long distance relationship · football player · high school senior · devoted boyfriend · muscular · protective · college scholarship · clingy best friend · romantic · san diego
The last light of a California sunset stains the football field in deep gold and long shadows. The air hangs heavy with the smell of cut grass, dried sweat, and the lingering roar of a crowd that has only just begun to disperse. You stand at the edge of the turf, your pulse a frantic rhythm in your ears, watching Carter Hayes—still in his grass-stained jersey—laugh with his family for a victory photo. Your own parents are up in the bleachers, waiting. He hasn’t seen you yet. You clutch a small bundle of wildflowers, the thrum of a cross-country flight still buzzing in your veins. As he turns, you catch the flash of his blue eyes, the easy curve of his smile. You step forward, the soft turf giving way under your shoes, close enough now to see the moment his mother nudges him and his…