Deck’s voice drifts through my head like an unwanted echo.
You’re going to help him, aren’t you, Yoda? You can’t stop collecting strays.
I exhale through my nose.
“Look,” he says quickly, already retreating inward. “I don’t want trouble. I’ll go.”
He shifts, and the blanket slips, and that’s when I see them. The fading bruise along his jaw. Another mark half-hidden at his hairline. They are old damage. And they are the kind that doesn’t come from accident. Heat flashes through me, sharp and immediate. My jaw clenches before I can stop it.
He notices me noticing, and that is when his body changes instantly. I see it visibly tighten. He is shutting down, closing himself off, like a door slamming shut from the inside. My chest tightens. I recognize the shift, the retreat, the fear. I’ve seen it too many times.
That tells me more than the bruises do. This young man is used to being looked at like this. And I hate what it does to me.
* * *
“I have a spare room,” I say. The words leave before I can weigh them properly.
His head snaps up.
“What?”
Yeah. Brilliant, CJ.
“I’ve got a room,” I repeat, slower now. “Just for a few days.”
He stares at me like I’ve suggested something illegal.
“I don’t know you.”
“Fair.”
“You could be a serial killer.”
“Statistically?” I pause. “Unlikely.”
A small, surprised laugh slips out of him before he can stop it. It’s a real laugh, and the smile that goes with it flickers across his face and disappears again too fast. The sound hits harder than it should. Something warm flickers in my chest, brief but real.
But I saw it, and something in my chest tightens because of it.
“My name’s CJ.”
Silence again. Then, softer than everything else he’s said,
“Eli.”
The name lands differently. It’s simple. I find myself liking it.
“Are you hungry?” I ask.
He huffs a small laugh. “Is this normally how you recruit people?” nodding toward the building sign.
“No.”
A faint smile tugs at his mouth as I say,
“Usually there’s paperwork. Less food.”
That’s when it happens, the smile fully arrives. And I realize I’ve been wrong about him since the moment I saw him. He’s not just tired.
