Chapter 14

Brent took a second to recover then stormed over to our side of the table. He threw a punch at Caleb, but Caleb dodged and hit him in the stomach.

I leapt up and grabbed Caleb to pull him out of the way. “Stop it! Both of you!” I said. Dad, Ryan, and Greg were also getting up to separate us, but it was too late.

In his blind rage, Brent shoved me violently out of the way. “Stay out of this, faggot!” he snarled. My reflex was to put my hands out and break my fall, but I was too off balance and he had pushed me too hard. My left forearm hit the table hard. Too focused on the pain, my legs tangled with those of a chair and I slammed my head on the way down. The hot concrete taste of head trauma spread across my tongue and rattled the teeth in my jaw. My left arm hit the chair as well as I tried to steady myself, and what had been a nebulous ache suddenly became a sharp lancing pain from my shoulder to my fingertips.

“Ethan!” my mother screamed.