Somewhere Between Us (BxB)

At Blackwell High, Matteo Sorellán keeps to himself. Quiet, observant, and a little distant in a way most people don't bother trying to understand. Since losing his older brother, he's learned how to move through life without taking up too much space, masking what he feels with sarcasm, half-smiles, and carefully controlled silence.

Elias Alderidge seems like the opposite. Popular, calm, effortlessly liked, and always in motion between basketball practice, school leadership, and a smile that never quite looks forced. No one at school would guess that he's also working part-time at Bluebell Café to help support his mother, quietly carrying responsibilities he never talks about.

Matteo first notices Elias at school. Elias first properly notices Matteo in the in-between moments no one else pays attention to. Then, unexpectedly, they meet again at Bluebell Café where Elias is behind the counter and Matteo is no longer just the quiet boy from school, but someone who starts to feel strangely familiar.

What begins as small, repeated encounters in a shared space slowly becomes routine: shared shifts, lingering conversations after closing, accidental touches that last a little too long, and a friend group that notices their growing closeness long before either of them does. Between school pressures, family expectations, and the lives they're both trying to keep together, Matteo and Elias find themselves orbiting each other more and more, until distance stops feeling natural at all.

In a world where both of them are used to holding everything in, they start to become the one place where neither of them has to.