Amnesia | Brian Quinn

Chapter Six

The soft glare of the sun seeped through the blinds, casting a stripe of rays across the bedroom. Brian was laying on his back, as his eyes fluttered open. His eyebrows crossed, as he looked around the strange looking room, he didn't recognise it at all. The walls were a completely different colour to his, and that certainly wasn't his painting of a puppy dog. Where was his Superman memorabilia? Where was his Ghostbusters uniform? He closed his eyes, as he rolled over onto his side, before opening them once again. He was met by a mop of black hair poking out from under the covers, his heart raced, as he kicked and squirmed his way off of the bed, landing with an audible 'plonk' on the floorboards. It was then that he noticed that he was in just his boxers, with his clothes thrown across the floor.

"Fuck..." Brian muttered to himself, as he grabbed his clothes. He couldn't remember anything after meeting Maya from the previous night. The girl on the bed began to stir awake, stretching her arms out, as a yawn overwhelmed her. She rolled over, her eyes slowly opening, as her gaze locked with Brian's. She smiled sweetly, as he chuckled nervously.

"Morning, Brian." She greeted. Brian nodded his head sheepishly, muttering a 'morning' back to her, as he scratched at his head. He pointed between the pair of them, as he stumbled over his words.

"We...erm, we didn't, er...have s-seeeex did we?" Maya erupted into a giggle, throwing herself back against the mattress, as Brian's cheeks transformed into a deep shade of red. Maya threw the covers from her body, revealing that she was fully clothed in her pyjamas.

"No, no, no...absolutely not. You passed out as soon as you saw the bed. You drank the whole bar last night." Maya giggled, as Brian gritted his teeth. He did remember getting pretty hammered last night. He quickly pulled his clothes on, wanting to hide his scars, before taking a seat on the end of the bed. He turned to face Maya, a smile on his face.

"Well, thanks for letting me stay. Sorry for being an absolute wreck last night. I don't know what came over me." He thanked her, as she nodded along. Her hand gripped onto his wrist, her fingertips running over his cuts through his shirt. Brian refrained himself from wincing, not wanting to show her that it pained him. After all, he felt as though he deserved it.

"It's no problem...just promise me one thing, Brian." Maya sighed deeply.

"Which is?"

"Please don't hurt yourself again, you don't deserve that pain. I know that we only met last night, but after what you told me, the fact that you've saved people's lives...how you could ever feel that you're not worthy of life is beyond me. You're special, Brian." She smiled, as she squeezed his hand tightly. Brian weakly smiled, the slight feeling of uncomfortableness building inside. Had he really talked about his feelings when he was drunk?

Without saying another word, Brian stood up from the bed. He bid Maya goodbye, before making his way out of her house. He looked around at the houses surrounding him, trying to work out his way home. He was sure that it wasn't far from his bachelor pad. He pulled his phone out from his pocket to load up the map, being met by a text from Sal.

Sal: Hey Bri, just wanted to check on how you're feeling this morning? I'm sorry about yesterday, you were right, I should have been there for you, but my mind was elsewhere.

Brian read through his message, feeling slightly guilty. He remembered what went down between them, he remembered them getting into an argument, and him kicking Sal out of his house. Brian remembered the destruction he did to himself and how he wanted to drown out his sorrows with alcohol, which explains how he had met Maya. He quickly typed out a response, immediately hitting send, before loading up the map to find his way home.

Brian: Don't sweat it, it was my fault. We'll talk it out later, got to find my way home. Meet me there.

Brian started on his route home, following the directions on his phone. He was beginning to feel completely lost in the city, as every corner brought on unrecognisable grounds. Brian kept his head buried into his phone screen, ensuring that he was following the correct route, until finally he made it to familiar territory. He rounded the corner of his street, shuffling his way down the path to his front door. He could see Sal's car parked outside the front, with him leant against the bonnet. Brian strolled up to him, as Sal pulled him into an embrace. They hugged it out, leaving all of their negative feelings to one side, as Brian opened up his house, letting Sal through. He slipped his shoes off to one side, and went to take his hat off, before realising that it wasn't on his head.

"Ah, damnit!" Brian huffed in frustration. Sal looked up from his phone, raising an eyebrow at him.

"What is it, Brian?"

"I must have left it at Maya's place!" Brian blurted out, before his hands shot up to his mouth. Sal's jaw dropped open, as he jumped up from his seat, excitable being an understatement.

"You met a girl? You stayed at her house? You absolute dawg! How was she? Was she good? Ohhh, Dude! You've gotta tell me all about it! How many times did you do it? Did you wrap it up? Please tell me you didn't go in raw. A little Quinn is the last thing this world needs!" Sal threw questions back and forth at Brian, as he rolled his eyes. Sal was often the one to get overly excited over Brian getting with a girl, especially after how he had been feeling a day earlier.

"Dude, would you chill out? Does it matter what happened between her and me last night?" Brian moaned. Sal walked up to him, placing his hands upon his shoulders, looking him dead in the eye.

"It absolutely does matter. I've got to know that your game is still strong as fuck." Sal chuckled, as he went to ruffle Brian's hair. His hand was batted away, as Brian jolted away from his touch in annoyance.

"Why is it any of your business? I don't ask you how good Bryony is in bed, or...or how many times you fuck in a night, do I?" Brian huffed.

"She's amazing, best sex I've ever had and we can go up to five times in one night. There are your answers, now tell me every detail!" Sal answered matter-of-factly, before continuing to pester Brian, to which his response was an exhausted sigh.