Page 55 of Someone Like You

Brody’s laugh rumbled through me, and he let me climb off him so I could go clean up and change. When I checked my phone, I suggested we go to sleep soon since it was almost midnight and even though classes were canceled, I was fucking exhausted.

I fell asleep with Brody’s arms around me and my ear pressed to his heart, listening to the one thing I wanted more thananything and feeling, for the first time in my life, like maybe I was worthy of keeping it safe. Worthy of being its protector. Wanting so desperately for this to all be real, and not just some drawn-out hallucination.

God that would suck.

The next twodays passed in a blur of happiness and excitement and arousal that I never wanted to end. Every day, without fail, I asked him to fuck me. And every time, without fail, he would say I’m not ready and make me come so hard on his fingers that I screamed until my throat was raw. I felt like that was a fair enough compromise.

I still helped Brody with his assignment, catching up on the days we missed, and caught myself up on my own work and then some. It was still looking like I’d graduate with a perfect GPA—thank god—and the only complaint I really had was that I didn’t have my book with me. The one I was working on. It was still under my bed back home, but even so, when I felt the itch to write something, I did it in the back of one of my notebooks.

Brody and I watched every single movie in theAlienfranchise, and I was extremely pleased that he agreed with me on the second film being the best out of all of them. Although it was a little discouraging thatAlien: Covenantwas his second favorite and I briefly considered braving the storm to escape him and his poor judgment. Briefly. Like a fleeting half second.

Brody asked if he could take me bowling for our date.Bowling. I told him I’d never been bowling, and he just said, “Good.” As if he wanted all my firsts. But there was one first he would never be able to have. One that had been stolen from me. One that I wished I could give him more than anything in theworld. But I didn’t dwell too long on that. What was done was done, and he could have every other first. Any one he wanted, I would give him.

The snow stopped on Tuesday, and that was when it began.

This muffled whispering in the back of my mind. A buzzing hum of sound that had unease prickling under my skin. The idea that reality was going to set in soon, that we’d have to return to the real world. The world outside of Brody’s basement. Outside of the safety and comfort of Brody’s presence. Of his touches. Of his looks and his laughs and his easy company.

But we had one more day. The school had sent another announcement that classes would start back up on Thursday, that the campus would be cleared by then and the county would have the roads back in order. One more day.

He lent me his huge flannel jacket and I helped him clear snow off his car. And by help I mean I made snowballs and lobbed them at him while he had his back to me. When he started doing it right back, I realized the error I’d made. The miscalculation in judgment. Because Brody was far more athletic than I was, and his huge snowballs paired with his ability to hit me every time had me begging him to stop, and when I fell into the snow laughing, and he fell right on top of me, kissing me and warming me up, he had me begging for other things.

But the buzzing in my head never faded. By Wednesday morning, a somber shroud had settled across my shoulders, dousing the flames that Brody had been stoking for the past four days. We’d agreed that he would drive me back this afternoon, even though I never wanted to be anywhere else anymore. Anywhere he wasn’t. Maybe I was becoming dependent on him, and maybe it wasn’t healthy. But I didn’t care.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. We’d just eaten some ramen noodles and were laying on the couch with our food babies. Myhead was resting under his chin, his strong arms holding me as I fiddled with the sleeve of his shirt.

“Nothing,” I lied. But I didn’t know what to say, exactly. Because I didn’t truly know what was wrong. I just knew somethingwaswrong, and it had to do with leaving him.

His hand began to stroke long, firm lines up and down my spine, making me arch into him. “Hm. I don’t believe that,” he said.

I turned so that I could prop my chin on my hand and look up at him. “Nothing’s wrong,” I said. “I just…I’ve had a really good time with you, and…” I sighed. “It just sucks that we can’t stay like this for a little longer.” For forever. “You make me happy,” I admitted in a whisper. Like if I said it too loudly, the illusion would shatter and I’d find myself alone, in bed, at home again.

His expression was soft, and his lips pulled up into a small smile. I reached a finger up to touch the piercing on his bottom lip, and he kissed it. “You make me happy, too,” he said, filling me with pure joy.

“Well, that’s not something anyone’s ever accused me of before,” I joked. His laugh vibrated through me, making me shiver. “So, I just realized something,” I said.

“What?”

“I don’t even know your last name.” It was true. He was just Brody to me. Like Seal, or Bono. And when I’d woken up this morning, it had hit me that I didn’t know his last name, or his middle name, or his birthday, or what his favorite color was. I wanted to know everything.

He laughed again, louder this time. “It’s Correlli.”

“I knew it! I knew you were Italian,” I exclaimed.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, dude. You lookveryItalian. Or Greek. Possibly even Spanish, if we’re stretching a few boundaries. Who was Italian in your family?”

He started tracing little shapes on my back. “My grandfather on my dad’s side. He immigrated over here during the Second World War. I never met him, though. He died before I was born. But Bri and I both got my mom’s eyes.”

I looked into those eyes, soft and gray. “The first day I saw you,” I said quietly, “I couldn’t believe the color. I’d never seen anything like it before. They’re so pretty and unique. I just wanted to stare at you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“I like your eyes, too. Usually, they tell me everything you’re thinking. They give everything away. But not right now.” He slid his hand into the hair at the nape of my neck. “So maybe you could tell me what’s really bothering you.”

There was concern in those gray eyes now, and a determination to wring every last secret from my lips. I turned my head away, resting my cheek against his collarbone.

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