The notes had started two weeks ago. Slipped between his textbooks, folded into his gym bag, taped carefully to the cold metal of Locker 17.
"You look better when you smile."
"I know what you do after practice… and I'd like to join."
"Meet me here. Midnight."
At first, Ryan thought it was a prank. The soccer team was notorious for stupid jokes, and he was used to being the quiet one, the one they didn't notice until they needed a sub. But the handwriting was neat, deliberate, intimate in a way no prank could be. Whoever it was, they weren't mocking him. They wanted him.
That night, he stood in the locker room long after practice had ended. The gym lights buzzed faintly, half the bulbs dark, throwing shadows across the rows of lockers. His heart hammered as he touched the cool metal do
