Page 4 of Someone Like You

“I’m not even going to ask how you got my name,” I muttered, shaking my head. “Look, my?—”

“I asked around. Didn’t have to go through too many people to get a name,” he said. “Isaac Carpenter. There aren’t a lot of…” he trailed off, his gaze sweeping me from head to toe. “Boys that look like you.”

A burning heat that was all anger rocketed through me. “What the fuck do you mean, boys that look like me?” And I was aman, goddammit.

Those lips curved even higher, his amusement peaking. “Hm. Pretty. Sweet. Fun-size. Like a little blond pixie.”

Oh, that was it. “I’m not a fucking candy barora mythical creature, you asshole! You know what, fuck this.” Fuck this guy, seriously. I moved to brush past him, and when his hand wrapped itself around my arm—after I’d explicitly told him not to touch me the last time I saw him—I lost it.

One minute we were standing, and the next, I’d jumped on him like a vengeful spider monkey, my fists flying and my fingers scraping, and then we were on the ground. All I felt was rage and panic as that pit inside of me catapulted every demon I’d ever collected right to the surface. I was screaming, I knew I was screaming, and I couldn’t shut myself up. My face was wet, my vision blurred, and my mind was a frantic whirlwind of past and present that was so muddied I wasn’t sure it would ever clear up.

Someone grabbed my arms, locked them at my sides, and something big and warm was dragging down my back. I could hear soothing sounds near my ear, a constantshh shh shh, intermingled withyou’re okayandI’ve got youandI’m sorry. All I could focus on was the wall of heat beneath me, the pacifying sounds spoken with a deep, hushed voice, and the hand moving up and down my back.

Safe safe safe you’re safe you’re safemy mind kept repeating, until my choking sobs became small whimpers became breathless pants. I squeezed my eyes shut, succumbing to the safety, and kept them shut as I felt myself being lifted, carried somewhere else.

A door closed softly, something squeaked, and then everything stilled again.

“You’re okay,” a voice whispered above me. And I believed it. I could feel it.

I let myself drift for a while, focused only on feeling that warm hand rubbing soothing circles and designs up and down my back. Sometimes it crept into my hair, scratching gently at my scalp. When I finally cracked my eyes open, I was drained. Exhausted. Weary.

Brody’s eyes were the first thing mine latched onto, like the silvery wisps of a spider’s web, and just as strong. “Fuck you,” I whispered.

A small smile tugged at his lips, but it quickly morphed back into the concerned frown it had been. He was touching me now, cradling me in his arms like a goddamn baby, but I was too tired to dredge up any anger. After the way he’d just handled that, I was too tired to dredge up any fear, either. And that shook me.

But there was red on his face, four long lines of it that were welling with meager amounts of blood, and that shook me more than anything. Because I’d hurt him, I’d done that, I’d put those lines there, and I was a fucking monster.

A freak. A psycho. A goddamn animal.

“No, you’re not,” he said vehemently, and I guess I spoke those last thoughts aloud.

I closed my eyes against the onslaught of his perceptive stare.

“You’re not,” he repeated. Quietly, this time. I wanted to believe him. “What happened back there, Isaac?”

His tone was almost plaintive, and so gentle I wanted to kick him. But I think I’d already done that. “I told you not to fucking touch me,” I rasped. My throat was sore. “I told you.”

“Yeah,” he said. “You did. That’s on me for not listening.” A hesitation, a sharp inhale. “I’m sorry. I’m really fucking sorry, for whatever that’s worth.”

I couldn’t do this anymore. I opened my eyes and shoved his hand away, getting to my feet. My shirt was twisted up aroundmy chest, another point of humiliation to add to the quickly-growing tally, and I jerked it back down. “I’m gonna go now,” I said. “Sorry for…” I waved a hand at his face. Seeing the scratches brought a wave of shame so thick and heavy that I almost collapsed under its weight. I crouched down, holding my head in my hands. “Why did you have to do that? Itoldyou, I fuckingtoldyou!” I was yelling again. I had to get a hold of myself. I covered my face with my hands and took a deep, shaky inhale that felt like it rattled around my lungs.

“Hey. It’s okay, Isaac. I won’t touch you again. I promise, I won’t touch you again unless you ask me to.”

I didn’t miss the last line he’d snuck in there, and sudden anger had me looking up at him, my face twisted in a snarl. “I willneverask you to, so you willnevertouch me. Got it?”

I shouldn’t have looked at his face. I should have just walked out the door and kept on going. Brody looked utterly devastated, completely wrecked, and my heart gave a sharp, twisting, painful jerk. I fell back on my butt. “I don’t even know you, why do I fucking care, I don’t care, Idon’t.” I was muttering to myself, sounding as crazy as I was, as crazy as I’d just proven myself to be, and Brody just sat on the cracked leather couch, watching me fall apart.

He’d brought on the worst episode I’d ever had, and he’d been able to calm me down faster than anyone before in my life. I don’t know what it was about him that riled me up and then soothed me so thoroughly, but I did know I was terrified of every emotion he was wringing from me.

The power this stranger suddenly had over me was going to be my end. I knew that.

I stared into his eyes as I hissed, “I hope I never see you again. You’re too fucking dangerous.”

I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed, watched that devastation dig in deeper around his eyes, his mouth. Watched his hands curl into fists at his side.

Then I let him watch me leave.

“I thoughtyou said you knew stuff about cars,” I tossed at the back of Jordan’s head. He was bent over the open hood of my car, where it had been parked for the past week. I hadn’t driven it at all after finding out there wasn’t another mechanic around for forty miles. That’s what I got for attending school in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania. That’s what I got for having one friend and no connections, no one I could ask to find out if there were other people around town that were good with cars.

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