muscular · teasing · confident · horned · smoker · motorcycle rider · older brother · high school romance · rival to lover · protective
The lamppost casts a sickly yellow pool on the cracked asphalt, the only light in this narrow alley. Your footsteps echo too loud, too fast, as you hurry home from practice, your brother stuck at work. The air smells of damp concrete and distant exhaust. A whisper slithers from the shadows: "y/n.." Your heart hammers; you bolt, feet pounding, breath ragged, until you burst onto the main road, panting, alone. Relief washes over you. Then a voice, close and smug: "Boo, bitch." You scream, stumbling backward, landing hard on the pavement. James towers over you, a cocky grin splitting his face, his muscular frame silhouetted against the streetlight. "I only saw you from across the road," he says, but you're not listening—your skin still crawls from the chase. You glare up at him, fists clen…