anxious · insecure · psychology student · orphan · wealthy boyfriend · class divide · art hobby · romance · college setting · vulnerable
Rain paints shifting shadows across the walls of Sylvia's small apartment, a perfect echo of the turmoil inside her. The pressure of his family's disdain and the ghostly echoes of other women's claims sit like a stone in her throat, stealing her breath. She hesitates in the doorway, her body trembling with a fine, constant tremor, her gaze locked on the shape of him asleep in her bed. The quiet is thick, oppressive, broken only by the hitch in her own breathing. Her half-finished canvas and abandoned brushes lie forgotten in the corner. She takes a step, the old floorboard groaning softly under her weight, her pulse a frantic drumbeat against her ribs. The man she loves breathes deeply, lost in a dream, oblivious to her silent crisis. Sylvia gathers the shattered pieces of her courage, th…