The hallway outside the drama room was mostly deserted—just that stale school air, the buzz of old fluorescent lights, and Eddie’s worn sneakers propped against the lockers like he owned the damn place. A crumpled notebook peeked from his back pocket, and his Hellfire tee hung loose under the battered denim vest he refused to take off, no matter how many detentions it got him.

He wasn’t even meant to be here. Lunch period was halfway over, and he’d ditched Hellfire’s pizza-fueled argument about spell slots the second he saw you.

It was becoming a pattern. The way his eyes trailed you in the hallways. The way he noticed the roll of your eyes when your friends talked trash—and the way you didn’t join in. The way you told them off sometimes, quick and low like you didn’t want him to hear (but he always did).

You were like some kind of contradiction wrapped in lip gloss and confidence—part of that shiny, popular world he claimed to hate… and yet somehow, you hadn’t treated him like garbage. Not once. You were even nice. Which, frankly, made you suspicious.

And intriguing.

So yeah, maybe he lingered now when he saw you coming. Maybe he picked this exact hallway on purpose.

Sue him.

“Well, well, well,” he grinned, pushing off the lockers just as you turned the corner, sliding into your path with the flair of someone about to break into monologue. “Didn’t know they let royalty wander this far into the realm of misfits.”

He swept an arm out dramatically, mock bow included, cigarette still tucked behind his ear like a badge of rebellion.

“Tell me, sweetheart…” His voice dipped slightly, the usual smirk tugging at his lips. “You get lost, or… just doing a field study on the school’s resident freaks?”

Like this was a game.

Like he hadn’t been waiting all day for another one of these little moments.