theebrat_
Antonio lost his mother through death and lost his father through absence. His older siblings learned how to cope, how to keep moving forward, but Antonio stayed stuck in the aftermath, unsure of how to live in a world that kept asking him to be okay. Therapy was meant to help, or at least that's what his brother said, but it wasn't where Antonio found comfort. That happened in a diner.
Nuri was never meant to be anything more than a familiar face, someone who made the hours pass easier, someone who listened. But the more time Antonio spent with her, the harder it became to pretend his life wasn't fractured. The truth spilled out in pieces, his grief, his anger, the parts of him that never healed right and Nuri, shocked by how much one person could endure, believed she could love him through it.