The moment Skylar stepped out of Alexander's house, the air outside felt too real.
Too cold.
Too loud.
Like the world had been waiting for him to come back into it just to remind him nothing had changed—except him.
His legs moved on their own.
He didn't think.
He couldn't think.
Because thinking meant remembering.
And remembering meant pain.
A taxi ride passed in silence.
Skylar stared out the window the entire time, but he didn't actually see anything.
His reflection kept flashing back at him in the glass.
Tired eyes.
Messy hair.
A face that looked like it didn't belong to someone who had just woken up in a stranger's house.
A stranger's bed.
A stranger's life.
His chest tightened.
"No…no…" he whispered under his breath.
He only had two places to go.
Two people.
His best friends, Louis and Victor. Louis was a beta and Victor was a omega
The only ones who had ever seen him fall apart before and still stayed.
When the door opened, Skylar didn't even wait for permission.
He walked straight in.
And the moment his best friend saw his face, everything changed.
"Skylar?" they both said at once.
But Skylar couldn't answer.
Not properly.
Not at all.
His breath broke first.
Then his voice.
Then everything else he had been holding together since he woke up.
"I don't know what I did…" he said, voice shaking.
That was all it took.
his friends rushed toward him immediately.
"Hey—hey, what happened? Sit down first."
But Skylar didn't sit.
He couldn't.
Because sitting meant stopping.
And stopping meant feeling everything at once.
"I broke up with him," Skylar said suddenly, words spilling out too fast. "Four years… four years and he just—he just left me like I meant nothing."
His hands were shaking now.
"I went to a bar… I drank too much… I just wanted to forget—"
His voice cracked.
"I met someone."
Silence hit the room instantly.
Not judgment.
Just confusion.
Skylar swallowed hard.
"And I don't remember everything clearly," he admitted, voice dropping. "But I woke up in a place I didn't know… with someone I didn't know…"
His throat tightened.
"I think… I think I did something I shouldn't have done."
He couldn't bring himself to say more.
Not yet.
Not like that.
His best friend stepped closer slowly.
"Skylar… are you saying—"
"I don't know!" Skylar snapped suddenly, then immediately broke again. "I don't know anything anymore!"
His voice echoed in the room.
Then fell apart.
He covered his face with his hands.
"I just wanted him to hurt like I did," he whispered. "And now I feel worse… I feel worse and I don't even know what happened to me."
The room went quiet.
Heavy.
Real.
One of his friends sat beside him slowly.
"You're overwhelmed," they said gently. "You're scared."
Skylar shook his head.
"I feel like I lost control of everything in one night."
And somewhere far away from that room…
Skylar didn't know it yet…
But someone else already had parts of that night clearer than he ever would.
And they were not letting go easily