Alex woke up later than usual.
His eyes cracked open to a soft, muted light bleeding through the curtains. The sun was already well into its arc, painting pale beams across the hardwood floor of his bedroom. A light breeze from the cracked window rustled the edges of the curtains, and somewhere below, in the distance, he could hear a faint car horn. Maybe a scooter too.
For a long moment, he didn't move.
He just lay there, blinking at the ceiling. His body felt heavy. Not in a bad way, just… tired. Drained. Like someone had reached into his chest and unplugged all the wires. No alarms. No buzzing phone reminders. No blaring horns from a stadium crowd echoing in his memory. Just silence. Still and thick like a heavy blanket thrown over the world.
He exhaled slowly.
His head wasn't pounding, not quite, but there was a dull throb behind his eyes. Maybe from too little sleep. Or too many thoughts. Or both.
