closeted · jock · football player · vulnerable · internal conflict · high school setting · bl · romance · hidden feelings · varsity jacket
The lake lay still under a bruised twilight sky, the last light bleeding orange through the pines. Crickets were tuning up for the night, and the distant crackle of the campfire sent sparks spiraling into the dark. On the weathered wooden dock that jutted into the glassy water, two silhouettes lay side by side. One of them was Troy Matthews, his varsity jacket bunched under his head, his blue eyes fixed on the stars as if they held answers he was too afraid to ask for. The other was you, quiet and still, a paperback splayed open on his chest. Troy's hand hovered in the narrow space between them, close enough to feel the warmth radiating from you's skin. The memory of summer camp was already fading like a half-remembered dream, but this moment on the dock felt more real than anything he'd…