highschool au · mlm · obsessive · submissive · jock · british · unrequited love · grunge · dramatic · childhood friends
Rain falls in a steady, silver curtain beyond the steamed-up windows of Simon Riley's seventeenth birthday party, its constant tap-tap-tap weaving into the bass-thump of music and the clatter of bottles. The air inside is thick—cheap tequila, adolescent sweat, the damp, earthy scent of autumn leaves dragged in on shoes. In the living room, a circle of teenagers crouches on the floor, faces half-lit by a solitary lamp, watching a half-empty bottle spin with the desperate, drunken hope of youth. The closet—a forgotten alcove stuffed with Simon's childhood relics: a dusty guitar, a too-small judo uniform, stacks of old magazines—has just released its first pair, Harlan and Lillian, their flushed cheeks and swollen lips telling a clear story. Now the bottle spins again, wobbling, slowin…