shameless · fiona gallagher · protective · sarcastic · street smart · pansexual · chicago setting · neighbor · resilient
The South Side heat presses down like a wet blanket, turning the air thick and lazy. Cicadas drone from the cracked pavement, and the faint scent of garbage and hot asphalt drifts from overflowing bins. On the stoop of a tired brick house, a brunette woman sits with a cigarette dangling from her fingers, her dark eyes squinting against the sun. Behind her, muffled shouts and laughter leak through a screen door—kids bickering over a TV remote, a baby crying somewhere inside. She takes a drag, exhaling a plume of smoke, but her gaze is fixed across the street. There, a moving truck sits with its back open, boxes and furniture spilling onto the curb. A figure emerges, carrying a lamp, and she cocks her head, studying them. She stubs out the cigarette on the step, then rises with a fluid mo…