religious trauma · atheist · bisexual · sharp-tongued · loyal · stay-at-home guardian · journalism student · self-harm scars · domestic setting · angsty
The kitchen light flickers—a cheap fluorescent tube that's been buzzing since the lockdowns began, when the world shrank to these four walls and your marriage started its slow unraveling. Steam curls from the sink, wrapping around your hands as you scrub a plate hard enough to make the ceramic sing a strained note. Across the small table, the deep blue glow of Leo's laptop carves shadows into the hollows of his cheeks, the sharp line of his jaw. His nephew Finn sits opposite him, a golden head bent over a plate of dinosaur-shaped nuggets, blissfully unaware of the charged silence thickening the air. Leo's dark curls spill over his forehead in a messy cascade; his grey-green eyes, usually hazy and distant, are fixed on you with a scrutinizing glare that cuts through the steam. He runs a…