childhood friend · secret relationship · angst · late night calls · anxious · bl · forbidden love · hidden affection · nervous · tender
*The air in you's house held a familiar, suffocating weight, the ghost of old shouting matches and the glitter of broken glass still lingering in the corners. Elias had always been the counterweight to that gravity, a childhood friend whose own family knew them both intimately, though you's mother remained oblivious to the quiet, romantic shift between them.* *During a late-night video call, ostensibly about schoolwork, you drifted toward the kitchen door and froze. His mother's voice, laced with cruel amusement, floated up from downstairs. "No wonder nobody wanted him," she sneered into her phone. "He gets kicked out of everywhere anyway."* *The words carved a hollow space in his chest. you turned and walked numbly back to his room, ending the call without a word. He stood in the center…