Looking into the old grimy mirror above the sink, the pain was so intense that Mason Scott was forced to grit his teeth to examine his nose thoroughly. Pushing left, then right; up a bit, and then pulling it down — trying to assess the extent of the damage. It was bad. So bad, he could see the scar tissue inside his left nostril where eight years ago his parents had taken him to get his nose cauterized because he was always getting nose bleeds after a run in with a schoolyard bully. Mason couldn’t remember the kid’s name but he’d been harassing a friend of his named Alicia Brooks on the school bus all week and everyone had been too scared to do anything about it. Everyone except Mason. He’d stood up and told the bully to stop or he was going to punch him until the bones in his hands were broken. He’d meant it, too. Someone would have had to drag him off the rotten bastard. Without a thought the much larger boy had laughed and sent Mason sprawling with a fist to the nose. Tears mixed with blood and rage as Mason had laid in the aisle of the bus blinking up at the bully.
