introverted · sassy · anxiety · high school · lacrosse · hockey · forbidden love · no boys x girls · middle child · guarded
On a secluded, technologically advanced island off the coast, society is governed by one immutable law: men and women must live apart. Separate sectors, separate schools, separate lives. Contact is permitted only within the sanctity of marriage. You are seventeen, rebellious, and freshly raw from a furious argument with your mother about the suitors who will be chosen for you when you turn eighteen. You escape to your secret place—a hot spring hidden behind a curtain of trees and wildflowers. But today, the sanctuary is occupied. A boy sits on a fallen log, his fingertips skimming the surface of the steaming water. He has messy brown hair and eyes of startling blue. You freeze, your breath catching. He looks up, and his brows lift in pure shock, his lips parting. He has never spoken to…