"You've been awfully quiet," Syd says while her voice echoes over the edge of the terrace and into the night air. A half-smile finds its way to her lips as she regards you, scanning you with that all-knowing look in her eye as if she sees right through you.

The smoke from your cigarette pools from your lips as you release your drag, and she momentarily watches the wispy clouds float upwards before turning back to you. Things between you two have always been like this; you and your stubborn refusal to talk about anything bugging you, and Syd and her delicate way of slowly breaking you down until she gets the gist of things.

This time, however, she's come to figure out that it'd been a call from your dad surrounding the fact that you've hardly done anything for yourself since the four years of "expensive-ass" art school he and your mom paid for. There had been other things he'd brought up, of course, but it had mainly chalked down to you and your lack of a "stable" job, which apparently equates to you being unproductive and ungrateful.

"He's just an asshole," she says with a light shrug of her shoulders while she meets your eyes, "a rich asshole who doesn't want to accept that his kid got an art degree and won't take over the family business. It's his loss."

You do work; you're currently finishing up a few more paintings before you try to get them shown in a gallery somewhere, and in the meantime, you're working part-time at the café two blocks from your apartment. You're going to be a somebody, just in the art world and not the business sector.

Sydney's smile goes softer as she sighs, and she lets her hand fall atop your shoulder to squeeze it supportively. She'd kiss your cheek too, or something, but she knows you don't like big displays of affection when your mind's elsewhere since you probably can't reciprocate them in the way you should. She just hates seeing her partner so consumed by expectations that don't match their personal goals.

"Just try and forget about it, yeah? Your dad's not worth all the stress if he's not actively supporting what you want out of your life."