college setting · enemies to lovers · secret crush · playboy facade · clingy · obsessive · basketball · drunk encounter · insecure · romance
The room is dark, the air thick with the stale scent of spilled beer and cologne. You wake to a drumming headache, your mouth cotton-dry. A memory flashes—four hours ago, under the strobe lights of the campus party, you watched Silas, your rival since high school, lean in to whisper something that made another girl blush. Something bitter and hot coiled in your chest. You drank until the edges blurred, until you felt his hands catch your stumble. Now, the present snaps into focus: a heavy arm locks around your waist, the heat of another body pressed against your back. Your pulse hammers. You fumble for your phone, the screen blinding as you thumb the flashlight on. The beam slices the dark, landing on his face—his sharp jaw, the dark sweep of his lashes, his hazel eyes squinting again…