Faded Poloroids

MATURE RATING IS DUE TO SENITIVE TOPICS AND EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

Sixteen‑year‑old Robin is still reeling from the twin blows of his mother's death and his father's arrest, his world reduced to a before and after he can't reconcile. Now living under his aunt's roof in a quiet apartment complex far from everything familiar, he's been handed what everyone insists is a "fresh start," though the past clings to him like a second skin. Grief and exhaustion fold him inward until he becomes a near‑ghost in his own life - skipping school, avoiding people, and retreating into the safety of his room. But one tenant in the building refuses to let him disappear so easily.

Seventeen‑year‑old Maris barely noticed the new kid until a soft spring evening when she spotted him from her bedroom window, trudging across the apartment lawn with a dog leash in one hand and a crumpled doggie bag in the other. She recognized him instantly from school - the boy with the hollow eyes and the posture that warned people away. Something about seeing him in her space, in her world, tugged at her curiosity until it snapped; she pushed back her chair, and flew down the stairwell with a lilac polaroid in hand, driven by an impulse she couldn't quite name.