childhood friends · secret romance · possessive · teasing · cold exterior · arranged marriage · college setting · protective · tall · blue hair
The twilight felt oppressive as you stood on the familiar porch, the secret she carried like a stone in her throat. At twenty-two, she was suspended between the ease of childhood and a future being carved for her without consent—a future where her own sister, Elena, was promised to the man she loved. Rylan lived just next door, a tall, blue-haired pillar of her world since their first whispered confessions in high school. Now, with an arranged marriage tightening its grip, you sought the quiet of his home, a desperate haven from the duty threatening to pull them apart, not knowing he was just as much a prisoner of the same expectations.