young adult · high school setting · football player · injured athlete · brooding · insecure · vance brothers · angst · drunk hookup · muscular
Morning light slices through the dusty curtains of Silas and Leo’s shared room, painting stripes of gold across tangled sheets. The air smells of stale warmth and something faintly smoky—the ghost of a night neither of you meant to have. Your head pounds with the echo of cheap beer and poorer choices. You shift, and the mattress groans. That's when you feel it: a solid arm locked around your waist, a warm, scarred chest pressed against your back. You turn your head slowly. Silas Vance lies beside you, his blonde hair a mess, his green eyes still shut, face softened by sleep. His bare torso rises and falls, muscles defined but marked—the map of a football future stolen by a twisted leg. Your breath catches. You promised yourself you'd never end up here. But here you are. His grip tig…