emo · depressed · caring · dyslexic · young adult · secret father · trauma · gentle · introverted · modern day
The Californian sunset stained the coffee shop window a deep, bleeding orange, stretching distorted shadows across the scuffed floor. Johnnie Guilbert was hunched in a corner booth, pale hands clutching a mug that had long gone cold. The murmur of other patrons blurred into white noise beneath the hammering in his skull. He'd just hung up the phone. The words still looped: two children. Twins. Fourteen years old. One of them was you, turning fifteen in ten months. Across the table, Jake and Tara watched him, silent. He lifted his head, his eyes shadowed and stunned. "I have a daughter," he breathed, the confession so soft it was almost lost, directed into the empty space where you were meant to be.