Memories Of A Stranger.

“Lucy?” Maya’s voice rang out before she burst in, Selene right behind her. Kira followed last, her face pale, her eyes frantic.

“Where the hell were you?” Maya demanded, hands on her hips. “We thought you were…..” She stopped short, her gaze sweeping the room. The tangled sheets. The air still thick with last night. Her eyebrows shot up. “Oh. Oh.”

Selene arched a brow, smirking despite the tension. “Well. Looks like someone had more fun than we did.” She teased Lucy

Kira, however, wasn’t smiling. She grabbed Lucy’s arms, her voice urgent. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Your brothers are tearing the city apart looking for you. Vince called me at five in the morning. Adrian nearly showed up at my place thinking you were hiding there.”

Lucy pulled back, her jaw tightening. “I don’t care what they think. I am not their prisoner.”

Kira’s eyes softened but stayed sharp. “Lucy, this is not just about them grounding you. They’re dangerous men with dangerous enemies. Disappearing in the middle of the night? Coming back smelling like…..” She gestured at the sheets, grimacing. “Do you realize what they will think happened? What they will do if they find out?”

Lucy’s chest rose and fell as her anger flared. “I do not need their permission to live. I do not need their cages. Last night… Last night was mine. For once, it was mine.”

Maya gave a low whistle. “Damn, girl. Whoever he was, must have been worth it.”

Lucy froze. The memories came rushing back, the stranger’s hands, his silence, his dark eyes that hid more than they revealed. And the ache in her chest when she woke to nothing but emptiness.

“He was…” She stopped herself, shaking her head. “I don’t even know who he was.” Lucy answered in an unsure tone

The room fell silent at that. Even Selene’s smirk faded.

“You didn’t get his name?” Kira asked, horrified.

Lucy swallowed hard, her voice barely a whisper. “No. Nothing.”

“Not even his number” Maya asked again, Lucy’s silence gave all the answers.

The weight of her confession pressed into the air, heavy and unrelenting.

And though none of them said it, the same thought rippled through all four girls. The room was silent for a while.

“Thank you guys for watching out for me” Lucy cuts through the silence “you guys must be feeling tired and restless after worrying over my whereabouts, I am truly sorry about that”

“You don’t have to apologize, we are friends and it’s our job to worry despite everything that happened last night” Kira replied as she gave Lucy a hug, both Maya and Selene joined.

“All of you should head back home now and have your rest okay, I feel much better now” Lucy assured them

“We could drop you home” Maya suggested but got declined by Lucy “ I don’t want my brothers to blame you guys for my actions okay, I will take a cab. And for my brothers, don’t worry about them, I will give them a call for them to know I am okay”

Maya, Selene and Kira said their goodbyes before leaving. The hotel room was too quiet after her friends left. Lucy went back and sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the floor, her fingers knotted together so tightly her knuckles ached.

Sleep-deprived and raw, her body felt heavy, but her mind refused to rest. Every time she shut her eyes, he was there, the shadowed man with bruised fists and unreadable eyes. The way he’d looked at her when she pressed ice against his hand, as if no one had touched him with kindness in years.

That look wouldn’t leave her.

Lucy pressed her palms against her face. Why do I care? she thought, frustrated. Why can’t I just forget him like he forgot me?

But forgetting him was impossible.

Every detail clung to her, the rasp of his voice, the faint scent of smoke and leather, the weight of his silence. Even his absence had a presence. She’d woken to it like a wound she didn’t know she’d carried until he’d vanished, leaving nothing but bruised memories.

She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to steady the ache.

It wasn’t love, she knew that. Love didn’t happen in a single night. But it was something dangerously close, something she had never felt before. Not with the men who had tried to flirt with her under her brothers’ watchful eyes, not with the strangers who called her beautiful just to see her blush. No, this was different.

With him, she hadn’t felt small. She hadn’t felt like the fragile little sister to be caged and guarded. She had felt seen.

And now… she was haunted.

Lucy pushed herself up and paced the room, restless. She replayed every fragment of last night, desperate for something, anything that might give her a clue. Had he told her his name? No. Just that he’d had a fight with his father. Had he given her a way to find him? No. Not even that.

Her fists clenched. “Damn it!” she hissed, kicking at the edge of the bed. The sheets tangled around her ankle as if mocking her, reminding her of what she had lost in the space of a sunrise.

She stopped, staring at her reflection in the mirror above the dresser. Her hair was still messy, her lips faintly swollen, her eyes red from too little sleep. But there was something else too, something unfamiliar.

A fire.

This wasn’t the Lucy who had stormed out of her brothers’ house demanding freedom. This was a Lucy who had tasted it and wanted more. A Lucy who had found herself pulled into something bigger than rebellion.

Her phone buzzed again.

This time it wasn’t her friends. It was Vince.