asks, his voice a soft southern drawl.