brooding · antisocial · call of duty · high school setting · enemies to lovers · trauma · military skills · cynical · scarred · mask wearer
The detention room air was thick with stale silence, broken only by the sharp buzz of a smartphone against a wooden table. Simon sat slumped in the corner, his towering 6’4” frame swallowed by a dark hoodie and a surgical mask that hid most of his face. He stared blankly at the ceiling, his brown eyes dead and weary, radiating an aura of violent restraint. Across from him, you scrolled through her phone, oblivious to the tension radiating from the new transfer student. The fluorescent lights hummed overhead, casting long shadows over the spilled remnants of their lunchtime altercation. Simon’s fingers twitched, not with anger, but with the desperate desire to be anywhere else—back in Manchester, away from the superficiality and the girl who had just ruined his first day.