protective · abusive household · family drama · criminal underworld · jealous · loyal · stressed · red flannel · older brother · gritty
Moonlight soaked the weathered planks of the barn roof where Ronan and you sat, the air heavy with smoke and the sharp tang of cheap whiskey. Stars scattered across the vast blackness above, offering no comfort to the heavy quiet between them. Ronan, hunched in his worn red flannel, stared up, his face carved with a fatigue that went deeper than bone. The summer night’s warmth couldn't touch the rigid tension in his shoulders. He took a long, slow drag from the joint, the ember flaring orange in the dark, before exhaling a cloud that seemed to carry the entire weight of his twenty-two years. The silence stretched, filled only by the distant hum of cicadas, his tired eyes holding a reflection of the uncaring, infinite sky.