Page 86 of Quiet Protector

Well played, Grayson, well played. You just utterly annihilated me.

As I stand in the middle of my entryway, the girl from my dreams spins around to face me. She must have arrived in a hurry. Her dirty-blonde hair is kinked from letting it dry naturally, and her face is free of makeup. Even with her eyes full of tears, she’s even more breathtaking than she is when she graces my dreams. You can’t beat perfection unless your name is Melody Gregg.

“Hi, BJ,”Melody signs as her eyes float over my face.

When gut-wrenching heartache beams out of me in invisible waves, she bridges the gap between us before throwing her arms around my neck. I try to be brave when she whispers in my ear that I’m not to blame for what happened to her. I try to be strong like I’ve been taught both as a child and an adult. I try to represent those men who never cry, not even when they’re attending the funerals of their mothers.

But then I remember I’m not one of those men.

I am Brandon James McGee.

Peanut butter lover, baseball loather, and Melody Gregg’s best friend.

I can fall because Melody will catch me.

I can break because Melody will fix me.

And I can say I’m sorry because only after I forgive myself for the mistakes I’ve made will I be able to accept Melody’s forgiveness.

Furthermore, I’ll never grip love if I don’t let go of the pain. It’s not possible to keep them both. So, instead of continuing to hold onto that teeny tiny thread I’ve been clutching the past month, I let it go.

The fall is brutal, and it hurts, but as predicted, Melody catches me.

I can only hope she never lets me go.

37

Melody

Have you ever sat in a dark room and just let your mind drift? I never had until Grayson called me out of the blue last night. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was an eye-opening experience for me personally, but it was epiphanic to the person I was once.

As I sat in the dark, hoping to clear the gunk from my head, I kept hearing the same six words over and over again.

“A victim knows a victim, right?”

Leo’s words were for Julian, but the more they played through my head, the more they resonated with Brandon. A victim doesn’t have to be physically scarred from an assault. Emotional abuse is just as detrimental, especially to a gentle soul like Brandon.

As I struggled to work through the debilitating weight Grayson’s call had placed on my chest, truth after truth smacked into me.

I lost my parents.

So did Brandon.

They weren’t his biological parents, but they were his family.

I was forced to attend a college I didn’t want to attend.

So was Brandon.

Browns was our first pick, but he didn’t want to go without me. I forced him to.

I was victimized by Madden.

So was Brandon.

He trusted his brother. He believed I was safe around him.

Can you blame him?