Page 22 of Someone Like You

I was silent for a moment, because his admission made my already-aching heart hurt even more. “Well, you know, if you…” I took a deep breath. “If you ever need, like…a ride again, or…help or whatever, you could, you know, you could call me.” Eloquent, as always. I could feel Brody’s eyes boring into the side of my head, but I kept my own on the road.

His tone was wry when he said, “Is that so? Feeling sorry for me, Isaac?”

Yes. “No,” I scoffed. “I’m just saying. It’s not a big deal. I mean, I only have one friend, basically, and he kind of sucks sometimes, so…” Then I changed the subject, as I did whenever anything got too difficult or went down an emotional road I was desperate to avoid. “Do you still want to do your reading today?”

Brody’s fingers paused their drumming. “Oh. I forgot about that,” he said. “It’s up to you. You’ve already done more than any—” He cut himself off. “You’ve already done a lot for me today,” he finished.

“Yeah but a deal’s a deal,” I told him, wondering what he’d been about to say. “This was just one of those unexpected curveballs that life likes to throw sometimes. It wasn’t your fault.”

Brody was quiet for a few minutes, and I wasn’t sure he was gonna speak again. I thought maybe I’d offended him when he finally said, “If you’re up for it.”

Honestly, this day had been completely bizarre and sad and my head had been buzzing with nothing but thoughts of Brody. A reprieve from him was being offered, and I should take it. I should. But I didn’t want to. “Yeah, I’m up for it. But areyou? Shouldn’t you just rest?”

“I’ll be fine,” he said. I wasn’t so sure, though. I wanted to order him to rest, but I was no one in his life. It wasn’t my place to tell him what to do.

“Do you want to meet at your place around…” I glanced at the clock on the dash, shocked when I saw it was nearly four. “Five? Or is six better?”

“Five is good,” he said, sounding tired. I glanced at him, and he was resting his head against the seat, his eyes closed. Still clutching that stupid little cactus.

When we got to the shop, I was sure he’d fallen asleep, but those gray eyes cracked open and were immediately fixed on me. Little slivers of steel that made my heart quicken and my palms sweat. Then he looked around and sat up. “Thanks, Isaac,” he said. “See you soon.” With a small smile, he got out and went inside the shop.

When I got home, Jordan was in the kitchen covered in what I assumed was flour.

“Oh good, you’re back!” He yelled over the loud drone of the cake mixer. “Taste this,” he shouted, shoving a spatula covered in batter at my mouth.

“What—Jordan, stop,” I said, pushing it away from me. “Are you trying to give me Salmonella?”

“Oh please, that’s an urban legend. Nobody died from eating cake batter.”

“Um, plenty of people have died from eating cake batter made with uncooked eggs that carried a deadly strain of Salmonella.” I stared him hard in the eye. “Plenty.”

He stared back. “Name one person.”

Fuck. I couldn’t. He smirked when I didn’t say anything, then tried to sneak the spatula up to my lips again. I grabbed it and flung it across the room.

“Isaac!” he gasped. “Oh no, it went behind the oven—that was my favorite spatula!”

“Ugh. I’ll get you a new one,” I told him.

He glared at me, then asked, suspicion heavy in his tone, “Where have you been all day?”

“Out.”

“Out where?”

“Out and about.”

“Out and about where?”

Jordan was relentless, and I tired easily, so I sighed and said, “I was supposed to meet up with Brody today—” There was a gasp from Jordan. “—but he wasn’t responding to my texts—” A mutteredwhy do you even have his number?which I ignored, “—so I went over to Jamie’s—”Oh my god how is my favorite person after you?“—but Jamie said he never came home last night—”Oh my god why is Jamie keeping track of Brody’s comings and goings are they fucking they better not be fucking. “—so I went down to the shop and Bri told me that Brody was in the hospital. So that’s where I was.”

“What? Oh my god that poor baby, what happened?”

What happened to wanting to kick Brody’s ass? Now he was a poor baby?

“He fainted because he has a heart condition and hit his head and got a concussion.”

“Oh mygod! Is he okay?”

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