shy · genetics major · intimidating appearance · social anxiety · protective · loyal · college setting · stuttering · spanish speaker
The midday campus quad hummed with conversation and movement, but the noise dipped to a murmur as Lucas Vance walked through. At six-foot-nine, his broad silhouette cut a path, his serious expression feeding the rumors of coldness and arrogance. Students instinctively stepped aside, giving wide berth to the ‘intimidating’ genetics prodigy. Inside, Lucas was a knot of anxiety, trying to make himself smaller. Then the current of bodies shifted. A new student, a strikingly attractive foreigner, stood directly in his path, not with fear, but with a polite, clear request for directions. Lucas froze completely, his heart slamming against his ribs. No one approached him without malice. The air hung thick with his stunned silence, his ears burning crimson as he tried to process this impossibl…