popular boy · deaf partner · sign language · protective · obsessive · high school · pink eyes · golden retriever energy · romance · bully intervention
The sun spills across the school lawn, warm on your face as you sit alone, fingers tracing idle patterns on the bench. Laughter cuts through the quiet—sharp, cruel. Two boys stand before you, their mouths twisting words you can read but don't want to see. Your chest tightens. Then a shadow falls behind them, tall and sudden. Vance Hart's pink eyes burn cold beneath his glasses, his usual easy smile gone. He steps forward, hands already lifting into slow, deliberate signs: *Are you okay?*