Page 33 of Someone Like You

“What? Why?”

“Because now he owes me fifty bucks.”

“You guys placed bets on mysex life?” I screeched.

“Isaac, calm down. I’ll split it with you.”

“That’s not the point,” I grumbled.

Jordan turned his whole body toward me—I wanted to tell him to sit properly because if we got in an accident he’d be severely injured—and said, more seriously, “So how are you feeling about all this? What have you guys done, exactly? Is he treating you right? Because I swear to god if he hurts you, I’m going to?—”

“Jordan, everything is fine. He’s been perfect. It’s all been fucking perfect, okay? And we haven’t really done anything, honestly…” My cheeks heated thinking about Brody with his cock out, his tattooed fingers gripping it firmly and sliding up and down?—

“Oh, you’ve donesomething, by the look on your face right now. Tell me.”

I pounded my head into the headrest and said, “We…he…he jerked off in front of me.”

Jordan squealed because he was a twelve year old girl at heart, then asked, “How big is it?”

“Oh my god, dude, no. We’re not doing that.”

“Ugh. Fine. Okay, so…well, I guess I’m happy for you, love.”

“You are?” I don’t know what I was expecting, but that hadn’t really been it.

“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “I just want to see you find someone and be comfortable with them, and it seems like maybe he could be that person for you. You deserve someone to open up to.”

Affection for this man-child had me grinning. “Thanks, Jordan. I just wanted you to know.”

“You can tell me anything, and I’ll always give you my unvarnished truth. And on that note, there’s something I should tell you.”

“Oh god. What.”

“I might’ve had an edible a while ago and it might be kicking in as we speak.”

“Of course,” I muttered.

Jordan fiddled with the radio for the rest of the car ride, and when we got to the store, he tried to grab one of the big carts and I had to distract him with a display of cereal until I could switch it out for a smaller one. The entire time we were in there, it was like trying to wrangle a toddler. By the time we got home, I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to hole up in my room for a few hours.

But, of course, Josh and Cameron were in the kitchen, putting things together for the impromptu barbecue for our new roommate, and I had to unload the groceries because Jordan was not going to be any kind of help in the state he was in.

I was putting the ribs and coleslaw in the fridge when I heard a heavy set of footsteps and Josh said, “Isaac, meet our new roommate.” I turned around, still gripping the coleslaw. “Isaac, this is Sam. Sam, Isaac.”

Five pounds of cabbage and mayonnaise slid to the floor when I looked at the man standing beside Josh. I was thrust into the past eight years in an instant, as if time had never moved at all, as if everything since then had been a dream. All the breath in my lungs left me in a moment. There was a roaring in my head, and every single noise faded into the background. I could see his lips moving, but I couldn’t hear anything. My vision started to vibrate and blur around the edges, and humanoidshapes were moving closer. I heard myself stutter out a name,hisname.

“E-Ethan,” I whispered, and when I tried to suck in a breath, it was like my lungs weren’t working. I had to get out of here. I had to fuckingrun. I needed to get the fuck out of herenow.

I finally got my legs to work, finally ran from the kitchen and up the stairs and into my room, engaging the door lock and slowly backing away from it. My face felt wet, and I could hear the sharp, ragged attempts I was making to breathe, could feel the violent tremors wracking through my body as my legs began to feel numb. I backed up until my calves hit the bed, and then I let myself sink.

I sank, and sank, and sank, until I was so deep nothing mattered. UntilIwas nothing.

Nothing at all.

10

BRODY

Isaac was ignoring me.

---