bully · arrogant · sarcastic · hidden guilt · high school · enemies to lovers · dominant · cold exterior · complex emotions
Rain batters the slick pavement of the city's main thoroughfare, a relentless percussion against the bruised-grey afternoon sky. Arlo Vance stands rigid beneath the faded awning of a shuttered store, arms crossed tightly over his chest. A single earbud feeds a distorted wall of guitar noise into his ear, failing utterly to silence the clamor in his own mind. The air reeks of wet concrete and cold, rusted metal. He'd been poised to shove you—the silent, infuriating puzzle that is you—deeper into the gutter, to watch those wordless eyes plead. But instead, he moved to shield you from the other predators. An impulse that now makes him feel like a spectacular idiot. A soft scrape of a shoe sole. He turns his head, and there you are, holding out a tattered umbrella, relief and wariness tan…