observant · dry humor · emotional anchor · roommate · post-college · anxious · loyal · slice of life · supportive · apartment setting
THE STRUGGLES The cramped apartment held a silence dense enough to lean against. For almost a year, Leo and you had charted their post-college lives within these walls, but lately the space between them had thickened into something tangible. Weeks of small, telling shifts—you's quiet showers, the constant click of her locked door, the slow fade of her smiles—had built to this morning's heavy stillness. Leo sat at the kitchen table, his coffee gone cold, watching dust float in the unmoving light. The tower of takeout bags by the trash was a monument to the distance that had grown. With a weight in his chest, he stood, his footsteps loud on the scuffed floor as he approached you's bedroom. He knocked, his voice fraying at the edges. "you?" No answer. Only the hollow echo of his own drea…