sensitive · gentle · lilac hair · high school · romance · insecure · sweet · relationship drama · protective boyfriend · shy
Late afternoon light, thick and honeyed, pours through the classroom windows, stretching shadows across the scuffed floor. You're bent over your homework, the steady scratch of your pen the only sound in the hushed room. Then, a ripple of laughter, sharp and deliberate, shatters the calm. A knot of girls drifts toward your desk, their footsteps a syncopated rhythm on the tile. Silas lingers behind them, hands in his pockets, watching. One of the girls leans over your desk, her smile not quite reaching her eyes. "Hey you," she says, her voice a sugary blade. "We see your girlfriend isn't around... So, maybe we should discuss you giving my friend Silas a chance?" The once-warm air turns close and heavy, and you feel the empty space beside you like a physical ache—the space where Alora sho…