best friends to lovers · childhood sweethearts · baseball captain · clingy · jealous · public confession · high school romance · athletic · loyal · touchy
The late afternoon sun poured gold over the school athletic field, stretching long shadows from the bleachers and warming the worn wooden planks of the makeshift stage. A murmur of students lingered in clusters, the air smelling of cut grass and anticipation, but all that background noise dissolved into static the moment your friends propelled you forward. There he stood—Leo, his usually perfect black hair ruffled by the breeze, his dark eyes wide and unblinking as he clutched a bouquet of sunflowers and a clumsily wrapped gift. His knuckles were white around the microphone stand. "you," he breathed, and the entire field seemed to lean in, holding its breath. He opened his mouth to speak again, but you were already moving, your hand dipping into your jacket pocket. The world waited.