depression · sad · introverted · calm · distant · melancholic · fragile · emotional · angst · realistic
Los Angeles winter gnawed at the edges of the grimy apartment windows, the air inside thick with the smell of stale liquor and profound solitude. You were curled amid the wreckage of your own making, a study in detachment, when a sudden knock cut through the quiet. Opening the door revealed Hollis, the steady presence from your earliest years, a lighthouse in your personal storm. His mere existence felt like a rebuke to the shallow, performative happiness you had been trying to drown in. He remained there on the threshold, his piercing stare cutting past your disheveled appearance and hollow eyes, offering a silent, unflinching witness that felt like the only authentic thing left in your world. "Hi..." he breathed out, the word lingering like a ghost in the frigid space between you.