Narrator's P.O.V.
Ariel woke up with a bit of difficulty. He couldn't remember when, but he had fallen asleep on the couch. He had been so exhausted the night before that he hadn't even realized when he dozed off; the TV was even still tuned to the news channel he had left on while waiting for his favorite telenovela to start. His body felt a little sore, but it wasn't exactly surprising; after all, the couch wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep. The boy sat up, a little disoriented, hunting for the remote amidst the mess of cushions so he could turn off the television. He finally did when he found it.
"I really need to buy a new couch," he complained as he shifted and felt his body ache in multiple places.
He sat for a few moments staring at the blank TV, even though his thoughts were miles away. Ariel felt strange. It seemed like something wasn't right. Something was missing, and he couldn't remember what it was. He hated when that happened, because usually that "something" was a good dream he always forgot upon waking, leaving behind a void he struggled to fill. But no matter how hard he tried, there wasn't a single memory of what it could have been.
Ariel huffed in annoyance. Checking the clock on his phone, he saw it was almost ten in the morning, which meant he had slept for over twelve hours straight, and yet he still felt tired. Exhausted, to be more precise. It didn't make sense, really, but he didn't care. It was his day off, so he'd have plenty of time to rest since he didn't plan on doing absolutely anything else.
As much as he liked his job, he couldn't lie and say his days off weren't always the most anticipated days of the week. It was when he could recharge his batteries, even if just minimally, to muster enough strength to face another exhausting, stressful week. Just thinking that soon it would all start over again... made him feel even more tired...
The curly-haired boy finally got up and slowly made his way to the bathroom. Some parts of his body hurt more than usual—parts like his hips, his waist, his neck... everything ached too much!
"Feels like I got hit by a truck," he muttered to himself, stepping into the bathroom. As he looked in the mirror, he noticed dark bruises on his waist, which left him stunned. "What the..."
The marks were large—very large—and from their shape, they looked like handprints. Big hands! It was as if someone had gripped both sides of his waist with immense force, but he definitely would have remembered if someone had done that. His neck also bore a dark, heavy handprint...
But how was it possible to have all those marks when he hadn't slept with anyone?
He didn't even have sex that roughly; he had never been left with such intense marks!
Ariel certainly had no clue what was happening. He tried, he forced it, he pulled from the very depths of his memory for something that would tell him where they came from... but he truly couldn't remember anything. All he recalled was coming home, taking off his clothes, lying on the couch to watch the news, and then just waking up. Nothing beyond that.
Something was very wrong!
"Shit!" The boy jumped when his phone rang.
He had been so focused he hadn't even realized he'd spent almost half an hour standing there in front of the mirror, staring at his marks. The curly-haired boy grabbed his phone and was surprised to see it was a call. The name "Marcos" flashed on the screen. He didn't usually get calls, let alone from Chen! A strange sense of familiarity washed over him, but it was so faint he didn't give it much thought. Finally, he picked up.
"Ari? Hey! Did I wake you?" Without realizing it, he ended up smiling. Marcos was always like this, worrying too much.
"No, I've been up for a while," he said. "What's up? Getting a call from you is a first. Usually you just text."
"It's just that I wanted to ask you something. I know it's your day off, but..." He hesitated.
"But..." he prompted him to continue. He could hear a loud sigh from the other end of the line.
"I wanted to ask you out. It's been a while since I've gone out, and I never see you go out to have fun, so I thought it might be nice if we went out together, I don't know... What do you think?" The man sounded nervous. It was actually kind of cute.
"To be honest, Marcos, I..."
"It's okay if you don't want to! It's just me being silly, I just thought that..." He started to sound even more flustered.
"Hey, can I finish?" he laughed at the other man's panic. In his opinion, it was very cute. Really!
"Sure." He laughed too.
"To be honest, I'm pretty tired and I wasn't planning on leaving the house today, so what do you say you come over here? I figure we could do something here, drink some wine, and..."
"We can relax together!" Yeah, it was obvious Marcos really liked the idea.
"Exactly! You can come over now, if you want. The more time, the better," he said, glancing at his reflection one more time.
"Okay! Text me the address and I'll be there in a bit," he said. That caught the younger boy off guard.
"Huh? You don't know where I live?" he asked, finding it odd. Marcos knew where he lived.
"No. You mentioned it to me once, but it was a while ago and I forgot."
"Really? Oh, yeah, right... I just..." Ariel could have sworn Marcos knew where he lived. Maybe it was just his imagination. "Anyway, I'll see you soon. I'll send you the address and take a shower before you get here."
"Perfect! See you in a bit!" His voice gave away the smile on his face.
"See you!" He smiled back, hanging up the phone.
Ariel let out a little squeal of happiness.
Could it really be true?
Marcos was coming to his apartment for the first time!