Second Chances (Brett Talbot)

Monstrous Things

"So it's kind of like your anchor?" I question.

"Yes and no," he replies. "It's kind of like my anchor in the absence of an actual anchor, if you know what I mean."

"I think so," I mumble.

There's another lapse of silence between us as we sit there next to each other up against the building. A breeze blows some dead leaves through the parking lot and some kids ride past on their bikes.

"Why did you follow me out here?" Brett speaks up.

"I don't really know," I mumble, picking at the edge of my skirt. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay I guess. You looked really upset and I didn't want you to do anything to get yourself into trouble."

"Like what?" He asks

"I don't know, break something maybe," I mutter. "Hurt yourself?"

"Lils, I'm a Buddhist werewolf," he tells me. "I practice nonviolence and even if I did hurt myself, I could easily heal in a few minutes."

"Well sorry for actually being worried about you," I huff.

"Aw, you were worried about me, baby?" Brett grins at me.

My face flushes. "What? No- I- of course not!" I sputter.

"I thought you hated me," he comments.

I open my mouth to say a witty reply, but then I stop myself. "I don't hate you," I mumble. "I did when we went to school together, but you were a complete dick then, no offense."

"None taken," he says with a slight smile. "What made you stop hating me?"

"I don't know," I say truthfully. "I think I stopped when you offered to help me find Liam. You were actually being tolerable that day and when you told me about how you'd help me, it actually made me really happy that you would go out of your way to help. Also, when I started to cry, I want to thank you for being kind to me instead of just making fun of me because I was crying."

Brett doesn't have a response to this. He just stares at me as if he can't believe I'm saying this. I can't believe I'm saying this.

"So no, I don't hate you anymore. Despite your continuation to make sexual comments to me, they are tolerable now since they're much less frequent," I add. "I think right now I think of you as a, dare I say, friend"

"Friend?" Brett questions, staring at me in shock. "Really?"

"Well, yeah," I say with a cautious smile. "I mean we went though a near death experience together and you helped me look for my missing brother. I think those things bring people closer together."

Brett almost looks nervous and I start to panic.

Did I say something wrong? Does he actually hate me and not think of me as a friend? Does he think that I'm insane? Can he hear my heart pounding a mile a minute right now because I've started to panic so much?

"After what happened with my girlfriend in the woods two years ago, I swore to myself I was never going to get too close to a human girl ever again," he says softly, looking away from me at the pavement in front of him. "It hurt so much to see the fear in her eyes whenever she looked at me. To know that she thought I was a dangerous monster. I swore to myself that I would never catch feelings for a girl again. I could hurt them if I lost control or they could hurt me if they ever found out about me. Then the start of my sophomore year there was this incoming freshman who sat behind me in Biology. She could sing and draw like no one else I ever met and completely captivated me."