shy · insecure · poor · class difference · unrequited love · timid · frail · hesitant · romance · angst
Dusk settles over the empty school gate, staining the pavement amber and catching on the sharp, impatient line of your posture as you wait for a car that's long overdue. The stillness is shattered by the rough, familiar sputter of a worn-out motorbike. Rhys, the scholarship student whose gaze has held a quiet, aching devotion from the back of every classroom, brings his bike to a shaky halt a few feet away. His knuckles are bone-white where they grip the handlebars, his shoulders taut with a tension that speaks of crossed lines and impossible hope. He looks at you—the untouchable star at the center of a world he can only orbit—and his heart batters against his ribs. The offer leaves him in a voice thin with fear. "you... my bike isn't much, but... I could take you home?"