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“Yeah. He was…”
I had to take a deep breath when the memories flooded my mind.
“He was the devil,” I decided.
“And, after this guy did what he did…?”
“I feel better. I don’t feel scared all the time anymore. I feel like I can breathe for the first time in a long time.”
“That’s great!”
“Yeah. But…”
“But what?”
“I don’t know. Should I be worried? I mean, I met him because I’m supposed to be helping him adjust to school. And, the reason I was asked to do it was because he’s had some anger issues. Couldn’t all of this be dangerous?”
Cory thought about it. “Do you feel like you’re in danger?”
“That’s just it. I feel incredibly safe around him. I feel like, if I’m with him, there’s nothing that can hurt me because he will protect me.”
“Wow! That’s pretty amazing. Who wouldn’t want that?” He said with more introspection than I would have expected.
“So, I take it that being with your girlfriend doesn’t make you feel safe?”
Cory looked up at me and laughed. “Well, my girlfriend is a girl who’s smaller than me, so no.”
“What does her being a girl have to do with it?”
“You know, a guy is supposed to protect the girl he’s with. That’s probably what she’s looking for from me.”
“But there are other ways a person can make you feel safe, right? Like, maybe she makes you feel safe because you know that she will be there when you need her. Or, maybe she makes you feel safe because you know she will always love you.”
Cory looked at me considering it for the first time.
“I guess. Wow! You’re really good at this.”
He couldn’t have said anything nicer. I blushed. “Thank you. So, does she make you feel safe in any of those ways?”
“Maybe.”
I stared at him as his eyes saddened.
“But those aren’t the ways you want to feel safe. Or, maybe that you need to feel safe?”
“Look, Kelly’s a great girl!” He said defensively.
“I didn’t say she wasn’t.”
“And, we weren’t talking about me. We were talking about you. Don’t try to change the topic.”
I guess I touched a nerve.
“You’re right. We were talking about what I should do about Nero. So, my dilemma is that he’s going home this weekend and he invited me to go with him.”
“He wants you to see where he grew up. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“I guess.”
