Page 56 of Forever Fascinating

Matthew froze immediately.

Hot Cakes drew back and punched him almost immediately with an audible pop. The moment his fist hit him, Matthew knew his nose was broken.

The crunch was audible and reverberated through him, sending a sharp explosion of pain that nearly brought him to his knees. He grunted openly, before staggering.

Grabbing his nose and tasting blood, he looked up at the men – only to see them smiling in disbelief of what just happened.

If Hot Cakes actually knew, he wouldn’t have stopped at just one hit – nor would he look amused. None of them could have guessed that he actually was talking with Jana in secret.

Hot Cakes was waving his hand, wincing at the pain he’d caused himself, flexing his fingers several times. Handsy was fighting back a smile. Caboose was laughing uproariously, slapping Hot Cakes on the back, while Reaper and Houdini watched in amusement.

“That was like punching a brick wall,” Hot Cakes muttered in disbelief.

“Dang buddy – I didn’t think you’d hit him…” Caboose chuckled. “They were just dancing at your reception, and it was an easy jab at you, my friend. Jeez, Vapor, why didn’t you duck? I heard the crunch of bone from over here!”

“I fink I’ll snow due medhicle,” Matthew uttered in a muffled sounding voice, that caused them all to laugh again, before Hot Cakes patted him on the back, smiling at him.

“Sorry, Vapor,” Hot Cakes said quietly. “Gut reaction… and I’ll join you. I think I broke my pinky finger.”

“Dood,” Matthew said bluntly, trying not to gag on the blood in his mouth as he spat on the tarmac.

“I don’t know if he said ‘Dude’ or ‘Good’,” Handsy smiled.

“Both work,” Caboose shrugged, patting Matthew on the shoulder. “C’mon buddy, we’ll get you fixed up.”

“Shanks bellas…”

CHAPTER14

VAPOR

An hour later,Matthew didn’t know if it was possible to hurt any worse than he did right now. His head was throbbing with pain enough to make him gag and the light was hurting his eyes.

The x-rays showed that not only was his nose broken, but it was severely misaligned. Surprisingly Hot Cakes and Caboose stayed with him while they worked on his face. At one point, he felt someone holding his hand, just before he nearly passed out from the pain when they set it.

He had two shots of something directly into his nose to numb it some, but it barely touched the raw, sharp, sensation when it was put back into place. His nose was completely packed with cotton from the inside and dressed with a metal splint that was taped to his face.

“Remind me not to make you mad,” Caboose said quietly, talking to Hot Cakes, over where Matthew lay in pain. “Poor guy has two black eyes.”

“Don’t make jokes about my sister and Vapor.”

“Vapor is a good guy… I think she could do a lot worse, you know? She could be dating Houdini.”

Matthew let out a painful groan as his head throbbed – and it was well timed with the conversation happening around him. Someone handed him an ice pack that felt like a bag of frozen peas, laying it on his face.

“She’s my sister, Caboose.”

“And she’s going to find someone, someday… you need to relax because you can’t go around knocking out everyone your sister looks at or dances with - or your wife might have something to say about that,” Caboose taunted. “You should focus on your own spouse and let your sister have a little fun without worrying about her big brother threatening every guy she looks at.”

“Why do you care?” Hot Cakes asked bluntly. “Wait - you aren’t sniffing around after her, are you?”

“You are welcome to try to hit me.”

“ARE YOU?”

“No,” Caboose chuckled. “But she did ask me to dance with her, because the girl is extremely lonely, I think.”

There was a pause of silence.

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