On the sixth night, they were tangled in her sheets, sweaty and laughing about something stupid, when she suddenly went quiet.
Vic brushed a curl off her face.“You okay?”
Harper bit her lip, then sighed.“I need to tell you something.”
The shift in her tone made his stomach tighten.
“Yeah?”He aimed for casual but wasn’t sure he’d hit the right tone.
“I’m getting married in three weeks.”
Vic froze.
She continued quickly, almost apologetically.“His name’s Caleb.We’ve been together since college.Long-distance for the last two years while I chased this music thing.He proposed six months ago.The wedding’s already planned.”
Vic sat up slowly, sheets pooling around his waist.“You’re...getting married.”
“Yeah.”She looked genuinely regretful.“I should’ve told you sooner.This was never supposed to be anything serious.I just...I’ve been stressed, and you were fun, and—”
He held up a hand.“It’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine.
He dressed in silence while she tried to explain again, her words tumbling out faster and faster.He kissed her cheek at the door, told her he hoped she’d be happy, and walked out.
The night air hit him like a slap.He stood on the sidewalk for a long moment, staring at nothing, the high from the last five days collapsing in on itself like a house of cards.
He didn’t remember driving home.
He barely remembered stopping at the liquor store closest to home, the fluorescent lights buzzing overhead while he grabbed the cheapest bottle of whiskey they had.
He didn’t remember the first drink.
But the blackout?That part was crystal clear in its absence.
***
He was sitting on theback porch with the bottle, staring at the stars and thinking about how stupid he’d been.
The cheap whiskey burned going down, but it didn’t burn nearly as much as the memory of Harper’s face when she told him.The regret in her eyes.The way she’d tried to soften the blow even as she pulled the rug out from under him.Five days.Five stupid, perfect days of laughter and easy touches and the kind of sex that made him forget he was supposed to keep things casual.Five days where he’d let himself imagine what it might be like to stay in one place with someone who actually saw him.
How he’d let himself believe, even for a few days, that something light and easy could turn into something real.That somehow he deserved goodness and kindness in his life, that he could reach out and touch the future.He didn’t love Harper, but he easily could have.He’d even imagined taking her home and introducing her to Grams.
What a fool.
He took another long pull from the bottle, the stars above him blurring slightly at the edges.The night air was cool against his overheated skin, but it did nothing to soothe the hollow ache spreading through his chest.
You knew better,he thought bitterly.You always know better.And you still let it happen.
The world went soft with a growing pocket of silence around his existence.
Then there was nothing.
***
Vic woke with a violentjolt, his body jerking like it had been electrocuted.His head pounded with a vicious, rhythmic hammer that felt like someone was driving nails straight through his skull, the cold tile of the bathroom floor pressed against his cheek.The taste in his mouth was vile—cheap whiskey, bile, and the heavy metallic tang of regret.He pushed himself up on shaking arms, muscles trembling with the effort of standing, and stared at the stranger in the mirror above the sink.
Bloodshot eyes.Pale, clammy skin.Hair sticking up in every wild direction.Shame written all over him like a brand.
