Page 23 of A Little Discovery

“…he is still just a weakling. He will have to take me back.”

As the security guard nods at the night nurse and turns to head toward us, I look down at Sabrina. I know I’m giving her an evil smirk, but I don’t care. I take great pleasure in her expression as security interrupts her to tell her she needs to leave. She starts screaming and pushing at me in an attempt to get to the rooms, but the guard grabs her by the arm and starts to drag her away.

The commotion brings Jay to the doorway, so I decide to fuck with her some more before she’s carted off.

“Go back to resting, sweetheart,” I call back to him. “Make sure she doesn’t wake our boy.”

Let her think I’m in a relationship with Jay and that we have a child in there. It’s safer for Lucky if she doesn’t know where he is. I already have to figure out how she found out he is here. When the elevator doors close with her inside, I turn back to the room. Jay is smirking at me from his perch on the edge of the bed.

He tilts his head to the side and that is how I notice Lucky is awake on his own for the first time since we found him in the woods.

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” I tell him with a smile. “How are you feeling?”

LUCKY

The screeching of a banshee wakes me from the weirdest dream I think I have ever had. It had a drag queen and a laughing pillow and a cute black cat and…

“The woman already took all of my money, does she need to take my sleep, too?” I grumble and try to turn onto my side. The pinching feeling on my arm and pain in my head make me wake up in a hurry.

I open my eyes and sit up, only to notice I am not at home. Based on the IV in my arm and the machines surrounding the bed I am currently in, I appear to be in the hospital. This isn’t good. I can’t afford to be in a hospital, especially in a private room. Sabrina will never give me the money for it, not without making me dosomething I will really regret.

A throat clearing brings my attention to the man at the foot of the bed. He looks vaguely familiar, but I can’t place him. “I’m sorry, but do I know you?” I ask. “I think I hit my head and it’s a bit fuzzy. Did my wife send you?”

The man startles a bit at my question, but he motions to the foot of the bed asking if he can sit. I start to nod but realize quickly it isn’t a good idea. Instead, I lift my arm to indicate that it’s alright with me if he perches there.

“Lucky, you had a fall earlier tonight. The docs say the bump on your head seems to have affected your short-term memory.”

He called me Lucky, not Lucas, not Mr. Holloway. The only person who calls me Lucky is Gramps…

“Did Gramps send you?”

The guy looks sad at my question but shakes his head. “No, I don’t know Gramps. Is that your grandfather?”

I start to nod again. The pain makes me wince and I lean back against the pillows. At least the guy is nice enough to help me raise the bed up to a full sitting position. Head wounds are apparently still a bitch. Although this is the first time one has landed me in the hospital for a stay. All of this is a new experience.

“So, Mr. Stranger, how much of my memory has been wiped out?” I ask when he sits back down. “I can only assume our meeting is one of those things that I don’t remember.”

“Technically, this is the first time we’ve met, but that’s only because I work retail on the overnight shifts and drive rideshareon the nights I am not scheduled. I’m off for the week, but I had already left the house when they brought you home the other night,” he tells me. “My name is Jay, and I gotta say you have some good taste in your anime, little dude.”

I chuckle as he points to the sneakers under the chair in the corner, but even that causes enough pain to force a wince. Jay pats my foot and explains about how I showed up at the bar owned by his landlord the other day and his housemates brought me home like a stray animal.

I’m not sure how much of his story is true, but something inside of me tells me I should believe it. I mean, at least the drag queen in my dreams makes sense now.

A woman in the hall starts screaming at someone, and my entire body tenses at the sound. I know who that is unfortunately, and they won’t be able to keep her out.

“Is it too late to go back and die instead of whatever happened to me?” I ask Jay, only half joking. “I really don’t want to deal with my wife right now.”

He looks at me strangely and says, “Ex-wife, you mean, right? You guys are divorced now.”

“Really?” I can feel my soul getting lighter. There’s no fighting the smile on my face at the thought. “Oh, please God let it be true.”

I put my palms together and lift my head as much as I can without it hurting. Jay chuckles at the end of the bed before getting up to go to the door. Sabrina’s screeching seems to be getting farther away when he comes back to sit. A moment later, another guy comes in the room.

This one seems even more familiar to me than Jay. While he’s looking at Jay with a bit of a grumpy look on his face, I’m studying him. I remember him, not his name but his face. He helped me at the Theta party. Yeah, that night kind of screwed me in the long run, but this guy took it upon himself to help a stranger. Judging by the fact that he’s here with me now, he did it again.

He’s also been the main fixation of my fantasies for the last year and a half. The memory of his hands on me was the only thing that has ever made me think I might be more than asexual. I still don’t feel like I want sex, but touching and intimacy? This is the only person who has ever made me want those on more than a platonic or familial level.

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” he says when he turns to me. At least he’s stopped scowling. “How are you feeling?”

---