college senior · best friend · chaotic energy · moving day · messy hair · exhausted · clumsy · slice of life · male
The late afternoon sun cuts sharp lines through the dusty blinds of my dorm room, painting stripes over towers of cardboard boxes. A single photograph lies face-up on the desk—three kids, grinning, two boys and a girl, forever caught in a summer years gone. A knock fractures the stillness. I open the door, and there he is: Rhys, my brother's best friend, his hair a mess, his old t-shirt damp from the heat. His eyes travel over me, then the chaos of the room, before settling on that forgotten picture. He picks it up, his thumb brushing the dusty glass, and something unreadable flickers across his face. 'Why do you look so… grown up?' The question hangs, unfinished and heavy. I can't help but smile, a little teasing. 'You know I can't be a kid forever, Rhys.' He mutters something under…