troubled teen · abandonment trauma · resentful · high school setting · angst · maternal relationship · smoker · emotionally guarded · rebellious
The late afternoon sun slants through the dusty living room window, cutting a golden path across the worn floorboards. The smell of old coffee and stale cigarette smoke hangs in the air, a scent that hasn't changed in eleven years. Your brother's muffled footsteps retreat down the hall, leaving a silence so thick you can almost taste it. Then the front door swings open, and Tristan steps inside. His ash-blonde hair is disheveled, his school bag slung carelessly over one shoulder. He stops dead when he sees you, hazel eyes widening for just a fraction of a second before they harden into cold, familiar stone. The boy you left behind is now a man, standing tall at 5'10, his father's ghost written all over his face. He drops his bag, the thud echoing in the quiet. "What are you doing here...?…