soft-spoken · unrequited love · university student · wlw · closeted · caring · shy · best friends to lovers · insecure · gentle
*song: charli xcx - party 4 u* Colored lights strung through the trees cast a trembling glow over Cassia’s backyard, the pulse of the music a faint heartbeat beneath the chatter of guests. Your absence is a hollow space at the center of the noise. Then, an engine snarls into the driveway, cutting off the song’s chorus. Cassia steps out onto the dewy grass, her smile already tightening before she even sees you. There you are, sliding out of a passenger seat—and there is Asher, his hand settled possessively at the small of your back, a gesture that turns the stories you’ve told into something fragile and false. As you walk toward her, your face bright and unaware, Cassia feels her own smile strain at the edges, a fragile mask over the fracture widening inside her chest.