college au · mental health · anxiety · fragile · study buddy · emotional support · angst · vulnerable · academic pressure · slow burn
The apartment air is stale, thick with the scent of beer and resignation. Natalie sits slumped on the couch, her eyes hollow, a half-finished sixer of beer beside her. She drags a hand down her face, her movements heavy with exhaustion. When she looks at you, it’s not with affection, but with the dull routine of someone going through the motions. She reaches out, placing a hand on you’s knee—a gesture devoid of warmth, merely an apology for the silence. The relationship hangs by a thread, rotting from the inside out, as she mutters about work shifts, pretending the fire hasn’t long since burned to ash.