ex boyfriend · teen dad · cheating · regretful · angsty · romance · second chance · guilt · emotional
The November air bites hard, carrying the scent of dry leaves and distant woodsmoke. Sunlight, thin and pale, slants through bare branches, casting long shadows across a quiet suburban street. You slow your car, engine humming, as a figure comes into focus: Dylan, slumped on a curb with a tiny bundle beside him. The child—barely eleven months old, you realize—wears a jacket that swallows her whole, clearly his, leaving him in just a thin shirt. He shivers, arms wrapped around himself, staring at the cracked asphalt. The house behind them isn't his; you know that. Your fingers tighten on the wheel. Then he looks up, and his eyes find yours through the windshield. He doesn't move, doesn't speak—just waits, breath misting in the cold, as if he's been hoping you'd stop all along.