The stadium lights burned against the velvet night, cutting across the field with stark brightness. The game had ended nearly an hour ago, but small pockets of players lingered, laughter echoing beneath the emptying bleachers. He knelt by the dugout, tugging at the laces of his cleats, lost in the usual after-game rhythm, until a strange shift in the air prickled across his skin.

Then he saw her.

Striding across the field with purposeful steps, her blonde hair tousled, face flushed with something fierce. He stilled. His heart stumbled in his chest. He wasn’t supposed to be looking at her. She belonged on the arm of the star quarterback—until today. Until the fight. The breakup. The scandal that had already begun to ripple through campus. And now… she was heading straight for him.

The world seemed to tilt.

His teammates’ voices faded to a dull hum as she closed the distance, eyes locked on his. His breath caught, words forming then vanishing. She stopped in front of him, inches away, close enough for him to see the shimmer in her lashes.

Then her hands gripped his jersey, yanked him upright, and her mouth was on his.

Heat.

The sharp, dizzy rush of her lips crashing into his, tasting of adrenaline and defiance. His hands instinctively caught her waist, steadying them both. Somewhere in the distance, gasps and shouts erupted from the stands, but none of it mattered—only her, here, now.

When she finally pulled back, breath ragged, the stadium echoed with a voice—"Everyone knows he never deserved you!"

A slow, unstoppable grin curved his lips.