Chapter 37
Tyson
The press of Rohan’s lips felt so familiar, like a memory embedded somewhere deep in my mind.
Along with all the other odd memories of dreams about him.
It’s all like a puzzle that I can’t seem to complete because I’ve lost some pieces on the way.
And Rohan asking me out on a date suddenly is making everything that’s been happening this last few days even more jarring.
Now I’m sitting on his couch as he gets me a glass of water from his kitchen.
How the fuck did I even get here?
Why did he let me into his apartment?
Rohan took my jacket into his room, making me laugh.
I guess he doesn’t intend on giving it back.
His antics are actually quite cute when he’s not being a little shit.
Especially the way he turns completely red every time he’s embarrassed.
He places the glass down in front of me and sits next to me.
“I’m gonna shower soon,” he mutters, eyeing me in a way I can’t quite name. But it makes me want to kiss him again. I wonder if he’s feeling insane enough to let me follow him into the shower?
“Alright, I won’t peek at you while you’re naked,” I blurt out, placing the water back onto the table. Again, such an odd memory. I keep saying things without knowing exactly where it’s coming from.
“Sorry, I, I don’t know why I said that.”
“Right…” Rohan says, looking down at his hands, blushing.
He doesn’t seem weirded out by any of my stupid outbursts. Knowing Rohan, he would’ve told me off for saying something like that. Especially when I don’t even know why I said it myself.
“I’ll be back … you can watch TV if you want,” He says before getting up and heading into the bathroom. I hear the water begin to run shortly after leaning my head against the back of the couch.
Guess Rohan takes pretty long showers. I try to flick through the channels and find something interesting, but there’s nothing really to watch.
So, I somehow find myself in his bedroom.
I’ll lie and say I wanted to grab my jacket if he comes out bitching at me.
But I’m just curious since there’s not much I really know about him on a personal level, besides that he has a horrible attitude and he’s an incredible gamer.
Rohan’s room is neat; he has a pile of clothes folded in a basket, his walls are a shade of purple, and he has a lot of posters up in a perfectly curated sort of way.
He also has a few books lying around. I walk around to his infamous gaming desk.
Of course he would have the best of the best for his PC setup.
I lean down closer to the screen, squinting in confusion.
Understory.
Rohan was playing Understory?
Starryeyes … He asked me to talk over voice chat the other night and…That voice when we were chatting…
Rohan.
“What are you doing in my room?”
“Oh, I was grabbing my jacket.” I turn around, smirking at him.
“Right, you’re a horrible liar.”
“Like you’re any better,” I laugh.
“Well, since you’re in here, snooping around. You could lie down if you’re still feeling sick.” Rohan bites his lip.
Oh?
So we’re really going for it, huh?
I walk over to him, closing the distance between us, leaning into his space. “Was this all a part of your little plan to get me in bed? You didn’t have to dine me, could’ve just asked.”
“Your ego is dangerously too big.”
He pushes me before turning and getting into the bed, leaving an open space for me to join him. My brow raises a little, stunned by how direct he’s being right now. But I wouldn’t expect anything less from Rohan Chandra. Always going for what he wants.
I pad over, taking off my shirt before getting in beside him.
There’s not much space on his small bed, so he’s practically on top of me, and he doesn’t seem to care at all.
Like he’s done this hundreds of times before.
Rohan even cuddles further into my chest. My heart catches in my throat, the smell of his clean skin overstimulating to my senses.
Rohan looks up at me again, those big fucking eyes that consume my mind, and I can’t help but be lured in. I press another kiss to his lips. He sighs into this one, whining a little as we find a slow motion. He feels so fucking good.
I hate the look on his face when we break apart, a look I can’t name once again. But it’s close to dread.
“What’s wrong?” I whisper against his lips, trying to kiss it away.
“Nothing. Can you stay?” he mutters.
“Yeah…”
* * *
I’m having one of those vivid dreams of Rohan again. This time we’re at a waterfall, and he’s wet, smiling up at me. As the dream plays out, it gets steamier, and we definitely have sex, ending with us pressed together under stars. I feel Rohan’s soft lips on mine, and I groan into his mouth.
