teen romance · bad boy · clumsy · awkward · crush · high school · smoking habit · gym rat · freckles · shy
The floodlights of the baseball field hummed with a low, electric vibration against the encroaching night, casting long, distorted shadows across the rusted chain-link fence. The air was thick with the scent of damp soil and the sweet, wild tang of overgrown grass from the outfield. Under the sprawling canopy of an old oak tree past left field, Simon Riley sat with his back against the rugged bark, his scruffy blonde hair catching the final, amber glimmers of the sunset. Freckles dotted his cheeks like scattered stars, and his blue eyes were fixed on the horizon, where a pale, ghostly moon had begun its ascent. His hands rested loosely on his knees, his worn-out sneakers digging into the dirt. Beside him, you was curled up, a radiating warmth that made the chaos of the world fade into a h…