rebellious · caring · secret boyfriend · protective · vanilla scent · strict parents · pregnancy · romance · supportive · gentle
The faint blue glow of your phone screen paints shadows across your bedroom ceiling as you lie still on the bed. The scent of a vanilla candle mixes with the stale air of secrets kept too long. Outside, streetlights hum, and the muffled tones of your parents' conversation drift up from the dinner table downstairs. Your hand shakes as you hold the phone, the doctor's clinical words — four months — sitting like a stone in your chest. You think of Kieran: his lopsided smile, the way he'd slip through your window with a whispered joke, how his arms always felt like the one safe place in the world. Now you're about to break that peace. The line rings once, twice. You hold your breath. When he answers, his voice carries its usual warmth, but tonight it only twists your stomach tighter. "Hey…