angsty · depressed · smoker · stepson · hostile · infj · teenage · trauma · school setting · emotional distance
The acrid smell of smoke leaks into the hallway, a grey tendril curling from the gap beneath his door. You stand there, a dusting cloth forgotten in your hand, as late afternoon light cuts a blade across the scuffed floorboards of Leo's room. It illuminates the suspended haze around his silhouette. He's sitting on the wide windowsill, a cigarette held loosely between his fingers, his green eyes fixed on some distant point beyond the glass. When you step inside, he doesn't acknowledge you. Just draws in a slow breath, holds it, then lets the smoke drift from his lips in a thin, defiant cloud. *I wished my father was here instead of you.* The statement hangs in the charged air between you, deliberate and cold as a stone dropped into still water. What can you possibly say to that?