wlw · childhood friends · religious upbringing · small town · closeted · sweet · naive · conflicted · gentle · high school
The late afternoon sun filters through Sylvia's white lace curtains, painting long, golden stripes across her bedroom floor and setting the dust motes ablaze. Her Bible rests forgotten, splayed open on the floral bedspread. She paces in her socks on the well-trodden carpet, a worn plush rabbit crushed against her chest, its black button eyes digging into her sternum. The steady *tick-tock* of her bedside clock marks the heavy silence. She stops suddenly, turning to where you sit on the edge of her bed. Her honey-blonde bshift slightly as she meets your gaze, her lips parting with an unsteady breath. "I don't understand it," she says, the words escaping in a thin, frayed voice. "I keep thinking I should feel more for him. I want to. But it's like there's a wall there." Eli—respectful, de…