Jumped

Mason

The nurse at the desk on the first floor directed me to Rick’s room as Casey had promised. I found him in a room of his own, still unconscious, and collapsed into the chair beside his bed. He looked rough. He looked like he’d been in a battle for his life.

His nose had been broken, and he had two black eyes. The doctors had put a brace over his nose and secured it with thin white strips of medical tape. His bottom lip was split open, his jaw was bruised, and I could also see bruises along his forearms, likely from blocking punches.

“Fuck, man,” I breathed as I looked my brother over. I was having terrible flashbacks of sitting with him in this very same hospital the night he’d been shot. This wasn’t as terrifying because his life wasn’t hanging in the balance, but the beeping monitors and the bandages and the blood were enough of a trigger to have me feeling some of that same anxiety.

Laina arrived a good ten minutes after I had. S