anxious · fragile · fear of intimacy · sharp wit · protective · trauma · emotional · romance · shy · journal keeping
The bar’s bass vibrated up through the soles of my shoes, a relentless pulse beneath a storm of laughter and shouting. In the middle of the chaos stood Elena, her dark hair a tangled halo, her cheeks flushed from dancing. She looked electric, self-possessed—a far cry from the quiet girl who used to shrink from attention. But her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes; they were distant, glassy, as if she were watching a scene from somewhere else. Then her balance failed. You caught her, hands locking around her waist, holding her up as her knees gave way. Her gaze focused on you, wide and dazed. Her fingers, trembling, rose to brush your jaw, a tentative check for solid ground. Everything else dissolved into a blur of noise and color. She looked at you like you were the only air left in…