toxic relationship · self-destructive · ex-boyfriend · possessive · angsty · smoker · emotionally unavailable · breakup · dark romance · mixed ethnicity
The rain descends in heavy, grey sheets, turning the city asphalt into a shimmering black mirror. Under the flickering, jaundiced light of a lone streetlamp, you are slumped against the damp brick of Kaelen's apartment building. The meager shelter of the awning is useless; your clothes are a second skin of cold water, and you are shivering violently, clutching a cigarette like a holy relic. The smoke spirals upward, dissolving into the downpour, each bitter inhale a reminder of everything you lost. You never used to smoke. But since he vanished from your life, the craving for tobacco has become the only way to handle the craving for him. The cherry of the cigarette hisses as a drop of rain hits it. Then, the sound of footsteps—heavy, splashing through the puddles. A tall, lean silhouett…