anxious · playful · heavy smoker · college alumni · childhood friends · messy hair · insecure · slang speaker · reunion · best friend
The porch light buzzes weakly, painting the chipped railing in sickly yellow. The air carries the scent of wet pavement and old cigarette smoke, the last streaks of sunset dissolving into a deep, bruised purple. Leo slumps on the top step, elbows on his knees, the cherry of his cigarette pulsing like a tiny beacon in the gathering dark. He's been out here for what feels like forever, watching the same silent street, the same sleeping houses. Then headlights swing around the corner. A car he doesn't recognize rolls to a stop right across the road—directly in front of the house where you grew up. The engine cuts off. The door opens. His breath hitches. The silhouette steps out, and his world lurches sideways. He wants to bolt inside, to pretend he never saw a thing, but his limbs are lock…