“Come on!” Adrian’s hand slid to Logan’s hip, gentle but insistent, pulling him toward the dance floor. His hand was steady, sure, and something in his touch made Logan want to let go, want to trust. “It’s fun.”
“No, but you go. I’m fine,” he lied, the words coming out awkwardly, almost stilted, his heart pounding so hard it drowned out the music.
Adrian stepped back, his face falling into an exaggerated pout, looking at Logan with mock disappointment. Logan couldn’t help it, he laughed, the tension easing just enough for him to let out a shaky breath. And then he caved, letting Adrian guide him onto the dance floor, his face breaking into a smug smile that left Logan feeling both flustered and strangely light.
Logan let the music wash over him, letting the alcohol dull his edges just enough to move, enough to sway along with Adrian’s easy rhythm. The crowd closed in around them, the heat and press of bodies blurring the edges of the world until it felt like it was just the two of them, moving together in the dim, flashing light. Girls drifted toward them, their faces painted, their eyes bright, but Logan didn’t feel the need to look. Adrian didn’t either—his gaze stayed close, focused, the warmth in his eyes a silent pull that made Logan’s chest sing.
When Logan grew tired, he broke away, slipping back to the bar, feeling his pulse slow as he watched Adrian from a distance, his silhouette moving freely, beautifully, lost in the music and the night. Logan didn’t know how long he sat there, lost in the sight of him, his breath catching at every easy movement, every flash of his smile. Adrian was untamed, boundless, steady, and so powerful it was hard to look away.
After a while, Adrian found his way back to him, leaning close again, his hand steadying himself on Logan’s thigh as he leaned in to talk over the roar of music. The touch was casual, yet it lingered, sending a rush of heat through Logan’s veins. “You disappeared again,” Adrian said, half-accusing, half-teasing. His hand rested just above Logan’s knee. The touch sent a ripple through Logan’s entire body, a quiet undoing he tried to hide. Adrian probably didn’t even notice. It was just a hand. Just skin. Just warmth. To Logan, however, it felt like a fault line splitting open.
Then Adrian’s gaze dropped, fixating on the place where his hand lay. His teasing smile faded, replaced by something else—something heavier. When he looked back at Logan, there was hunger in his eyes, soft and unmistakable. He didn’t move his hand. If anything, his fingers shifted, tracing a slow, tender line along Logan’s thigh, an unspoken yearningwrapped in a casual gesture. Like he wasn’t even thinking. Like he just needed to feel connected.
Logan stopped breathing.
“I’ll come in a few. You’re having fun. Go,” Logan managed, his voice barely steady, but the words felt hollow as soon as he said them, as if something in him was already regretting letting Adrian go.
At once, Adrian pulled his hand back, but not before his eyes lingered—full of something warm and unguarded, a gaze that held Logan for a breath too long. Then he nodded with that soft, crooked smile and turned back toward the dance floor, leaving Logan behind, aching, the distance between them suddenly vast despite the nearness.
But just as Logan began to watch him disappear, Adrian turned.
And then—he ran back.
Not with urgency, but with a boyish, earnest energy that made Logan’s chest ache. Adrian leaned in close, breathless and grinning, his face lit by something pure and unfiltered.
“Promise you’ll come?” he asked, voice low yet hopeful, eyes wide with something bright and real.
Logan smiled—helplessly, quietly—nodding before he could even think. Adrian was already turning back toward the dance floor. He looked lighter now, like just asking had been enough.
And Logan, still seated, felt his heartbeat rise with a force he didn’t recognize, a quiet storm of emotion tightening in his chest. He didn’t understand it, wasn’t ready to name it, but he didn’t want it to stop.
The music pounded, filling the room with an electric, thrumming energy that only seemed to magnify the flickering lights and the crush of bodies moving in the dark. Logan’s gaze repeatedly wandered to Adrian,drifting back to him time and again, as if magnetized by this beautiful man. Adrian was laughing, his hair falling loose from its tie, his eyes shining as he lost himself in the music, his body moving with a freedom that seemed as natural as breathing. He looked beautiful, unbound, and Logan’s chest ached with a feeling he couldn’t place, something deep and sharp that seemed to expand with every passing beat. Adrian was the one who was always open, always inviting, connecting with people as if he were meant to belong everywhere.
And then Logan saw him. Another guy had drawn close, his hand slipping easily onto Adrian’s shoulder, leaning in to speak, their laughter rising over the pulse of the music. Adrian didn’t pull away; he leaned in, his expression warm, listening with that easy, open smile, the one that seemed to welcome anyone and everyone.
Logan’s pulse surged, a wildfire spreading beneath his skin, hot and consuming. His breath hitched, his body tensing with the sharp, electric edge of something primal, something too tangled to name. He stepped forward, muscles coiled tight, a single, urgent thought hammering through his skull:Get your hand off him.
How dare that bastard touch Adrian like that?
The world narrowed, his focus pinning to the scene before him—the guy’s fingers still resting on Adrian’s shoulder, casual, claiming. A smirk curled at the edge of the stranger’s lips as he angled his phone toward Adrian, the screen flickering with images that seemed almost too perfect: dreamlike landscapes drenched in golden light, wild and boundless.
Logan’s stomach twisted, the weight of something unspoken pressing heavy against his ribs as he watched Adrian lean in, closer, laughing—soft, familiar, like a sound spun from warmth and memory. A laugh meantonly forhim. And yet, here he was, sharing it with someone else. Someone whose touch lingered just a second too long.
“You have to come!” The guy’s voice carried just enough over the music, loud enough to reach Logan. “We’re leaving in a couple of days, it’s one of the sickest places ever!”
“Sounds cool,” Adrian replied, his voice light, noncommittal, but Logan caught a flicker of intrigue in his eyes, something that dug deep into Logan’s chest.
“You must come! The waves are amazing, and the beaches are to die for!” the man’s hand was now around Adrian’s hips. “We’ll have the best time!”
Logan felt himself moving forward, an instinct he couldn’t stop, his feet dragging him closer as if he could dissolve whatever connection was forming between Adrian and this stranger. But then they were drifting off, walking toward a dim corner of the room, leaving him in the open, stranded and aching in a way that was sharper than anything he’d ever felt. Logan’s throat tightened as he watched them disappear, something raw and desperate gnawing at him, a jealousy so fierce it was like a wave crashing over him, pulling him under.
Images flashed like lightning behind Logan’s eyes—fragments he couldn’t bear to see, yet couldn’t stop imagining as they came like a flood sweeping through Logan’s mind and drowning him in something he didn’t have the words for.
That guy—him—standing in the spaces that used to belong to Logan. Sitting across from Adrian at one of the restaurants and cafés they loved to frequent, bickering lovingly over what to get. Surfing beside him, their laughter echoing over the waves, effortless and easy. Walking shoulder to shoulder down sun-drenched streets, brushing close in ways that Loganhad never let himself think about too hard. He could almostseeit—see Adrian looking at him,not him, like he was the person Logan used to be in Adrian’s life.
Every stolen moment, every inside joke, every piece of Adrian that Logan had quietly gathered over the few days they had together, it was all slipping, being handed off to someone else. And what shattered him the most was that Adrian didn’t even seem to notice. Didn’t see that Logan wasright here, unraveling.
A hot, suffocating ache clawed at Logan’s chest, twisting into something almost unbearable.Why did this hurt?Why did the thought of Adrian with someone else feel like waves holding him beneath the surface, like he could not breathe, like the ground beneath him was shifting, making it impossible to stand?
