Dear friend,

First and foremost: yes, I am aware that I claimed this would be the end of our little correspondence during the last time we spoke, however… I yet again find myself in quite the dark place. Why, you ask? Well, that’s easy. It’s because my name is Alexander Winters, and I am the biggest fool in the universe.

It was a Saturday morning in our new apartment, when my lover, David, ran into our bedroom screaming and flailing his arms in hysterics. Although I was gracefully taking the best nap of my life, the noise definitely still managed to wake me.

I opened my eyes then squinted. “Is my computer on fire?” I asked him, because that would indeed be cause for concern, considering I had not saved my last sketch from two hours ago.

David’s face was red. He shook his head. “No—” He blurted, as he pointed right at my figure. “No— Alex, you—“ His lips quivered. His fingers trembled midway into the air. “You have to come and see this.”

I won’t lie: I was moderately apprehensive and afraid. Knowing David, he could have very well summoned some sort of catastrophe-demon into our friendly abode; this did nothing to reassure me.

My lover stepped forward. He grasped my hand with his and gave my arms a slight tug; I winced at the pain but said nothing. Once I was up, with my feet shifting against brand-new, wooden floorboards, David did in fact, lead me toward a computer—his laptop, to be more precise.

I raised a brow at the device. On it, was a video that was posted yesterday, and already had thousands of views. “David,” there were hints of bloodlust in my tone, “I swear, if you woke me up only to show me a funny video, I will—”

“Just watch it!” he cried, and he hit the play button.

And I suddenly understood.

“Oh, no.”

It took exactly two minutes and twenty-one seconds for my world to fall apart. Especially once it had sunk in that the title of this short clip—attractive extra from new fantasy action movie: who is she/he??—was referring… to me.

I slammed the laptop shut and looked away. I’d barely gotten any time to read most of the comments, but I had seen enough. It was all debates on whether I was a man or a woman, and if anybody knew my name, or if I was single.

“This is a bad dream,” I muttered, as I brought my palms to my face and tried to shut it all out.

David wrapped his arm around my shoulder. He pulled me in for a hug. “I mean, at least they think you’re hot?”

“No!” I stepped away from him. “No, David! This is horrible! What if one of them recognizes me as Athena? What if I get more stalkers again? I—”

From the kitchen, I heard my phone ring. I spared David one final glance, told him I would be right back, then rushed out of the living room in order to take the call.

It was my doctor. And I cursed her terrible timing. I had yet to tell David about my current predicament, regarding my hands. My wrists. “My apologies,” I said. “Would it be possible if I called you back later? I’m…” My attention lingered on David’s figure. He was patiently waiting for me from within our living room. “I’m in a meeting right now,” I whispered.

“Oh, yes, of course! That isn’t a problem at all!” my doctor replied, and that was the end of our conversation, once she bid me a good day, then finally hung up.

I made my way back over to where my lover was standing with an arm I’m hooked around his neck.

I turned on his laptop again. “Maybe we can report it,” I said.

And he—much to my dismay—laughed. “Alex, it’s the Internet. It’ll be reuploaded. This sucks, but I feel like the only thing you can really do is wait it out.” When I spared him an angered glare, David’s voice grew quiet. He tensed, then apologized. “Okay, fine. I just… assumed you’d know people were going to see it, since you agreed to act in their movie. But, sorry. Fine. We’ll try to get it removed.”

“I’ll try,” I corrected him. “It’s my face in that damned video!”

Truth be told, I knew I was lashing out at him. David didn’t deserve this. But so much had happened over these past few months. It made me question our relationship.

I suppose the biggest culprit is my being insecure—though, the second culprit is definitely how David interacts with Isaac. I’m not jealous, but I wonder sometimes if Isaac would not make David happier. He’s a strong, tall, extroverted guy—everything I’m not, basically. And I can tell David is attracted to him, too. Whenever I visit, I always catch him blushing during instances where Isaac accidentally gets little too close to him.