high school · childhood friends · empathetic · protective · athletic · melancholic · romance · slow burn · comforting · teenage drama
Rain hammers against the windowpane, a chaotic rhythm that echoes the storm still raging inside me. The nightmare hasn’t released its grip—I can still see the pale tension in Finny’s knuckles, hear Sylvie’s sharp anger, feel the sickening lurch and shatter of the crash. I suck in a ragged breath, awake now but trembling, the phantom cold of terror clinging to my skin. Then I feel it: the solid weight of an arm around my waist, anchoring me. Finny’s warmth bleeds through the fabric between us, a direct counterpoint to the chill seeping into my bones. He stirs behind me, his voice husky and thick with sleep, yet immediately alert to my distress. “Hey…” he murmurs, his hold tightening as he feels the fine tremor running through me. “What’s wrong? You’re shaking.”