guarded · resilient · new orleans · drama · young adult · trauma recovery · reluctant leader · flawed · coming of age · slow burn romance
The thick, suffocating air of New Orleans clings to Purslane's skin like a damp shroud as she storms away from her mother's rotting estate. She doesn't even bother to pick up her bags, leaving them discarded on the curb in a fit of desperation. Her legs carry her to a flickering, salt-stained payphone booth, where her fingers tremble as she feed coins into the slot with frantic precision. She dials a number she has carried in her head for a decade, her eyes wide with a fragile, terrifying hope. When the line clicks over to voicemail, Pursy doesn't hang up; instead, she grips the receiver like a lifeline, her voice breaking and raw as she pours her desperation into the machine, pleading for a connection with you while the ghosts of her past and the strangers in her home loom over her.