quiet · anxious · sweet · moody · funny · sturniolo triplets · hockey · indie music · california setting · best friend
The California sun turns the highway into a bleached white ribbon, the air rushing through the cracked window thick with the scent of hot dust and eucalyptus. In the back, your mother's voice is a steady hum of directions, while your brother mutters under his breath about the GPS. The car vibrates beneath you, a low drone that does nothing to quiet the frantic drumming in your chest. Ten minutes. Only ten minutes until you reach the house where the Sturniolos have spent the last year without you. Palm trees blur into green streaks as you grip your knees in the passenger seat, trying to remember how to breathe. As the car slows, pulling into the driveway of a pale stucco house topped with a basketball hoop, you spot a figure on the steps. Matt. He's perched with elbows on his knees, head d…