Safe Option

I wake up slowly. My body is stiff from sleeping in such a strange position, and the morning air is colder than I remember the night being. For a moment, I don't know where I am. Then I feel the rock beneath me. Hear the ocean breathing. Smell the salt. Oh right, I probably fell asleep when I was busy staring out the ocean.

Then I notice something else. There's a hoodie draped over me.

I blink, sit up slightly, and feel the fabric slide with me—soft, worn cotton, still warm from someone else's body. Not mine. I definitely didn't bring anything with me.

I glance around. And that's when I see him. Theo.

He's sitting on the same big rock, just a bit farther from where I slept. Not close, but not far either. Enough space to keep a line between us, but not enough to call it distance.