You Deserve It

The late-summer air in Los Angeles carried a weight Abel wasn't used to. It wasn't just the heat-it was the silence of being alone in a city that didn't know his name, the unfamiliar echo of palm trees swaying against neon skies. Back home in Toronto, he had noise, shadows, and Lamar. He had a mother who once held him close, then pushed him out when the weight of his choices became too much. Now all he had was a suitcase, a crumpled notebook of half-written lyrics, and the kind of money people weren't supposed to have at seventeen.