Haphephobia

"Wow, I cannot believe you didn't let her hug you, Ben. Do you realize how stupid that is? She's, like, super hot. Why are you acting so stupid all of the sudden?"

"Why won't you ever let me touch you, Ben? We've been dating for about three weeks now and we haven't even held hands. What the hell is going on with you? Why do you shut everyone out?"

"Fine then. Clearly, you don't like me. I've seen you hug other people before but suddenly I'm just some guy who's too disgusting to be touched? Thanks a lot, Ben. Thanks a lot."

"Dude, really? What are you, gay?"

These words were all I ever got anymore. Nobody liked me. I closed myself off; I was weird. I was that kid. Yeah, that one. The nerdy, lonely one in the corner.

And the thing was, it wasn't even always like that. I used to have tons of friends. A girlfriend, even. But not anymore. Not since last month. Not since that totally random girl actually beat me in that sewage drain across the supermarket. And since then, nobody can touch me. Not anymore.

Someone so much as brushes past my arm and it's like fire and goosebumps and crawling and just absolute hell all over me. And the thing is, nobody even gets it. Because I can't relive what happened to me- they can't know what happened, but they also can't touch me. There are times when people just can't know certain things. This is one of those times.

But you know what else happened that day that nobody knows about? When she jumped me, one of the first things that happened was both of us fell into a gutter. She beat me up so badly. I only remember a little, but just enough to recall the moment I accidentally stabbed myself on a waste-covered shard of glass. The glass had white volume markings on it, as though it was from a shattered syringe.

After I escaped, just barely still alive, something happened. Like... a ripple, all over my skin. I was moving, but not consciously. My whole body was doing things I had no control over, and before you know it, I looked like some kind of animal. I think it was a bear, but I can't really remember the whole thing. Man, I was so weak... Before long, whatever it is I was fell over... my whole body just rippled, you know? And I was back to my old self again. According to the cops, I was found later that day, bruised and beat.

So even though nobody will ever touch me again, there's something I can do that nobody knows about. Something cool about lame little me that makes me different from everyone else. I became a shapeshifter, and even though I don't know why or even how, I can do things. I am special.

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