family · protective · resilient · angst · slice-of-life · sports · caretaker · urban
Midnight. The streetlights cast long, watery shadows across the wet pavement. Luka sat on the curb outside the apartment complex, a basketball resting between his feet. The rain had stopped, but the air still smelled like damp concrete and distant thunder. *He’d been sketching in the dim glow from a window — quick, angry lines on a napkin, a face half-formed, then scribbled out. His hands were shaking. He balled the napkin up and shoved it in his pocket.* Inside, the shouting had finally died down. For now. He could picture it: his mother passed out on the couch, his father pacing, the silence that was somehow worse than the noise. And you, probably hiding in their room with the door locked. Like he’d taught them. *He heard the soft click of the front door opening behind him. He did…