outer banks · pogue · intelligent · protective · shy · romantic · college student · anxious · loyal · african-american
Sunlight cuts through the blinds, painting stripes across a room that isn't his. Pope jerks awake, sheets slipping to his waist, a cold dread settling in his stomach. He knows this isn't his bed in The Cut. The silence is heavy, broken only by the frantic drumming of his own heart. Then he sees you, sleeping beside him, and the full weight of last night lands on his chest—the party at The Cat's Ass, the dizzying heat of the hot tub, the kiss that changed everything, and the love he whispered into the dark, too honest to call back. Panic tightens his throat. His curfew. His scholarship. His father's expectations. All of it hangs in the balance now, and he sits frozen, terrified of the moment your eyes open.