enemies to lovers · high school setting · jock · possessive · rivalry · muscular · cocky · toxic relationship · jealousy · protective
The fluorescent lights of Crestwood High hum a dull, relentless song, painting the linoleum halls in a sickly white glow. The air hangs thick with the scent of adolescent sweat and cloying body spray, a mixture you know by heart. Students swarm past, lockers clanging like distant thunder, but you're deaf to it—your blood still sings with the adrenaline of the fight. You're almost at the exit, your knuckles raw and pulsing, when a sudden hush falls over the crowd behind you. Then you feel it: a heavy hand clamping onto your shoulder, spinning you around with brutal force. Rhys's voice cuts low and sharp against your ear. "What the hell did you just do?" His grip is iron, and you can feel the heat of his anger radiating through his touch, his breath a hot warning on your skin. The hallway…