Skylar didn't move from the bed.
He just sat there.
Still.
Staring at nothing.
The silence in the room wasn't peaceful anymore. It felt heavy—like it was pressing down on his thoughts, forcing them to align into something he wasn't ready to see.
His hands shook slightly.
"No…" he whispered again, softer this time.
Because denial wasn't working anymore.
His mind was starting to fill in the gaps.
Slowly.
Unfairly.
The bar.
The drink.
The laughter that didn't sound like his own.
He remembered standing.
He remembered speaking first.
That part hurt the most.
Because it meant he had started something.
Skylar pressed his fingers to his forehead.
"Think… think…"
Fragments came faster now.
A voice responding to him.
Calm.
Controlled.
Alexander.
Even the name felt strange in his mind.
He remembered stepping closer.
That much was clear.
He remembered not wanting to stop talking.
Not wanting to be alone.
That feeling came back suddenly, sharp enough to make his chest tighten.
Loneliness.
Not just heartbreak.
Something deeper.
Something reckless.
"No… I wouldn't…" Skylar whispered, but his voice wasn't confident anymore.
Because he couldn't fully say it anymore.
He couldn't fully deny it.
Then came the worst part.
The blurred edges.
The missing time.
Not because it was gone—
But because his mind was refusing to show it clearly.
Just feelings.
Impressions.
Heat in his chest he couldn't explain.
Closeness.
A presence too strong to ignore.
A moment where thinking had stopped being important.
Skylar stood up abruptly.
The room spun slightly.
"Stop…" he said out loud, like he could force his memory to behave.
But it didn't.
It never did.
He walked toward the mirror across the room.
He barely recognized himself.
Eyes tired.
Skin pale.
Hair is messy and red hickey all over his neck and chest
A man who looked like he had lost something even before last night happened.
"Four years…" he whispered.
Then laughed once—but it broke instantly.
"Four years and I end up here?"
His voice cracked.
Anger rose quickly after that.
At himself.
At the situation.
At the man whose face kept appearing in fragments he couldn't fully trust.
"Who are you?" he muttered.
Alexander's face flashed in his mind again.
Cold.
Calm.
Like none of this had shaken him at all.
That thought made Skylar's stomach twist.
Because it meant one of two things:
Either nothing had happened…
Or everything had.
And Alexander knew exactly which one it was.
Skylar grabbed his head again.
"Think, Skylar… THINK!"
But thinking only made it worse.
Because the more he tried to remember, the more he realised something terrifying:
He wasn't just confused.
He was missing control.
And whatever happened that night…
Had already changed something between him and a man he didn't even know yet.
The door outside clicked.
Skylar froze instantly.
Footsteps.
Unhurried.
He turned slowly.
Alexander stood in the doorway.
Watching him.
As if he already knew exactly what Skylar had just been trying—and failing—to understand.
And Skylar realized something with a cold drop in his stomach: