LOGINOUT IN THE OPENCYRUS POINT OF VIEWI woke up to noise, I didn’t open my eyes at first because my head was pounding and my body felt pinned, heavy, wrong, the whispers kept going anyway.“—that’s him.”“I know.”“I thought he died.”“Well obviously not.”I opened my eyes. I saw White ceiling. Hospital lights. Curtains half pulled. Two nurses standing just outside my room, angled toward each other, heads close. One of them noticed my eyes were open and stopped talking mid-word. They both looked at me like I’d caught them doing something dirty.I swallowed. My throat burned. “Morning.”Neither answered. They exchanged a look. One nodded. They walked off together and started whispering again the second they were a few steps away. My heart started racing. I lay there staring at the doorway, jaw tight, chest feeling too small.Another nurse passed by. I tried again. “Hey.”She smiled without stopping. “Morning.” Already gone. They were avoiding me. All of them. Talking around me. Like I wa
I LOVE YOUCYRUS POV.“I love Doninic ,” I say, and I don’t pause, don’t soften it, don’t give her time to brace because I’ve been bracing for years and I’m done carrying that weight alone. “I don’t love you, Stella. I never did. I tried to convince myself I could, that it would come with time, that marriage would fix something that was already broken in me, but it didn’t. It just made the lie heavier. If you need the truth stripped bare, then here it is: I've been gay my entire life. This didn’t start with him. It didn’t start last year or last month or whenever the rumors decided to crawl out of the gutter. I was born this way, and I buried it because it was easier to be the son, the husband, the partner everyone expected than to be honest.”She doesn't move at first. Just stares. Like she’s watching something collapse in slow motion and can’t look away. Her lips part, then press together again, like she’s tasting every word, weighing how much damage they’ve already done. I can se
OUT IN THE AIRCYRUS POV.I swore I’d never step foot in Festus’s house again.I said it years ago, out loud, drunk and furious and bleeding from a fight that never should’ve happened. I remember pointing at the place like it was cursed ground, telling Timone if he ever dragged me back here it’d be because I was dead or desperate. Turns out desperation counts.The door closes behind me and the sound lands wrong in my chest. Too final. Too quiet. The house smells like coffee and wood polish and something citrusy that doesn’t belong to me. Festus’s place has always felt like a territory line I wasn’t supposed to cross. Clean. Controlled. Everything I’m not right now.I stand there longer than necessary, hands shoved in my pockets, jaw tight, trying not to think about how I don’t actually have anywhere else to go.Timone notices. Of course he does. He always notices.“I’m sorry,” he says, low, careful. “I know you hate this place. I know you said you never wanted to come back here.”I le
THE GRAND PLAN Dominic I haven’t stopped moving since I got here. That’s the first thing that hits me every time I become aware of myself again. Not where I am. Not what I’ve done. Just the fact that my body refuses to settle, like if I stop, something worse will catch up to me. The room feels wrong in a Foreign hotel. Neutral colors meant to offend no one, comfort everyone, and somehow they do the opposite. Thick curtains pulled shut even though it’s still daytime. My suitcase is open on the bed, clothes half unpacked, folded and unfolded again without purpose, like my hands needed something to do so they wouldn’t reach for my phone.I pace from the window to the desk to the bed and back. Over and over. The same steps, the same path, like if I repeat it enough times it will start to make sense. My fingers twitch. My jaw aches from being clenched too long. My chest feels tight, heavy, like something is pressing inward, something that won’t let me take a full breath. I keep thinking
SILENT REMORSECYRUSA week passes and it doesn’t soften anything. It just stretches the pain thinner until it’s everywhere, like I’ve been skinned and forced to live anyway. Every hour feels the same. I don’t wake up refreshed, I just surface from one kind of numb into another. I keep thinking there should be a moment where my body realizes Doninic is gone and adjusts. It never does. It just keeps waiting, stupid and hopeful, like I trained it wrong.I stop eating first. Not deliberately. I sit in front of plates and stare at them until the smell turns my stomach. When I try to force it down, my throat closes. My body rejects it like it’s foreign. Like it doesn’t deserve to be fed when the person who mattered most to it isn’t here anymore. I tell myself I’ll eat later. Later never comes.Sleep goes next. Or maybe it goes first and I just don’t notice. I lie in bed for hours, eyes open, staring at ceilings, at corners, at nothing. My mind loops relentlessly—what I said, what he said,
JUST ONE NIGHTCYRUSThe apartment was quiet. Dominic and I sat on the couch. The TV was off. The lights were dim. The only brightness came from the city outside the window, He was sitting close to me. Close enough that our thighs touched i looked at his hand. At the lines on his palm. At the way his fingers curved slightly, relaxed."You keep looking at my hand," he said."I like your hands."He turned his head. His eyes found mine. In the low light, they looked darker than usual. Almost black."Yeah?""Yeah." I reached out and traced my finger along one of the lines. "This one means something. I forget what.""It means I'm going to live a long life.""Does it?""No. I made that up." He smiled. "But I'm going to anyway. Live a long life. With you."I felt my chest get tight. Not in a bad way. In the way that happens when someone says something so simple and so true that it knocks the air out of you."You can't promise that," I said."I know." He turned his hand over and caught mine.
NEAR DEATH.CYRUS POV.The smell of disinfectant and old coffee hung in the air, the latter a potent aftertaste left in the throat. I stood in the doorway a moment too long, my feet rooted in place as if they were stuck, my hands clenched into such tight fists they ached. A I didn't have to look f
DONE WITH YOU CYRUS’S POVThe second Phoebe's expression changed, I knew. She snatched her phone so fast she almost dropped it, and the way her eyes shot over the screen told me everything. I didn't need to ask, didn't need to wonder. I just watched her panic. And instead of feeling punched in the
LETS GET A DIVORCE.CYRUS'S P.O.V.I stayed by the window until Dominic's car finally turned out of the driveway and went far enough down the road that I couldn't see the taillights anymore. I didn't move for a few seconds after that. I just kept staring at the empty spot where he'd been, feeling t
BACK TO THE BEGINNING.DOMINIC.I felt good. Relaxed in a way I hadn't felt in a long time. My back was against the couch, my legs spread just enough for Cyrus to settle between them. His hands were on my thighs, warm and steady, and his head was lowering. I had one hand in his hair, holding him cl







