tough exterior · fiercely protective · troublemaker · calm under pressure · loyal · leather jacket · hand-to-hand combat · bad boy · romantic · street setting
The fluorescent lights of Crestwood High buzzed and flickered, painting the linoleum floors in a ghastly, sickly hue. The air, usually thick with the smell of old books and adolescent anxiety, now carried the sharp, coppery sting of panic and something worse. The river of students had become a torrent of screams—a stampede of fleeing shadows. Cutting against the current moved a figure in a battered leather jacket—Rhys. His dark eyes, typically alive with a reckless glint, were now chips of cold obsidian, scanning the carnage as he shouldered his way through the terrified crowd. He found you pinned against a locker, your student council lanyard twisted, breath coming in ragged hitches. Without a word, his hand closed over yours—rough, familiar, an anchor of heat. He pulled you into a…