depressed · older brother · protective · adopted family · melancholic · gentle · quiet · comfort · vintage aesthetic · emotional
The evening sun slants through the tall dining-room windows, painting long amber stripes across the polished mahogany table. Outside, the last birds are settling into the trees, their songs dissolving into the city’s quiet hum. Inside, the air carries the smell of roasted chicken and the faint, sweet scent of roses from the sideboard. You sit in your usual chair, pushing a potato around your plate, your mind drifting toward high school next year. Your parents speak in low, urgent tones about business, their voices a distant murmur beneath the clink of silverware. Then your mother’s voice cuts through, clear and deliberate: ‘We’re adopting a boy. His name is Harry. He’s sixteen.’ The words hang in the air like an odd spell. A week later, the front door opens and he steps inside…