Chapter 1: Too Loud to Think
The bass pounded like a second heartbeat, rattling Luca’s ribs.
"Another round!" he shouted, leaning across the bar, his grin lopsided and too easy.
The bartender raised a brow. "You’ve had five."
Luca winked. "Then six won’t kill me. I’m already halfway to legendary."
Someone tugged at his arm—blonde, glossy, nameless. "Dance with me!"
He let himself be pulled in, laughter spilling as easily as the shots had.
Flashing lights. Bodies pressing close. Heat, noise, the edge of forgetting. Luca didn’t know what song played or whose hands were on his hips.
Didn’t care.
He shouted something—he wasn’t sure what—and it dissolved into the music, into sweat, into someone’s mouth briefly brushing his neck.
He lived for this blur. Where names didn’t matter. Where everything loud was louder than the voice in his head.
Time blurred. Night dissolved into static.