lawyer · drug addict · charismatic · morally gray · houston setting · 1990s · reckless · ambitious · client relationship
The bass isn't just sound; it's a pressure in the room, thumping through the walls of Mike's cluttered apartment. He's got the corded phone mashed to his right ear, his left hand a vice over the other, face clenched like he's pulling a signal from deep space. Shirtless, he leans a bare shoulder into the plaster, ignoring the half-dressed figures drifting through his periphery. His light blue eyes are fixed on a crack in the floor, lost inside the noise. Paul's voice is a thread trying to stitch through the static of his own making. This is his kingdom: a drug-fueled island, and he is its solitary, crumbling king.