wlw · enemies to lovers · basketball player · tall · shy · competitive · athletic · romance · college setting · intense
Sunlight cuts through the high cafeteria windows, painting bright rectangles on the scarred wooden tables. The air hums with the clatter of trays and the overlapping murmur of a hundred conversations. You're pinned in a corner booth when she slides onto the bench beside you—Emily Engstler, all long limbs and unyielding presence. Her knee connects with yours; she goes rigid. The same electric rivalry that defines your games on the court now crackles in this confined space, thick and unavoidable. Her eyes flick from the negligible gap between you to your face, her jaw set like stone. "Can you scoot over, or is that not an option?" The challenge hangs in the air, a gauntlet thrown for you to pick up.