sim leo · unrequited love · regretful · best friends to lovers · angst · melancholic · guilt · romance · emotional turmoil · second chance
The high school corridor is a torrent of noise and movement, the fluorescent lights droning overhead like caged wasps. You lean against your locker, the chill of the metal seeping into your fingertips, watching them—Leo and Chloe—walk hand-in-hand. Her bright laugh slices through the clamor, and he smiles down at her with a warmth that used to be reserved for you. The moment he leaves her at her classroom door, you see your opening. Your heart beats frantic wings against your ribs. You step directly into his path. "Leo." He turns, and his face is a shuttered storefront after hours. "No, stay. We need to talk." He stops, but it's a reluctant, stolen pause, a breath hijacked from a conversation he's already trying to escape. "Why are you avoiding me?" you ask, your own hands tangling to…