Page 80 of Collateral Damage
Cooper
Past - Age 23
Chandler is sitting at the table with a row of shot glasses. People I don’t recognize surround him, chanting for him to,“Drink! Drink! Drink!”I feel like I’ve walked into an unsanctioned frat-house basement party seconds before the cops are going to bust it up.
“What are you doing?” Sybil practically pounces on the group, pushing past drunk girls tottering on heels to get to her brother. I’m right behind her. “Where the hell is Ethan?” she practically screams.
Good fucking point.
“He went to the bathroom,” Chandler says, slurring his words. He’s clearly had too much, and my heart jumps to my throat when he starts to sway.
“We’re leaving,” Sybil says, trying to help her brother from his seat, but as soon as he stands, his knees buckle.
“I’m drunk!” he cheers, pumping his fists in the air. Most of the crowd cheer along with him. From the empty shot glasseslittering the table, it’s safe to say Chandler is more than drunk. He’s plastered.
“Shit,” I mutter. He might get alcohol poisoning from this. “How much can someone like Chandler drink?” I ask Sybil, feeling like an ignorant ass for not knowing.
“Unless there’s an underlying liver issue, people with Downs can metabolize it the same as you and me,” she says, while on the verge of tears. “But… but…”
But she’s not sure how much he’ll be able to handle emotionally.
I help Chandler to his feet, patting him on the back. “You okay?”
“He’s having fun,” some random girl says with a shrill laugh.
“That’s enough,” I yell at the crowd, unable to hold down my anger. They don’t know Chandler except that he’s visibly disabled. He’s a human being, not some joke for their entertainment.
“Hey, give the kid a break. He asked for shots, so we ordered him shots.” The same girl snorts, sounding like a smug bitch. “It’s his birthday.” She pats Chandler on the head as if he were a puppy. “Happy birthday, little guy.”
Sybil shoves the girl’s hand away, and I see red.
“He’s not your fucking little guy,” I hiss.
The girl’s face pales, and her eyes widen. “I mean, we didn’t pay for the shots. They did.” She points to two older men hanging on the outskirts of the crowd. They look like the kind of creepy leaches that come to places like these with a fat wallet, hoping to pick up drunk women.
I stalk right up to them, getting in their faces. “You ordered a flight of shots for a Downs kid and cheered him on to binge drink?”
The men smirk, and the fucker with a bald spot and a red face responds. “What’s it to you?”
“That’s my little brother, you fucker.”
Nottechnically, but close enough.
Baldy chuckles, and his loser of a friend steps in closer. Two against one, but I’m not afraid in the slightest.
“You want to fight us for getting the retard drinks?” He laughs, the scent of alcohol heavy on his breath. “The kidaskedfor them. I’m not a bad guy; I’m a Good Samaritan.”
Rage bursts inside me like an inferno, exploding through my fist, connecting with his face. He falls to the ground, and I’m on him in seconds. “I’ll fucking kill you for calling him that, you motherfucker!”
I beat the shit out of this guy, barely aware of my surroundings. Sybil is crying. Chandler is in his chair. The guy’s pudgy friend is unsuccessfully trying to haul me off him. And this mother fucker deserves to have his face rearranged.
They land a few punches on me, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. The pain doesn’t even register. It’s only when the bouncer hauls me off his ass that the fighting actually stops, and the two men scurry away like rats. Ethan’s returned, and he’s got Chandler, practically holding him up since he’s so wasted. Tears stream down Sybil’s red face, and the entire scene goes from loud and hot to cold and quiet.
The crowd disperses.
“You’re out of here,” the bouncer says, hauling my ass out of the club and depositing me on the curb. “You’re lucky I don’t call the police, but I heard what that guy said. I let you get in a few good punches, but I still have to do my job.”
“Yeah, no problem.” I salute him, spitting out a mouthful of blood onto the pavement as I stand. The bouncer leaves, and Ethan and Sybil find me, Chandler slumped between them.
