STEPHEN

STEPHEN | 6

Dedicated to @sonderingly because she's Rayna and who doesn't love Rayna :)

6

The next time I saw Stephen it was early October.

I haven't had sex in at least a month. The last time was with another one of Genevieve's failing attempts to get me to have a sex life again. He wasn't bad. He lacked the dominance, the control, the simple thing Stephen had made effortless for one to gain.

No man had the appeal and no one else was on my mind. I could still hear his voice in my thoughts as I tried to engulf my pleasure my own ways but failed.

Genevieve, being the wonderful observant one that she is, invited me out like the night she had done when I had first seen Stephen after a while.

But she only invited me out for one reason.

I had an anoxic brain injury.

The symptoms were all there. All because of a few minutes, definitely more than one minute where my brain was affected by the lack of oxygen in my body since that day.

Since I almost drowned.

Lightheadedness. The headaches. Lack of concentration. Dizziness. And more.

There was a part of me that thought that I could have been pregnant. That was the farthest thought in my mind considering how this has been happening since the incident. Before Stephen and I had decided what to do with one another that night. Since I almost drowned.

Since I almost drowned.

It was a mild case and I had an MRI scan in a couple of days in case there was anything else. Treatment wouldn't be bad from my perspective. It could have been worse. A part of my brain could have been damaged even further and I may not be able to pronounce my words properly. Everything could have been so much worse.

Since I almost drowned.

Genevieve sensed it. For the past week, I've been racking my mind over it. The possibility that everything could have been worse. But with her manicured claws, she dragged me out of our shared house, away from the thoughts piling upon each other in my mind.

We were in the bar and I could faintly hear Genevieve capturing her theoretical prey, a handsome dark-skinned man, who seemed to enjoy her company. I had already figured that when she had invited me out that she wouldn't be home later in the night.

Another man appeared beside me. He smelled like a pine forest, enchanting for some but I was not one to taken by it. He flirted with technique, telling a woman what they wanted to hear with the usual compliments and the opposition that he had seen me by myself even though I hadn't been alone the entire night despite Genevieve's flirtation to others.

I even went as far as to let him touch my arm. I continued speaking when he asked me questions, a fake smile on my face. Genevieve had told me to have a good time tonight and I was intent on doing so. The thoughts of Stephen I had tried to push out of my mind as the man talked, trying to unnoticeably trail his hand to my waist.

The mere motion did not last five seconds for I was going to move his hand but someone else did anyway. "I believe you are touching what is mine."