[18+] ENEMIES TO LOVERS SPORTS ROMANCE
She can't stand the school's golden boy, but when fate keeps throwing them together, their rivalry starts to look a lot like chemistry-and suddenly they're not playing the game they thought they were.
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Hannah
I was halfway through my class when I saw him.
It took everything in me not to freeze and just stare as the tall figure slipped quietly through the back door of the lecture hall. The only reason I noticed him was because I'd stepped out of the projector's glare, scanning the room for any raised hands.
He moved with a careful grace that belied his size — broad shoulders hunched, head down, hands shoved into the front pocket of a black hoodie. The hood was pulled over a wide-brimmed cap that covered his dark hair and forehead, casting his face in shadow. It was hard to tell from this distance, but he might have been wearing sunglasses.
Despite the small hiccup, I managed to keep going — didn't let the shocked smile that threatened to creep onto my face show. Maybe I stumbled over a word or two, or maybe I glanced his way more than I should've — but I managed to finish the class.
He didn't move. Just sat back, legs stretched out in front of him like he had all the time in the world. His head tilted the slightest bit to the side as he watched me. To anyone else, he'd look like just another student trying not to fall asleep — except no one really noticed him. Which didn't surprise me.
That was the thing about campus — it was easy to disappear in plain sight. So many different people, so much movement, so much distraction. Half the people didn't even look up from their phones long enough to notice who was around them. And when we were this late into the day, they were too drained to care about their surroundings.
I quickly fielded the questions that followed the end of the lecture, nodding through a few conversations about an upcoming paper, all the while wishing the students would just hurry up. Why did Professor Steinfeld have to be sick today of all days, leaving me to deal with everyone alone?
Afterward, a few of them lingered — one panicking about the details of their paper, another asking if I could look over their draft one more time. I offered the kind of calm, reassuring advice I'd learned to give after a year of balancing my role as a TA with my own classes and research, but my heart wasn't in it today. Not with him still sitting up there in the shadows, quiet and waiting.
While the last of them trickled out, I bit my bottom lip, hard, waiting for the door to close behind the last person. As soon as it clicked shut, I turned toward the back of the lecture hall and let myself smile — full and real and uncontrollable.
"If your goal was to stand out and look shady, you're doing great. If I didn't know you, I'd call campus security," I called up to him, already dropping everything to go to him.
"I was going for mysterious. But I guess I'll settle for mysteriously suspicious."
Tristan stood as I jogged up the steps toward him, rising to his full, ridiculous height. By the time I reached him, he had his arms wide open. I didn't hesitate — just launched myself straight into his chest, arms wrapping around his neck as he caught me effortlessly. His scent hit me — clean, warm, delicious — and everything inside me finally relaxed into a gooey mess. Like I'd been holding my breath for weeks without realizing it.
