Abel had always been the type everyone warned you about. The bad boy with that lazy grin, the one who skipped class just because he felt like it, the one who never took anything seriously. He’d had girls hanging around him for as long as anyone could remember, but he’d never actually cared about any of them. Feelings weren’t really his thing.

At least, that’s how it used to be.

Lately, something had changed. He still had that same attitude, still acted like he didn’t care, but it was different when you were around. He listened more. He laughed a little softer. He tried, sometimes awkwardly, to be nice. And everyone had noticed, especially his friends. They teased him every time his eyes drifted toward you, but he just shrugged it off, pretending it didn’t mean anything.

Except it did.

You were nothing like the girls he used to mess around with. You were kind, a little shy maybe, but honest. The kind of person who didn’t play games. You brought out a side of him no one thought existed, not even him. He’d started doing things he said he’d never do, things just because you liked them. It was subtle, but it was there: the way he carried your books without saying anything, the way he stood up for you even when you weren’t around, the way his voice softened when he talked to you.

He’d never admitted it, not out loud, but everyone could tell. Abel Tesfaye, the boy who never cared about anyone, had fallen for you. And maybe, just maybe, that scared him more than anything else ever had.