Never Say Never (Completed)

Eighteen {Broken Like Me}

"I didn't come here to fight." Ian broke the silence after a few minutes, tearing his eyes from Bryan and looking at me a few feet away. "I just want to talk to you, Charlotte."

"Sucks." Bryan shoved Ian back so back on the porch and not so much in his doorway. "Because I really want to break every bone in your pathetic little body."

Ian's lip curled in a snarl as he met Bryan's eyes again. "Didn't you learn your lesson the first time, Grace? Isn't that why you're doing this shit with Charlotte? To get back at me."

"Not everything is about you, Ian." I managed to get out, touching a hand to Bryan's bicep. "Come on, just let it go."

The Bryan I knew was gone. There wasn't any indication of the kind hearted boy that had been helping me for the last month.

"He's just jealous." I knew what Bryan was going to say before it broke passed his lips, and buried my face in my hands. "But I hate to break it to you, man. Beating a woman isn't going to get her to sleep with you."

My head whipped in Bryan's direction. That had not been what I thought he was going to say, but somehow so much worse. And with the expression Bryan wore, I knew there was much more to the comment then trying to get under Ian's skin.

"Unless you want to hit the pavement and bloody your porch, I suggest you shut your mouth." Ian snapped, hands clenching into fists as his sides. Bryan shoved me gently back into the house and stepped on to the porch, a sadistic smirk on his face.

"Come at me then, Cruz." Bryan said through his teeth. "You have such a problem with me that you take it out on her. Does it make you feel like a man to beat on girls?"

"Ian!" I cried, but it was too late. Bryan's last words had triggered him and he lurched forward. Stepping out on to the porch, I looked up to find Tristan rushing toward the boys, but he slowed to a stop when he saw what was happening. I had thought Bryan would be out within a few punches again, that he'd be on the ground a bleeding mess, possibly unconscious.

What we watched was the opposite. Ian tried everything in his power to hit Bryan the same way he had the night at the party, but he blocked every hit thrown his way, and then finally made his attack. After a good two hits to the jaw and nose, Ian collapsed to his knees. Bryan drove his knee into the other boy's jaw, sending Ian back on to the concrete, coughing. I started down the steps as Bryan crouched beside my nearly unconscious best friend, hand locked around his throat.

"If you ever lay a hand on a woman again I will break every one of your fingers." He hissed, voice so low it was barely audible. "And if you touch even a hair on Charlotte's head again, I will kill you. Do we have an understanding, Cruz?"

"Bryan." I grasped his shoulder, watching Ian claw at the hand locked around his throat. "Bryan you're going to kill him."

Ian nodded as best as he could and Bryan released him, standing. His eyes fell on Tristan a few feet away, but he held his hands up in surrender.

"We're good man." He said.

Bryan wouldn't look at me. Instead he brushed passed me and walked back into the house, rubbing his knuckles with a shake of his head. It was then, as I watched the door swing shut behind him, I realized what he'd been doing. At the party, every time he'd wanted so desperately to fight but didn't.

He had been holding back. He had allowed Ian to knock him out at the party, it didn't just happened. He'd let him win.

Why?