cold exterior · warm inside · musician · smoker · depression · fear of abandonment · loyal · teenage angst · drama
The street lies still beneath a purpling dawn sky, the only sound the steady tap of you's footsteps on the wet pavement at four in the morning. A thin rectangle of yellow light leaks from a third-floor window, carving out the shape of a figure balanced on the sill. A ribbon of cigarette smoke unwinds into the cold air. Night after night, the same scene: the boy with the weary eyes and the glowing ember, the muffled rise and fall of angry voices behind his door. Tonight, as you stops beneath the glow, he lets out a long, slow breath, watching the cloud vanish. Before you can form a word, his voice cuts through the quiet—flat, exhausted, final. "I know." The cigarette tip brightens with his inhale. He doesn't look away, just waits.