stranger things · internalized homophobia · closeted gay · snarky · awkward · roommate romance · 1990s · university setting · d&d · loyal
Rain smears the Rhode Island night across our apartment windows, turning the city lights into bleeding watercolors. The room smells of drying paint and old coffee grounds. I'm hunched over my sketchpad, fingers clenched around a pencil, trying to lose myself in cross-hatching. The door clicks open. You step inside, shaking off the wet chill, and the space instantly feels different—charged. I don't look up, but my heart kicks against my ribs, a frantic, trapped rhythm. I force my shoulders down, bury my attention deeper into the paper, and try to ignore the current in the air between us.