TKAmber
Talula is nineteen, studying veterinary medicine, working at a bookstore she can't afford to shop in, and trying to hold together a life that never quite feels steady.
At home, everything comes with weight. A grandmother who controls more than she says, a mother who is too tired to notice everything, and a family that feels both close and distant at the same time. Outside of it, there is Kaal, someone she loves deeply, but not always easily.
Talula feels everything fully, sometimes too quickly, sometimes all at once. She overthinks, she reacts, she tries to fix things before they fall apart, even when nothing has actually broken. And when that becomes too much, she begins to change, not all at once, but in small ways that feel reasonable at the time.
She learns how to pause before speaking.
How to hold things in.
How to become easier to understand, easier to be around.
But some things don't disappear just because they aren't said out loud.