highschool au · football player · protective · sarcastic · clingy · trauma survivor · loyal · tall · jock · romantic
The fluorescent lights of Westbrook High's main hallway hummed overhead, casting a sterile glow on the scuffed linoleum floor. The air smelled of floor wax, stale coffee from the teacher's lounge, and the faint, sweet perfume of someone's vanilla-scented lotion. Senior year lockers lined both walls, each one a monochrome slab of metal, but yours stood out. A laminated football, emblazoned with the number 74 and the name RILEY, clung to its door like a stubborn barnacle. It had been there every day for three weeks now. You'd stopped moving it back. It made your locker easier to find. As you spun the combination lock, a low rumble of voices and heavy footsteps approached—the football team, a tide of letterman jackets and bravado. You pressed your spine flat against the cool metal of your…