after the death of her mother, leighton's father sends her to a boarding school halfway across the world to be taught a lesson. she knows no one and no one knows her.
but the cherry on top is who her roommate is.
#2 in ptsdawareness
#2 in anxiety
#...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"lights are on. but nobody's home."
-lights are on by tom rosenthal
⎯⎯⎯
The room feels emptier than usual.
Leighton's clothes are gone, and so are her books from the shelf we shared. Her side of the room looks too clean, too neat—like she was never really here at all.
But the mess in my head? That's a different story.
I stand in the doorway, watching as she packs the last of her things into a box.
She doesn't look at me. Not once. Just keeps her head down, focused, like this is just another thing on her to-do list. But I can see the tension in her shoulders, the way her hands shake when she zips up her duffel bag.
The tears in her eyes.
"So... this is it?" I ask, my voice quieter than I mean for it to be.
She doesn't answer right away, and for a second, I think maybe she didn't hear me. But then she stops, her hands resting on the edge of the box, her back still turned to me.
"Yeah," she says, her voice hollow. "This is it."
I lean against the doorframe, crossing my arms, trying to keep it together. "I don't get it. Why are you doing this? Why now?"
She lets out a sigh, turning to face me for the first time. Her eyes are tired, dark circles under them like she hasn't slept in days.
She's wearing that old hoodie of mine, the one she used to steal all the time when we were still... whatever we were. It hurts seeing her in it now, like there's still a part of her that can't let go even though she's leaving.
"I already told you, Kai," she says, her voice strained. "I need space. I need to figure things out. And I can't do that if we're still... living like this. It's not fair to either of us."
I shake my head, frustration bubbling up. "You don't have to do this alone, Leighton. I—"
"Stop," she cuts me off, her voice sharper now. "Just stop. You keep saying that like it's supposed to fix everything, like I can just let you in and everything will magically be okay. But it won't. It never will."
Her words hit like a punch to the gut, but I refuse to give up. "So what, this is just how it ends? You're walking away, and that's it? After everything, you're just leaving?"
Her eyes flicker with something—guilt, maybe—but she shakes her head, her expression hardening again. "I'm not walking away, Kai. I'm doing what I need to do. I've been trying to hold it together for so long, and I can't keep pretending everything's fine. I can't keep pretending I'm okay when I'm not."
