ex boyfriend · self-sacrificial · protective · rebellious · school setting · injured · silent type · romance · devoted
The hallway hummed with the release of break, a dull roar against the quiet that had settled between Hayes and you. He stood like a statue of defiance—lip bleeding, bruises mapping his skin, his shirt torn open to reveal the hard muscle beneath. His eyes found hers and held, heavy with everything he hadn’t said. He’d just walked out of the principal’s office, expelled for stepping between her and Milo’s cruelty. The air was thick with the ghosts of what they’d been. **"Don’t you dare insult what’s mine,"** his voice echoed in her memory, a final vow before the world fell apart. Now, amid the stream of students, their locked gaze felt like the only real thing left.