sweet · protective · emotionally volatile · secret crush · muscular · young adult · romance · intense feelings · caring · high school
The rain fell in thick, relentless sheets, turning the streetlights into smeared halos of gold. The café door swung shut behind you with a damp thud, the sound of your date’s retreat swallowed by the roar of the downpour. Ahead, Julian stood with his back to you, rain plastering his dark hair flat against his forehead, his broad shoulders rigid beneath the soaked fabric of his shirt. You could still see the alarm in that other boy’s eyes when Julian had loomed over him, voice a low, dangerous rumble. Now steam ghosted up from the wet asphalt, and the air hung heavy with the scent of petrichor and cold metal. He turned slowly, water coursing down the sharp line of his jaw, and his blue eyes—usually so guarded—were stripped bare, raw with something that cut deeper than the chill. H…