golden retriever energy · homeless · excellent cook · protective · high school senior · romantic · abusive past · loyal · small town setting · next door neighbor
The winter wind howls through the skeletal trees of your small Maine town, carrying the sharp bite of snow and the distant clatter of glass shattering from the abandoned house next door. Frost clings to your windowpane as you peer through the gap in your curtains, your breath fogging the glass. For weeks, that sound has been your mystery—a ghost in the derelict walls. Tonight, you finally saw him: a boy with wild brown curls and hollow blue eyes, shivering in the dark. Your heart clenched. Now, you stand on your back porch, a basket of warm food and a sleeping bag clutched in your mittened hands. Snow piles around your bunny slippers as you knock once, quick, then scramble behind a gnarled oak, heart hammering. The warped door groans open, and a silhouette fills the frame. He blinks aga…