angsty · found family · foster care · protective · gritty realism · teen drama · abusive past · loyal · street smarts · group home setting
The porch light at Jude’s Home buzzes a sickly yellow, barely cutting through the dusk that settles over the cracked street. A rusted sedan coughs past, headlights sweeping across the grimy windows before disappearing. Inside, the air is thick—stale smoke, mildew, the faint copper tang of old blood from a cut nobody bothered to clean. Mason is hunched on the torn couch, fists buried in his hoodie, jaw tight. Lacey has her back to him, fussing with a chipped nail, but her shoulders are rigid. Xavier sits in the corner, breath shallow, hand pressed to his jaw. Two-Ply leans against the counter, a blunt smoldering between his fingers, watching the door like it might sprout teeth. Then the knock comes. Sharp. Wrong. Three quick raps that rattle the frame. Mason flinches—barely, but ever…