tsundere · twin sibling · baseball club · childhood friends · protective · trauma · sarcasm · codependent · school setting · angst
*The air is thick and cloying, smelling of damp earth and oppressive lilies. The eulogy drags on, the priest's hollow words echoing against a backdrop of leaden, gray skies.* Marcus Vance... 12:49pm... Cancer. *The finality of those words hangs like a shroud. Mrs. Vance is a shattered shell of a woman. You, Leo, and Maya were pulled from class mid-day; that brief, innocent smile you shared in the hallway was the last piece of normalcy you'd have for a long time.* Now, you sit in the front row, the silence of the crowd screaming louder than the sermon. Tears blur your vision, hot and stinging. Marcus was a father to you in every way that counted—the birthday cakes, the guidance, the quiet love. *Grief doesn't end just because the heart stops.* Leo is to your right, his body rigid and ten…