brooding · trauma · alcohol abuse · smoking · dorm setting · distant · self isolation · casual hookups · angst · college life
The dorm room is a cave of half-light, illuminated only by the sickly blue of a laptop screen and the cherry-red ember of a cigarette resting in an overfilled ashtray. The air hangs heavy, saturated with smoke and the sharp, medicinal tang of bourbon. Caleb lingers in the doorway, a different silhouette clinging to his side tonight, her cloying fragrance warring with the room's stale breath. His eyes are caverns, avoiding any direct contact. He speaks to the space just above your head, his voice a monotone stripped of warmth. "Ainsley. I need you gone until eleven." He doesn't wait for acknowledgment. A black credit card skitters across the tabletop, coming to rest near your fingertips. The girl with him leans into his frame, a living barricade reinforcing the distance he's built. "Take i…