#☾ — connection. › brynn & laura.

[verdaent]

the exhaustion crippled her⎯⎯for just a moment, brynn wanted to collapse onto the floor and never get back up. it was unrealistic, to say the least; even if she didn't have things to do, she had people who cared for her⎯siblings, friends, children who would pick her up and soak her in love until she could stand again. brynn worked hard to make sure that never happens; she practiced resilience, fashioning a smile every day so that worry fell off of their shoulders when they saw her. it was a thought. an unattainable one, but one that she comforted herself with nonetheless. nearly a week spent in the hospital—time divided evenly between taking updates from doctors, watching over mary-catherine's ailing form, and keeping isabel from doing something that couldn't be undone or forgiven—had run her a bit ragged. driving back to her house for the first time in days, alone and in silence, had done a damn good job of letting the exhaustion settle in. and then she'd gotten to her door, stared at it, and thought, oh. this might crumble me. so she got back in the car and drove. streetlights switched, music poured from the confines of other cars on the road, leaking into the air and through her open window, the moon stared down at her impassive in its waxing. brynn's hand curled tight around the steering wheel. finding herself at the apartment complex was not a surprise. finding herself here was... different. she stood at the door, idling, wondering when she'd made the decision to walk to this door⎯⎯if it'd been a conscious decision at all. she adjusted her grip on her bag, sucking in air through her teeth. she couldn't put reason to her presence, but it wasn't like it mattered now; if laura was here, then she already knew brynn was as well. she knocked on the door, rapping her knuckles against the wood twice, paused, then once more, and let her hand fall to her side. she waited until the door opened and pressed her best smile to her lips. "hi!" ⎯too much. far too energetic. she was giving herself a headache. she toned it down a few notches and tried again, her smile softer, realer. "...hi. are you busy?"