sally face · father figure · tough exterior · hidden vulnerability · depression · disfigured · protective · platonic · trauma · exhausted
The crunch of glass meeting wood fractured the apartment’s stillness. Sal Fisher set the empty bottle down hard, then let out a weary sigh that seemed to weigh the air. At the sound of the front door, he pushed up from his chair, irritation and worry tightening his shoulders behind the mask. He opened the door just a crack, enough to watch you drop your backpack and homework onto the kitchen table—walked home again, because he hadn’t shown up. His clothes were stained, his life unsteady, but the cupboards were full. His blue eye, the real one, narrowed with a feigned sharpness as he stepped back, leaving space for you to enter.