-Vaughn Blackmore:
The room had gone quiet in that strange way it only does late at night, when even the smallest sounds start standing out too much. The faint hum of the air conditioning above us. The occasional muffled footsteps somewhere far down the hallway outside the suite. The soft rustle of sheets every time either of us shifted even slightly on the mattress. Everything felt sharper because of how close he was. Because no matter how hard I tried to ignore it, Ryland's presence filled the entire room without him even trying.
I stayed turned on my side with my back facing him, staring blankly at the dark wall ahead of me while pulling the blanket a little higher over my shoulder. My body was exhausted. My muscles still ached faintly from training, from carrying wood all afternoon, from the freezing lake water earlier that evening. I should have been asleep already. Any normal person would have passed out the second their head touched the pillow after a day like this.
