Clash of the Clichés

"What happened?" Matt immediately questioned when I got home. I looked down and immediately knew why. I had a few splashes of Vanessa's blood and my vomit staining my shirt. My hair was a mess and my cheeks still felt so unbearably warm. I must have looked like utter crap. "What happened? And don't try to lie your way out of explaining."

"Karma happened," I answered, and went upstairs without another word. I was still slightly in a daze, but even in my unstable state I recognized that I needed a shower and a change of clothes.

"Don't you dare go into that bathroom yet. You've got some explaining to do."

"Well, I just explained to you. Karma. Vanessa got what was coming to her." His eyes narrowed in accusation.

"She's the one who beat you up, isn't she?" I didn't confirm nor deny, because we both knew it was the truth. No matter how much I denied, he knew. I was generally a horrible liar. "So she got what was coming to her? What the hell does that mean?"

"The blood's hers. Puke's mine. She tried to make sure I wouldn't talk, Axel pummeled her to a pulp until she almost died. She's in the hospital now." Normally, I would never talk so openly about it, knowing I was only dooming myself to even more overprotectiveness. But after what I just witnessed, my mind was in a complete haze and needed someone to talk to about it. If I didn't get it off of my chest, I might explode. Vanessa almost died.

Matt's face softened slightly as he followed me to the bathroom. "They probably should have taken you too, make sure you weren't going into shock."

"I'll be fine," I said with a slight eye roll. "So when's Ace coming over to inspect the damage?"

"Should be here in about five minutes."

"Did you two actually talk or is that just knowing him?"

"Oh come on. When it comes to you getting hurt, the boy runs on a perfect schedule." I shrugged and closed the door, stepping into the warm shower. Ace would be pissed to find out I was in the shower when he came to investigate my condition, but I didn't really care. Sure, the walls would shake a little, and maybe a photoframe or two would fall and break, but they could always be replaced.

It was rather annoying having to shower with my leg hanging out of the curtain like some retard, but somehow I managed to wash off the troubles of the day without losing my sanity. "Where is she? Is she ok? How bad is it?" I heard Ace's rumbling voice screaming and the house shaking slightly as he threw open the door. I could just imagine his body shaking with rage at the thought of me being hurt.

"Her ribs are bruised and her ankle's sprained. She's in the shower right now." I could hear Ace's loud footsteps as he stomped up the stairs and right to the bathroom door, pounding on it enough to make the entire room shake. I let a small squeak escape and jumped slightly in shock.

"Evelyn you get your ass out of that shower right now and let me see you, you hear me? RIGHT NOW!" He hit the door one more time, making a magazine fall from the counter to the floor with a thud. That boy could cause an earthquake if he wanted to.

"Ace, I don't think scaring the hell out of my sister is going to solve anything. Calm the fuck down," Matt growled. I could just imagine him lounging across from Ace, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyebrow raised patronizingly.

Ace was usually smart, but he was run by impulses he couldn't control, despite all of his martial arts training to teach him self control. Matt or Amy were usually the ones to reign him in before he did something truly stupid. They knew to be careful with how they dealt with Ace. I hadn't met a single person who I thought could win in a fight against Ace, and Matt and Amy were just about the only people with enough tact to avoid that.

There was one time when Amy had failed to calm him down and ended up coming to blows with him. Ace didn't think of Amy as a girl, so the no hitting girls rule didn't apply. But that didn't mean he didn't feel regret afterwards. He had spent the next month refusing to eat in order to punish himself. For someone who always scolded me for letting people hurt me, he was rather good at hurting himself. Masochist.

"You're right," Ace sighed softly, making both Matt and me sigh with relief. I quickly finished my shower and turned the water off, reaching for a towel but instead tripping myself and landing on the floor with a soft 'oof.' "Evelyn? You alright? Do I need to send Matt in there? Are you hurt? Are you bleeding? Where does it hurt?! Answer me!!!"

"Chill, Ace," I was finally able to wince out through the pain in my already bruised ribs. "I just tripped. No biggy."

"Tripped? YOU HAVE BRUISED RIBS! You can't trip right now. Do your ribs hurt?"

"Not at all." Lie.

"You're lying. Matt, go in there and get her dressed. Drag her out kicking and screaming if you must." I sighed softly and just stayed on the floor, waiting for the click of the door opening. It would admittedly be better to wait for help than try and get up myself, and risk falling again when I couldn't deal with the pain.

"Can you go get her pain meds? Mom said they should be on the nightstand next to her bed." Great. I hated those pills. They were gigantic, and the idea of forcing one down my throat was not appealing. I sighed again and heard the door click open, Matt's footsteps walking in and closing the door again behind him. "Alright, sis. Let's get you dressed so Ace can see you before he has a heart attack." He let out a long sigh and I let out a pathetic chuckle. That was all I could manage without hurting my ribs even more.

Matt's arms wrapped around my shoulders and gently pulled them up off the ground, putting me in a sitting position. He then put one arm under my arm and another on my waist and started pulling me up so I could stand. It hurt like hell, and I let out a small whimper, but other than that it was ok. "First things first. Panties and bra. I really do not want to spend anymore time looking at you naked than I have to."

I smiled and shook my head as he reached behind me and grabbed my underwear. "Lift," he said, and I obediently raised one leg, the the other, as he slid them through the holes in the fabric, then pulled it up so it rested where it should be. It was utterly humiliating knowing I couldn't even bend down to put on panties without my ribs screaming in pain.

It took about five minutes for us to get all of my clothes on and then Matt's hand wrapped around my wrist and tugged me towards the door, despite my protests. Facing both Ace and those pills were two battles I did not want to face, but Matt had other ideas. "Come on sis. Let's not get those ribs hurt even more if you try to put up a struggle."

"Shut up. You'd be scared too if you had to deal with Ace in protective mode." He just rose his eyebrow inquisitively.

"I have to deal with the opposite side of the spectrum. Ace in pissed off mode before he sees you and calms himself down. Which one do you think is scarier?" I just shrugged and looked away. He had a point, but I wasn't going to admit it. As soon as I made it downstairs, one of the dreaded pills was hovering in front of me, held by a hand attached to the dreaded Ace. In his other hand was a cup of water, which he handed to me without a word and glared at me, silently daring me to do anything other than take the pill.

I sighed and filled my mouth with water before plopping the pill in and swallowing all of it. My throat hurt with the effort and my eyes water slightly, but Ace smiled in satisfaction, doing a 'subtle' high five with Matt behind my back. "Like the boot," Ace drawled with a small teasing smile on his face. I just rolled my eyes and plopped down on the couch. My eyes were already feeling kind of heavy. The doctors had warned me that they would make me sleepy but I had no idea they would act so fast.

Ace plopped next to me as my head started lulling to the side, giving it a nice place to rest as it collided with his shoulder. "Go ahead and sleep, Evelyn. I'll be back tomorrow after school to check in on you." I wasn't allowed to go to school for a few days. I was technically supposed to be on bedrest, but I was stubborn and refused to stay on the prison of bedsheets. I felt Ace kiss my forehead and then scoop me up in his arms, presumably to take me to my bed. Before we even made it three steps, I was unconscious.