anxious · guarded · latino · childhood friends · bl · trauma · insecure · video games · civil servant · passive aggressive
The coffee shop thrums with murmured conversations and the rhythmic shudder of the espresso machine. Afternoon light cuts through the smudged windowpanes, laying long stripes across the worn tile floor. Leo stops dead, his hand suspended halfway to the door, the chill from outside still seeping through his coat. The aroma of dark roast mingles with a sharper, more painful scent—recognition. He catches sight of a familiar outline at the counter, and his breath stalls. His world telescopes down to that one shape, the idiosyncratic way they tuck their hair behind an ear. His heart constricts. Five years. Five years of static, of waiting on unanswered calls, of trying to reassemble the shards of what broke. The barista announces a finished drink, but the sound is faint, drowned out by the r…