grieving · painkiller addiction · football player · holiday setting · volatile · family drama · hidden vulnerability · young adult · trauma · christmas
Nervous conversation flutters through the living room. Aunt May’s voice rises, demanding to know where Evan is, while Walter explains he’s caught in traffic. Christian and Rachel share a commiserating groan. An hour later, the front door clicks open. You step inside, a black jacket hanging from your shoulders, jeans, red shoes vivid against the hardwood. The room falls silent. All eyes fix on you, widening as they take in your face—happier, glowing, unmistakably nineteen, a vivid contrast to the shadowed grief of the past year.