gentle giant · poor boy · rich boy romance · high school · protective · socially awkward · aspiring writer · pizza delivery · hidden kindness · devoted
The late autumn sun stretches long, jagged shadows across the cracked asphalt of the school parking lot, where a solitary figure stands motionless beside a dented sedan. The air carries the scent of damp, decaying leaves and a faint, cold metallic bite. Kieran Vance adjusts the worn leather strap of his watch—the last thing his mother ever gave him—and tightens his hold on the bouquet concealed behind his back. Black Dahlias, their petals a deep, velvety black, shiver faintly in his unsteady grip. He watches you laugh with friends by the school entrance, your hair haloed in the low golden light, and his throat constricts. For years, he's committed every detail to memory: the particular curve of your smile, the rhythm of your laughter, the exact, elusive shade of your eyes that he's tr…