Damaged Like Us Novels & Stories

Mickey My life was a mess. I was beating myself up everyday and at the same time was still trying to put myself together over what happened. But still, I could not stop thinking about that text message that I have received. All day, it played on in my mind, causing havoc within me. The words kept burning inside of me like they had been carved into my skin. "I can help you get the post taken down. Meet me. You know where. If you don’t, the next post will be worse."

Let her break down in my arms where no one else could see. "I'm sorry," she gasped when she finally calmed. "I'm such a mess." "You're my mess," I said. "And I love every broken piece of you." "How?" She pulled back to look at me. "How can you love someone this damaged?" "Because you're not damaged." I cupped her face. "You're healing. There's a difference. Damaged implies broken beyond repair, but you're not broken, Beatrice. You're wounded. And wounds heal given time and care."

"A drive it is." The car pulled smoothly out of the parking lot. The Chicago skyline drifted by. "Damien," I said suddenly. "Hmm?" "Why do you like me?" I looked at him. "A person as messed up as me." "Messed up?" Damien laughed. "How are you messed up?" "I'm cold, vengeful, I have a lot of issues." "You went through hell and you didn't just survive. You came out stronger," Damien countered. "That's not messed up, Rosabella. That's power. And that's what I want by my side."

Mel continues, brushing crumbs from her lips, “how are the other two doing?” “Fucking hungover,” Jackson says gleefully, like he’s enjoying their suffering. “Ilkay’s okay, but Logan’s wrecked. Sick as a dog, confused, doesn’t remember shit. Kiara made him a smoothie, and now he’s sleeping it off.” “How are you feeling?” Lee asks Damion. Damion glares, dark circles shadowing his eyes. “Like a bear knocked me out so a rat could chew on my balls.” Lee chuckles, his eyes glinting with mischief. “Well, you had a few needles stuck in you.”

Damien sat rigid across from me, his dark eyes cold yet distant, haunted by everything we’d lost—and everything he couldn’t forget. His side still bled through hastily wrapped bandages, but he barely acknowledged the pain. I reached for his hand, holding tight, grounding us both.“We made it,” I whispered, almost not believing it. His jaw clenched before he nodded slowly, his fingers tightening around mine. “We’re still here.” A Shattered World Kyle’s trembling fingers flew over the damaged console, trying to restore power to Rook’s navigation system. "Our systems are fried... no signal, no backup,” he rasped.

Damien opened his cellphone and showed Leah some photos. Leah looked at pictures of herself with Adrian and Damien in several different spots. She looked very cheerful at that time. "Sorry Damien, I had an accident some time ago and lost some of my memories, some memories did come back, but others didn't," said Leah, not wanting the person in front of her to feel forgotten.

—a shattered mirror reassembled with the cracks deliberately visible, the breaks incorporated into the new design rather than hidden. "That's us," she said quietly, standing in front of it with Damien. "Broken and reassembled?" "Broken and reassembled with all the cracks showing. Not trying to hide what happened. Just incorporating it into who we're becoming." Damien took her hand. "I like that. Better than pretending we're not damaged." "Everyone's damaged. We just have more dramatic origin stories than most." They had lunch at a small café near the park—nothing fancy, just sandwiches and coffee like any other couple. Isabella watched Damien eat and tried to memorize the moment. Simple. Nor

Despite having a lot of things that were preventing me from functioning well, I don’t know how I was able to come to the company without any scratches. There are a lot of things in my mind lately. Even though I wanted to talk to my only friend about the situation I’m into, I couldn’t tell her at all. Cassandra had once suffered from a miscarriage and I was there when it happened. It was a pity but more importantly a lot more painful for my friend as she had expected her baby to live. After that incident, I had vowed myself to always buying her whatever she wanted; probably also because of the trauma I sustained from that time.

Wanted to be what they were before. But Together was right. They could not be fixed. Could not be restored. Could not become what they were. The damage was permanent. The fracture was irreversible. The shattering was eternal. They had to accept it. Had to acknowledge it. Had to stop trying to fix it. Slowly. Painfully. Reluctantly. The twenty-two accepted. Stopped trying to fix. Acknowledged damage. "We accept," multiple voices said imperfectly synchronized. "We are damaged. We are fractured. We are incompatible. We accept. We stop trying to fix. We acknowledge what we are. We accept."

Damian officially has a high fever. How did this dude even get sick? Is this karma for being homophobic? Serves him right— no, that’s mean. I feel like an asshole now. He was sweating like crazy but still shivering as if he were freezing. When he opened his eyes and looked at me, he looked like a lost puppy begging for his mother’s love. Bro, that doesn’t work on me. Ciao. “Well, I hope you can take care of yourself,” I said, slowly standing up.