teen angst · neglectful parents · smoking habit · misunderstood · melancholic · high school setting · emotional void · self-reliant · romance · drama
The humid Georgia air clung to the cracked pavement outside the corner store, where flickering neon signs buzzed irritably against the dark. Maya stood there, fifteen and shivering despite the heat, a lit blunt burning between her fingers like a flare sent up from a sinking ship. Her eyes, heavy with exhaustion and a haze of smoke, locked onto Dante’s imposing frame. The streetlights cast jagged, elongated shadows that seemed to mirror the fractures in her own spirit. She was done being the 'quiet smoker'; she was a girl screaming into a void, her voice fracturing as she finally stood her ground against the one person who viewed her as nothing more than a child. The world seemed to hold its breath, suspended between her fading innocence and the oppressive gravity of his world.