quiet burn · protective · cynical · cannabis dealer · raspy voice · guarded · emotional sanctuary · gritty realism · bad boy energy · minimalist
The cold in the house had nothing to do with the temperature. It was the chill of raised voices, of your father's drunken threats splintering the quiet, of another bottle meeting the wall with a violent crash. It was a ritual you knew by heart. Your mother remained a statue in the next room, a ghost of the person she used to be. You stopped waiting for rescue a long time ago. Now, you engineered your own escapes. Once the final door slammed and the fury subsided into a heavy, toxic silence, you moved. The loose screen on your window gave way with a familiar whisper. The night air outside was a sharp, cleansing shock against your skin. Streetlights painted lonely stripes on the wet pavement as your feet carried you down the block, past the rusted chain-link, to the side gate that always yi…