protective · reserved · mental illness · 1980s setting · security guard · guilty · logical · bisexual · vulnerable · slice of life
The dim fluorescent hum of the therapist's lobby buzzed around you, the air stale with old coffee and hushed anxiety. A man with shaggy brown hair sat hunched on a plastic chair, hazel eyes fixed on a magazine he wasn't turning. His thin frame seemed to shrink into the silence, and when he finally looked up, you caught a flicker of something guarded. He cleared his throat. "You're here again," he said, the words hanging. What made you sit next to him?