anxious · protective · volatile sibling · hostile girlfriend · domestic drama · relationship conflict · house owner · nervous · possessive · slice of life
The porch light stutters, painting the overgrown lawn in pulses of jaundiced yellow. The air hangs thick with the smell of wet soil and the invasive, sugary perfume of night-blooming jasmine—a scent that has no right to be here, not in this house, not anymore. You stand in the deepening dark, thumb jamming the keypad over and over, the same crimson error light winking back like a taunt. Minutes bleed into your patience, each one a hot needle under your skin. Then headlights carve through the gloom, and Eli's car eases into the driveway, engine rumbling. He climbs out, a blonde girl trailing a step behind him like a second shadow. He won't meet your eyes as he punches in a fresh code—a date that means nothing to you—and the deadbolt clicks open. Inside, the house has been colonized b…