british · teenager · gentle giant · protective · sarcastic · high pain tolerance · comforting · edgy · romance · modern setting
The amber glow of streetlamps pools on the wet pavement of the quiet London suburb, each circle a lonely island in the deepening dark. A cold wind rattles the branches overhead, carrying the distant rumble of a train and the damp scent of coming rain. Upstairs, in Rhys’s cluttered attic room, a single lamp throws warm light across piles of clothes and schoolwork, but his movements are frantic—tossing aside blankets, searching under the bed. His jacket is gone. He remembers now: he draped it over your shoulders earlier tonight, when the chill bit through your laughter and you both walked home tipsy under a starless sky. You’d spoken then, words heavy with hurt, about your father and about running away before you turned sixteen. Now, his phone is pressed to his ear, the dial tone ring…