Heartburn (Love By Design 3)

“She’s really shaken up from the whole thing. Bullied my nurses too while I was out. You know, I kind of expected the jokes to come from you, not Chase.” Glancing at Damien, I maneuvered myself up in the bed letting Hunter hand me my remote control for the bed.

Damien got out of the chair to pace the room while he grabbed the back of his head looking sheepish.

“Really dude?” I said.

“That’s because I made this dipshit leave his bag of marshmallows in the car.” Hunter grabbed Damien around the neck wrestling with him until he pushed him off fixing his hair.

“See, Hunter is a stick in the mud. I could probably use that stick for roasting those suckers.” What would I do without these guys. I appreciated their years of friendship as we’d all been through so much together.

“You leave my stick alone or I’ll beat your ass. That’s exactly why I moved out after high school.” Hunter teased his cousin.

“Wow, a gay joke from the straightest guy in the room. I can see why your girlfriend kissed a girl and liked it.” Damien dodged Hunter and they mock wrestled in my room. I laughed grabbing my chest coughing.

“Gentlemen.” The mean nurse stood in the doorway glaring at their shenanigans before walking away again down the hall.

“Stop, my chest hurts from smoke inhalation.” Lia would kick their asses right now and my smile grew tenfold thinking about my girlfriend going all junkyard dog on them.

Chase stepped in between them to put his arms around both Damien and Hunter with a snicker. “Look, it’s okay if you’re into dudes, but you are cousins.”

“Already been there.” Damien said puffing out his chest making Hunter grunt. Damien shrugged pulling out the Ace card. “Well, I am banging your sister.”

“Ugh, please the mental image needs bleach.” Chase pushed Damien away shuddering.

Leaning back against the wall, Hunter pointed out the obvious we both agreed on. “They will forever be fourteen.”

“It’s true. I think the only time we didn’t kill each other was on the football field.”

“You know, I thought he was in a bad mood, but since it’s been a few years, I’m guessing this is just his true personality.” Damien retorted.

“You mean dickbag?” I jested.

“Sure.” Chase drawled busying himself with picking up my chart to read. He flipped through the pages ignoring the rest of us. He was a veterinarian, but all things medical fascinated him.

“You know, the only one of the team we’re missing is Evan.” I chided them. It sucked not having everyone together.

“Nope. Nope. Not gonna do it. Not even for you, crispy tater-tot.” Damien quipped. He stood his ground grumbling. Yeah, that was Damien, the biggest kid out of all of us.

“Oh come on, you don’t think your little pissing contest with him could be over by now. You got the girl.” I rationalized.

“Of course I got the girl. He can’t handle it. He can’t handle the truth.” Crossing his arms over his chest, Damien quoted A Few Good Men.

Evan was doing fine, but out of all of us, I kept up with him the most since school. I never really thought it was fair for Damien to pull rank the way he did because he was pissed about decade old shit. Time to let go and move on, easier said than done I supposed.

“I’d say he was handling it just fine when he let Kristen keep the ring and walked away to make room for your asshole ego.” Chase explained.

Damien smacked his backside. “It’s a mighty fine ass too.”

“It’s a lost cause trying to argue this one. Let it go.” Hunter muttered. “Damien needs something to be mad at, it’s in his DNA.”

Damien flipped Hunter the finger rubbing the bridge of his nose attempting to be discrete. It wasn’t working, but telling him that was exhausting, so we gave up.

I sighed from the effects of the last 24 hours when it all hit me.

“Alright, I’m just trying to point out the obvious.”

Chase leaned over the end of my bed busy reading my chart. “What’s that?” I kicked my foot at the nosy fucker who ignored me.

“Well, Evan didn’t pop Kristen’s cherry and that’s what has Damien all twisted.”