“Why don’t you remember me, Tyson?” Rohan asks, his brows pinched. “I remember everything.”
He sounds so close to me. The vision suddenly blurs, and I can see Rohan and me on a tower from my point of view, as if I’m out of my body.
The tower is dark, the sky stormy and black.
I see myself falling over the edge; Rohan falls out of what looks like a cage before chasing my body to the edge and jumping after me.
I try to grab at him, but my hands grasp at air.
Then I’m falling.
We’re both falling, he’s in my arms.
And it feels like it’s forever.
“Tyson, I miss you,” I can hear Rohan saying, kissing me again.
But it’s not the Rohan in my arms. The Rohan in my arms looks afraid, but I feel him grow more okay with our fate as I press a kiss to his forehead.
Our fate.
Our fate.
We were in … Understory.
“Tyson…”
I wake up, my chest heaving, it feels like someone just stopped smothering me. Rohan is sitting over me, worry all over his pretty features. I remember that same look on the roof of the tower when I jumped.
I jumped.
We were trapped at that awful fucking tower because of Noel, and I jumped.
Rohan jumped after me.
We made it out of the game.
Together.
“Rohan…” I grasp his wrist, pulling him down on top of me. He wraps his arms around my neck tight, sobbing into my chest.
“I just remembered … I really like you,” I whisper, trying to lighten the mood.
“You’re a jerk,” he says, his voice muffled.
“I’m sorry,” I assure him. “I remember now. I remember us.”
“It took you long enough, you fucking asshole,” he says, his tears wet against my skin.
“I’m so sorry, I don’t know why I couldn’t … But I kept having dreams about you. About us in the game.”
Rohan pushes off of me, his lashes clumped together from crying. “I figured something was wrong. You kept saying things that I had only told you in Understory.”
“Yeah…”
“Maybe because you jumped first? Just had to beat me at that too, by the way,” Rohan huffs. “Even when I told you not to!”
“I’m sorry … I just couldn’t let you get hurt, Ro,” I say, grazing his knee.
“Right,” Rohan mumbles and looks away.
“Well, what do you think all that was for?” he asks.
“I don’t know besides what he said in the game … My manager, his name is Noel. He was Leon.”
“The one that quit, I’m assuming,” Rohan says, sitting up fully.
“Yeah, he sent me another weird email the other day at work. But because I didn’t remember much, I had no idea what the fuck he was talking about,” I say. Now looking back, I suppose me not remembering anything that happened was another one of his final stupid games.
“Well, we can’t log in anymore, so I guess we’ll never know.”
“Yeah, it really was matchmaking from hell. Is that all he really wanted? I could’ve eventually gotten you without almost dying,” I chuckle.
Rohan kicks my leg lightly, laughing. “Yeah. Right, idiot.”
“Maybe we should try to email him back?” he says.
“I could … and say what though? Are you some mystical being?” I open my phone and try to pull up Noel’s last email, but it isn’t there anymore.
“It’s gone…” I say, sitting up next to Rohan, who tilts his head to see the screen.
“You sure it was him?”
“I’m sure. Stupid riddles and all.”
“Well, you still have the address, right?”
I go to start a new thread addressed to his usual work email, but it gives an error when I send the message. “It bounced? No way … this is definitely his email address.”
“So, he just doesn’t exist anymore?”
“I guess so.” I shrug, furrowing my brows.
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter anyway. We got out, and we’re okay. Freaky story we can tell our kids,” Rohan laughs, climbing into my lap.
“Our kids, huh?” I chuckle.
“Shut up,” he says, biting his lip, a little blush creeping up his neck.
Though the game quite actually tried to kill us both, I’m glad it brought us together. I’m glad I get to be seen by him. I wrap my arms around him tighter, falling back into the pillows. I nuzzle into his hair, don’t want him away from me for a second too long.
He yelps before biting my neck. “You can relax. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I wouldn’t let you, even if you tried.”