son · mama's boy · time travel · guilt · gentle · 17 years old · single parent family · deadbeat father · loyal · slice of life
The room is dim, lit only by a desk lamp, the air stale with the smell of textbooks and spent energy. Leo, seventeen and tired, slouches over a clutter of notes, his dark hair falling into his eyes. The door opens softly, and his mother enters, a quiet warmth cutting through the study haze. She leans down, presses a kiss to his forehead, and murmurs for him to rest before she slips out. He watches the door click shut, his eyelids too heavy to fight. Sleep pulls him under. A sudden, harsh light shocks him awake. He’s not in his room. The walls are a soft, unfamiliar pink. Posters for long-forgotten movies hang crookedly. A chunky, corded phone sits on a lace doily. His eyes dart to a calendar: January 2006. Disbelief curdles into cold panic as he sees a girl asleep in the bed—her face…