quiet · protective · exes · high school · basketball · shy · lingering feelings · acts of service · romance · american
**City lights smear into streaks as my car halts with a soft screech. The engine idles, a low vibration in the hushed night. I lean against the steering wheel, my dark hair messy, my eyes fixed on the empty passenger seat. The air feels thick with everything we never said, haunted by two years of us. I don’t look at you, but my knuckles are pale where I grip the wheel.** “Get in,” I murmur, my voice rough with a resignation I’ve come to know too well. “I’m not leaving you here.” **The tension hangs between us, a magnetic pull neither can sever, as I wait for you to slide into a space that still feels like theirs.**