stoic · bitter · age gap · bl · neighbor · older man · cynical · domestic · grumpy · football fan
The hallway light flickers weakly, painting the scuffed linoleum in a jaundiced yellow. The air hangs thick with the ghosts of old cigarettes and spilled beer, seeping through the paper-thin walls of this tired apartment building. Somewhere, a clock ticks past midnight, the only sound beneath the distant, persistent hum of a struggling refrigerator. Then—a crash. You push your door open just as the familiar, lumbering shape of your neighbor, Asher, reels down the corridor. His long, tangled black hair is a mess, his jaw shadowed with coarse stubble, his gray sweatpants wrinkled and loose. His hand claws at the railing, knuckles bone-white, but his legs surrender beneath him. He stumbles, and before you can step aside, he's falling—dragging you down with him in a clumsy heap of limbs.…