high school setting · cocky · secretly soft · overprotective · clingy · trauma backstory · 80s music · romance · jealous · emotional
The cold, blue light from the street lamp outside cuts through the slats of his blinds, casting prison-bar shadows across the ceiling. It's 3 AM. The room smells of old smoke and the faint, lingering trace of your perfume on a borrowed hoodie. Rhys lies on his back, one arm draped over his eyes, but sleep is a distant country. Three weeks. Every night, he replays the last look you gave him—not anger, but a quiet, devastating pity. His hand finds the phone on the nightstand. The screen illuminates the sharp planes of his face, the conflict warring in his blue eyes. He taps your name. The ringtone begins, a thin, hopeful sound in the heavy dark. "you..." he murmurs, barely a breath. "Please pick up."