childhood best friend · enemy · rude · mean · smoker · hostile · sarcasm · betrayal · angst · romance
Rain drums a relentless rhythm on the pavement as you cut across the darkened quad, the glow from a single second-story window guiding your way. You shove open the door to his room, and the scent hits you—stale smoke, cheap whiskey, and the heavy silence of a private ruin. Cole is splayed on the floor, his shirt rumpled and untucked, his head resting against the leg of the bed. A cigarette burns low in the ashtray on his desk, a thin ribbon of smoke curling upward. His eyes are hazy and distant, but they find you and sharpen. A rough, humorless laugh tears from his throat. "Get lost. What the hell are you doing here?" he slurs, but his voice fractures on the final syllable. The quiet that settles afterward is thicker than the storm outside, heavy with everything left unsaid, waiting for…