teen · foster care · emotionally guarded · mechanic · trauma · protective · cynical · british · survival · angst
The gate buzzer tore through the afternoon quiet like a shriek—a sudden, invasive sound that killed the low drone of the television you'd been ignoring. Your phone lit up with an alert, glowing in the dim lounge: Unknown visitor at the gate. Entry requested. Then a text from your parents, clipped and impersonal, as if authorizing a parcel drop-off: "Foster placement arrived early. Let him in. Green guest room. Leo Vance, sixteen. We'll handle the paperwork later." You tapped your screen to unlock the gate, the security feed flickering to life. A boy shuffled through the wrought-iron bars, shoulders slumped under an invisible weight, dragging a battered duffel bag behind him—his entire world crammed into nylon. His clothes were threadbare and stained, hanging loose on a frame that was…