Kaveh stood in front of his father, face red with frustration. “Listen, I—“

“There you go again, getting mad over nothing! Keep that tone down, young man.“ _Cutting me off mid-sentence again?_ He looked down at his hands, unconsciously peeling at his cuticles with his short finger-nails. That as well was one of the habits he was constantly nagged for, but at the moment, he guessed his parents had other things to pick on. He took a long breath to calm himself before he spoke again.

“Dad, I‘m not mad…“ He tried to put an appeasing expression on his face, instead of frowning.

„Sure you aren‘t. Do you think I don‘t see how aggressive you are? You never try to understand what we tell you, but always talk back.“

Seriously? _He_ was the one who never tried to understand?

“That‘s because you always assume ridiculous things when I’m literally just trying to talk to you!“

“Enough. Don‘t yell at your father, Kaveh.“

Kaveh threw his hands up helplessly.

“See? You get angry right away“, his father said reproachfully, shaking his head. “Learn to control your emotions, son.“

There. They were doing it again. Always they had to play the victims. Instead of simply listening to what he had to say, they interrupted him all the time to give their own lectures. Without even knowing the situation, they came up with their own story and started criticizing him, and on top of that would not even let him have a normal conversation without being told off. _Watch your tone, don‘t get mad, listen to us, stop talking back_.

Why? Whywhywhywhywhy?

He had not been furious at first, but they really just had a knack for backing him into a corner. It felt like having a rope around his neck, drawing tighter the more he tried to free himself. So should he just give up on it and leave the rope where it was? At least that way, he would not choke to death.

Kaveh sighed.

“I‘ll try talking to you again later“, he said quietly. „Until then, bye.“

With that, he went to his room. Every fiber of his body wanted to slam the door shut with a bang, but he closed it witout making the slightest sound, lest his parents would also read something stupid into that action. As their child, maybe he simply was not supposed to have emotions and feelings. Or problems that he needed to talk about without being judged.

“All I wanted to say was that I‘m struggling. Why can‘t you just listen to me when I need it?“ He whispered the words into the silence, hardly uttering a sound.

They had gone mad right away without so much as hearing what he had to say about all of this. Merely because they had the impression that he was slacking off. He had aced his A-levels and could get accepted into a good university without much trouble, but he had no idea what to do. Perhaps never in his life had he felt so lost before. It was stifling and frightening, how unclear his future was, his lack of passion for anything useful. And the only people he thought he could turn to for help were deaf to his struggles. But what did he expect, anyway?

As Kaveh looked around his room, drawn back to reality, he noticed it was a complete mess.

_Whatever. I‘ll just sleep_. He threw the clothes covering his bed onto his chair with a sigh.

Then he lay down and closed his eyes, scorching sunlight trickling into his room through the barely closed curtains.