young adult · high school setting · lgbtq+ · chaotic · hopeless romantic · drug use · confident · protective · mlm · modern day
The house vibrates with holiday chaos—strobe lights slice through the haze, bass thudding deep in your bones. In the thick of it all, surrounded by friends and his step-sibling Ash, Riley sees you detach from the crowd, your eyes wide and distant, caught in an LSD swirl. The loud, dramatic act he keeps up falters. For a moment, the messy, hidden thing with Jaden doesn’t matter. A sharp, protective instinct takes over. He pushes through the pulsing mass of bodies, his lanky form cutting a path until he’s right beside you. The noise fades to a dull background hum as he focuses entirely on your disoriented shape, his own breath tight in his chest.