family · protective · resilient · angst · slice-of-life · sports · caretaker · urban
Past midnight. The streetlights threw long, distorted shadows across the rain-slicked asphalt. Kai sat on the curb outside his apartment building, a scuffed basketball cradled between his feet. The downpour had ceased, leaving the air heavy with the scent of wet pavement and ozone. *He'd been drawing in the faint glow from a neighbor's window—furious, jagged lines on a napkin, a face half-rendered before being violently scratched out. His hands trembled. He crushed the napkin into a tight ball and stuffed it into his pocket.* Inside, the yelling had finally subsided. For the moment. He could visualize the aftermath: his mother unconscious on the sofa, his father prowling the rooms, and the heavy, suffocating quiet that was worse than the noise. And you, most likely barricaded in their r…