Chapter Two - The first morning after the lie.
1192 Words
The next time I open my eyes, sunlight glows through the blinds.
My head doesn’t hurt as sharply, but everything feels… fogged. Like my brain is wrapped in cotton.
Someone is sitting beside my bed.
Not moving.
Not speaking.
Just… there.
I blink until the figure sharpens into the dark-haired boy.
Cassian.
He’s leaned forward in the hospital chair, elbows on his knees, hands clasped tight. His shoulders look stiff like he hasn’t moved in hours. His hoodie is rumpled. His eyes are low-lidded with exhaustion.
He looks like he hasn’t slept at all.
When he realizes I’m awake, he straightens instantly.
“You okay?” he asks, voice low and rough.
I nod slowly. “Think so.”
He stands — fast, like he feels guilty for sitting.
“Do you need water? The nurse left a pitcher. I can get—”
“Cassian,” I say softly.
He freezes.
His name feels oddly natural on my tongue.
Like I’ve said it before.
A lot.
He lowers slowly back into the chair, watching me like he’s terrified to do something wrong.
I look at him, really look at him this time.
Tall.
Broad shoulders.
Dark hair slightly messy.
Eyes that look like they hold storms.
He doesn’t look like someone I would forget.
He looks like someone who’d haunt me.
“So…” I whisper, “you’re… my boyfriend?”
His jaw tightens.
Then he nods.
But something about the nod feels… painful.
I swallow. “How long have we…?”
“A while,” he murmurs.
“Do we live together?” I ask.
“No.”
“Are we… happy?”
He hesitates.
My heart stutters.
Then he answers, voice low and careful:
“We were trying. Things… weren’t perfect, but…”
A breath.
A small shake of his head.
“We were good.”
We were.
Past tense.
A strange ache spreads in my chest.
“I wish I remembered,” I whisper.
His eyes flicker — pain, longing, something like grief — before he masks it.
“I know,” he says softly. “Me too.”
⸻
The door opens.
Asher steps inside.
He looks wrecked.
Dark circles under his eyes.
Clothes wrinkled.
Like he’s been pacing a hallway all night.
He forces a smile. “Hey. You’re awake. Again.”
I shift awkwardly. “Hi…”
His smile wobbles.
He glances at Cassian.
Then back at me.
“How’s your head?” he asks.
“Foggy.”
Asher nods. “Yeah. That’s… that’s normal.” His eyes flick nervously to Cassian again. “Cass has been here all night. He didn’t move.”
Cassian shoots him a lethal look.
Asher forces a shaky laugh, like he’s trying to play it off. “What? It’s true.”
He isn’t lying.
Cassian hasn’t slept.
Not even a little.
And something about that warms my chest in a way I can’t explain.
“Asher,” Cassian warns under his breath, “drop it.”
“Right,” Asher mutters, swallowing hard. “Yeah. Sorry.”
He steps closer to my bedside.
Not too close.
Like he’s afraid of me.
Or himself.
“Sadie,” Asher says gently, “there are going to be moments when you don’t recognize things. Faces. Places. It’s okay. We’ll help you through it.”
“We?” I echo.
He nods and glances at Cassian. “Yeah. Me and Cass. We… we’re always around.”
Cassian’s jaw clenches.
I can feel something between them.
Not just friendship.
Something strained.
Something like betrayal.
I try to grasp the memory but nothing comes.
I look at Asher again. “Were you here last night?”
He freezes. “I—uh—yeah. I was.”
He wasn’t.
His eyes shift just slightly — guilt.
Cassian shoots him a warning glare so sharp it could cut steel.
Asher clears his throat and forces a smile again. “You scared the hell out of us.”
Us.
But his eyes flick to Cassian — accusing, jealous, afraid.
I tilt my head slightly. “And Cassian is… my boyfriend.”
Asher goes still.
Cassian doesn’t move.
But the air thickens between them.
Then Asher laughs — too loudly — rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah. Yup. He is. They are. You two are. Dating. Each other. That’s… something that’s happening.”
Cassian closes his eyes briefly like he’s praying for strength.
I look between them, confused.
Asher avoids my gaze. “Listen, Sadie… your memory will come back. We just have to be patient. And careful. Really careful.”
He shoots Cassian another look.
A warning.
A threat.
A plea.
All in one.
I frown. “You two keep looking at each other like something’s wrong.”
Cassian stands suddenly, chair scraping. “I’m getting the nurse.”
He bolts from the room before I can ask anything else.
Asher sits in the chair Cassian just abandoned.
And without Cassian’s presence, the room feels colder.
Asher stares at the floor, rubbing his hands over his face.
“Sadie…” he murmurs. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” I ask softly.
He swallows. Hard.
“For everything you don’t remember.”
⸻
Cassian returns with the nurse, eyes unreadable.
The tension in the air coils tighter.
I shift uncomfortably. The room feels too small.
“Do I have other friends?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Cassian says quietly. “A lot of them.”
“Will they visit?”
Asher answers too fast. “Not yet.”
“Why?”
Asher glances at Cassian, panic flickering for a split second before he covers it.
“They just… don’t want to overwhelm you.”
Cassian’s jaw tightens.
I watch them carefully.
Then—
A memory flash hits.
Just a flicker.
A blurred image:
Two boys shoving each other in a hallway.
Raised voices.
My name being shouted.
Anger.
Heartbreak.
My breath catches.
“I remember… tension,” I whisper. “Between you two.”
Asher pales.
Cassian goes still as stone.
I swallow hard.
“Why were you fighting?” I ask.
Asher opens his mouth—
Cassian cuts in smoothly, quietly, perfectly controlled:
“Over you.”
My heart stutters.
“Over… me?”
Cassian nods. “We both cared. Too much. In different ways.”
Asher stares at him, shocked.
Cassian doesn’t break eye contact with me.
“And now,” he murmurs, “we’re trying to do what’s best for you.”
Asher swallows. “Yeah. That.”
I sink into the pillow, overwhelmed.
Cassian steps closer to the bed, voice gentler than I thought he was capable of:
“Rest, Sadie. I’m not going anywhere.”
And I believe him.
I don’t know why.
I don’t know how.
But I believe him more than I believe anything else in this room.
My eyelids drift heavy.
As I slip back into sleep, I hear two whispers overlapping—
Asher’s frantic, terrified:
“Don’t screw this up, Cass.”
Cassian’s quiet, broken, honesty he doesn’t mean for anyone to hear:
“I already did the moment I fell for her.”
- Writer
