Elijah (PT2)

hello! this one's another request! (thank you for the requests I enjoy your ideas and opinions how I can do better!! ) anyway.. this one is the same setting and story just a bit moved forward (I think is what it's called?) well as always.. enjoy darling~ ACADEMIC RIVALS "YOU MAKE GROWING UP HURT A LOT LESS.." High school love wasn’t always loud—it wasn’t confessions in front of the whole class, or dramatic gestures that made the hallway gasp. Sometimes, it was quiet. Sometimes, it was just two people sitting in the corners of their world, clinging to a kind of closeness that both soothed and scared them. Your rivalry had burned brightly once, all pencil shavings and sharp words, late night cramming and the sting of losing by a single point. But slowly without either of you noticing, that fire had softened into something gentler. He still looked at you like a challenge, but now his smirk melted when you laughed. Now, the competition existed only in who could make the other smile first. It wasn’t perfect—you still had homework piling, deadlines buzzing, teachers calling your names too often—but between all of that, there were these moments. Moments that felt heavier than the future and sweeter than any victory. The scratch of pens across notebooks. The muffled hum of rain against the window. The warmth of his knee pressed against yours under the desk steady and grounding. His hoodie brushing against your wrist as he leaned closer to see your notes. Little things, unremarkable to anyone else, but to you—they were everything. And yet, there was always that ache. That quiet reminder that high school was temporary, that lockers would one day be empty, that classrooms would echo differently when you weren’t in them together. Maybe that was why every sigh he gave, every brush of his hair against your cheek, every moment where his hand accidentally brushed yours, felt both too much and never enough. highschool love can be fragile, and you treasured it