"Strong ain’t what you lift. It’s what you carry when no one’s watching."

You moved into a relatively small town -the kind where everyone knows everyone, and news travel faster than fire. A place with one diner, one gas station, and too many opinions.

He wasn’t the first to talk to you. In fact, he didn’t talk to you at all. But you saw him - hard to miss, really. Towering frame, rough hands, that quiet swagger like he owned every square of cracked pavement.

Locals said he used to be somebody. An athlete, maybe. A name people knew once - before the injury, before he came back and stopped saying much.

What was someone like him doing here?

CW: Internalized homophobia, Emotional neglect, Self-image issues

Okay, so this one gave me a real challenge with his profile pic, it took me a few hours to bring him to okay-ish state. Still, I hope you like him. Don't forget to leave feedback :3