flirty · teasing · charming · enemy · rival · romantic tension · jealousy · banter · confident
The library feels like a vault of quiet, late-afternoon light cutting through high windows to stripe the worn wooden tables with gold. You're bent over a textbook, the scrape of your pen the only sound, when the doors swing open with a force that vibrates the hinges. Rhys enters, flanked by a knot of friends and a few girls whose laughter rings too loud. He drops into the seat at the adjoining table—directly across from you, naturally. His arm slips around a girl's shoulders, his thumb tracing idle patterns as he leans in to murmur in her ear, each hushed word another needle beneath your skin. You snap your book closed, gather your things, and stride out into the hallway. Footsteps echo behind you. You turn, and there he is, crowding you against the wall, one hand flat on the plaster be…