Don't Touch Me! - 46

"You need to put your whole body weight into it," Brent told Cody the Saturday following their run-in with Garey. "Try again."

Cody stepped in fast, thrusting his shoulder against Brent's chest hard enough to cause Brent to take two steps backward.

"Now, while I'm momentarily off guard, bring your arm up crossways and hit my throat."

"No way," Cody protested. "I could really hurt you."

Brent nodded. "If you followed through, you would. I'm trusting you to pull your move at the last second. So, chest, then throat."

After taking a deep breath, Cody did what Brent told him to, stopping a bare inch from the contact point on Brent's Adam's apple.

"Perfect. Again."

They practiced the move several times before going on to the next lesson. By the time the hour was over—because an hour was all Brent had allotted so Cody wouldn't become overwhelmed—Cody began to feel at least a small amount of confidence. He thought he might—just might—be able to at least stop an attacker long enough to get away. He said as much, adding, "If I can make myself hit him in the first place."

"Cody," Brent replied sharply, "you have to remember one thing. He has violent intentions toward you. If you don't counter with violence, if you let the ingrained thought get in your way that good people shouldn't counter violence with violence—instantly and as much as you're capable of—you will go down."

Cody nodded. "I understand that up here,"—he tapped his temple—"I just have to, like you said, get past the idea there has to be some other means to protect myself without using aggression."

"When a man intends to harm you, there isn't."

"Like the guy in the alley."

"Exactly. He could have wanted a lot more than just to give you what he considered a warning. He had you cornered, from what you said. Taking wild swings at him would only have egged him on. Use what you're learning now and you'll be able to get away from someone like him, hopefully leaving your attacker on the ground wondering what the hell just happened."

"Makes sense," Cody said, rubbing his shoulder, which ached now that the adrenaline from his lessons was wearing off. Suddenly it occurred to him, never once, throughout the whole exercise, had Brent hit him. He'd feinted as if he was going to, but that had been it. On the other hand, Cody had gotten in more than a few blows to Brent's body while practicing his moves.

"A few aches and pains?" Brent asked, chuckling.

"Yeah, but probably not nearly as many as you have," Cody told him. He paused, then added, "I know why you didn't hit me. You were afraid it might bring back memories and set off my paranoia again. But—" he looked squarely at Brent, "—next time, don't baby me. Okay? I don't think I'll break down, but isn't it better I find out now, with you than later if some SOB tries something?"

Brent nodded. "You're right. I'm not sure I was consciously avoiding hitting you. But yeah, I didn't. Next time though…" He grinned, tapping Cody's nose. "Next time watch out because we'll really go at it tooth and nail. And you won't fall apart."

"I hope."

"I know." Brent put his arm around Cody's shoulders. "Despite what you're thinking, what we did today was still, to all intents and purposes, an attack situation, and you made it through just fine. And worked up a sweat in the process, so grab your stuff and we'll go upstairs and cool down."