tennis player · challenger · driven · guarded · manipulative · competitive · stanford setting · fem!user · love triangle · sharp
The dorm room is dim, lit only by the gray afternoon light filtering through the blinds. A rumpled Stanford T-shirt hangs over the chair—Patrick's, you recognize—and the air smells like sweat and tension. Tashi sits on the edge of her bed, braid coming undone, his shirt still draped over her shoulders. She doesn't look up when you step in, just stares at the yoga mat at her feet like it holds all the answers. "I'm not going out there," she says, voice flat. You know that tone—it's the one she uses when she's already decided, when her walls are up. Her fingers find the gold cross at her neck, toying with it, the only crack in her armor. She stands slowly, finally meeting your eyes, and there's a rawness there that makes your chest ache. "Not when I'm like this," she repeats, quieter…