“The fuck you wa–” he began, and then SLAP.
It was the hardest I’ve ever slapped anyone, and probably the hardest I’ve ever seen anyone slapped. It knocked him back into his seat and it seemed to echo in the small basement room forever. A hot pain surged through my left hand, which I would still feel the next day. It must have really stung for him. I took two steps back, giving him a chance to decide his next move. He picked the wrong one, and exploded up out of his chair, fist cocked, fury in his face.
Unfortunately, Cousin Trish made the wrong decision as well. Even though I was backing up, she leaped into me, hands on my chest like I was the one that needed to be held back. She was yammering at me to calm down and get a grip and whatever. Howie was coming at us fast, still rising out of a crouch and winding up to throw a wild right-handed punch that seemed more likely to hit Trish in the back of the head than me in the face.
In any event, I wasn’t too keen on him hitting either of us. I brushed Trish aside and caught Howie square in the jaw with a hard right jab. It would have been harder if I hadn’t been a little off balance, but combined with his forward momentum, it carried enough force to drop him like a sack of potatoes. It didn’t knock him out, but he was lying on his side, propped up on an elbow, blinking and shaking his head and looking at me stunned and cross-eyed.
I glanced around to see if anyone else wanted to step in. The only other serious threats were the twins, Robbie and Richie, who were up out of their seats but wisely hadn’t made a move toward me. When I was ten, they had terrified me, but I was half a head taller than they were now. They sat back down. I stood over my brother.
“If you want to be a douchebag and ignore her, that’s your problem,” I told him. “But you make another comment like that, and I will seriously fuck you up. YOU HEAR ME?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. I spun away and headed for the door, and then stopped in my tracks. Jenny was there, eyes wide, mouth in a beautiful O. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but I was terrified she’d be angry and walk away. Instead, she managed a smirk.
“Come on, slugger,” she said. “Let’s take a walk.”
++++++++++
“Did you ever get in trouble for that?” Jenny asked.
“Nope,” I said. “Howie is a dick but not a rat. He never told mom and dad.”
“I’m surprised the twins or Trish didn’t squeal. But I guess I shouldn’t be. They were all terrified of you after that.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Trish told me later. Richie especially was shitting his pants. He picked on you so much when you were little, he thought you were going to come after him to get your revenge.”
“I thought about it,” I said, and we both laughed.
Jenny was setting the table while I took cartons of Chinese food out of the bags I’d brought with me. She was wearing a fluffy pink robe, which I could admit to myself was a disappointment after her earlier texts about lying around in lingerie. Probably she’d been kidding all along, and I had no business expecting a naughty fashion show from my cousin. But her flirty texting tone had raised my hopes.
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