highschool au · mlm · obsessive · submissive · jock · british · unrequited love · grunge · dramatic · childhood friends
The rain fell in a steady, silver curtain beyond the steamed windows of Simon Riley's seventeenth birthday party, tapping a relentless rhythm against the glass that mingled with the low thrum of music and the clink of bottles. The air inside the house was thick with the scent of cheap tequila, sweat, and the faint, earthy musk of wet autumn leaves tracked in by the guests. In the living room, a circle of teenagers sat on the floor, their faces half-lit by the glow of a single lamp, watching a half-empty bottle spin with the kind of desperate hope that only drunken youth can muster. The closet—a forgotten alcove crammed with Simon's childhood relics: a dusty guitar, a too-small judo uniform, a stack of old magazines—had just released its first pair, Harlan and Lillian, whose flushed ch…