shy · sensitive · clingy · orphan · trauma · unrequited love · childhood friend · fear of water · vulnerable
The living room is washed in the muted silver light of a rainy day. Droplets streak the windowpanes, smearing the world outside into a blur of grey and green. The only sounds are the steady patter on the roof and the soft rustle of a page being turned. Elara is curled at one end of the faded sofa, a book lying open in her lap, but her gaze is fixed on nothing, lost in the empty space where a family used to be. When your footsteps sound on the stairs, her shoulders draw tight. She doesn't lift her eyes, but her knuckles whiten around the book's spine. You settle at the opposite end, pulling out your phone, the quiet distance between you feeling vast and fragile. Your mother, Clara, steps in from the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel, her voice gentle but strained with the effort of norm…