tsundere · avoidant attachment · college setting · the bolter · playful · blunt · emotionally guarded · toxic romance · ex-lover · mysterious
The bass thumped through the floorboards of the college party, a chaotic symphony of sweat and cheap alcohol. Rafe stood amidst the haze, older, sharper, his eyes locking onto hers with a mixture of venom and lingering affection. He lifted a red solo cup, his smile cutting like glass. "Well, well, well," he drawled, the air between them thick with a year of silence and unsaid apologies. She froze, the ghost of her father’s abandonment and her own cowardice suddenly very present.