"I know you know that I made those mistakes maybe once or twice...By once or twice, I mean maybe a couple of hundred times" Brock sang out in a terrible rendition of Justin bieber as he stumbled along the uneven sidewalk.

He pointed to Kaiwe who did some sort of twirl before he sang out in rather decent voice, " So let me, oh let me redeem, oh redeem myself tonight...Cause I just need one more shot at second chance."

At this point Ash threw his arms around the other two.

"Take it away Ash!" Kaiwe exclaimed loudly.

Ash released the others. He used the empty bottle he held as a microphone and placed another hand in his pocket.

"Eh.. Is it too late now to say sorry?... Cause I'm.. missing more than just your body....Is it too late now to say sorry?...Yeah! I know that I let you down, Is it too late to say that I'm sorry now? Take it away Gary!"

Silence.

Cars zoomed by them on the city streets.

Loud music resonated from a nearby club.

"I said take it away Gary!" Ash repeated thrusting the bottle-mic in Gary's face.

Gary frowned and in one swift movement, grabbed the bottle and smashed it against the sidewalk.

"My mic!"

"You guys are so lame! Biebers?"

Brock stopped walking and turned to face Gary while Ash stared desolately down at the broken pieces of his pseudo-mic.

"Who else man? He gets the girls!" Brock started singing again, "I'll take every single piece of the blame if you want me to...But you know that there is no innocent one in this game for two"

"I'll go, I'll go and then you go, you go out and spill the truth...Can we both say the words and forget this?" Kaiwe continued then looked at Ash.

Ash was still staring at the sidewalk where his beloved bottle lay murdered.

"Ash. Your turn," Kaiwe hinted with a nudge.

"I-I can't," Ash finally said looking up sadly. "Gary killed Mikey!"

"Mikey?" Gary asked incredulously. "You named a bottle?"

"He was a friend!" Ash cried out. "He helped me to sing!"

Gary shook his head in disgust and roughly punched Ash in the arm. Then he turned on the others. "Man up! You all are acting like a bunch of losers!"

"Technically speaking, we are," Brock said then waved his arms down the street in no particular direction. "We're headed to Rooney's Bar were men like us tend to congregate."

"Men like us?" Ash asked raising his eyebrow, poor Mikey now forgotten in lieu of the conversation.

"Losers," Brock clarified. "The dumpees. Well, except Ash who was the dumper. The lonely hearts. The leftovers. The-"

"Okay Brock," Kaiwe said through gritted teeth as the men continued walking. "We get the point."

"Speak for yourselves," Gary huffed, rolling up his shirt sleeves, his suit jacket forgotten somewhere at Brock's. "I am no loser. I'm Gary freaking Oaker"

"Says the man who got beat up by his own date," Ash commented dryly following Brock and Kaiwe who had disappeared around a corner.

After coming to the conclusion that every bottle in Brock's little apartment had not even a drop of liquid left, the group of single men decided their moping was only beginning so Brock suggested they hit the downtown bar scene.

Gary's idea of going to The Orange Crew to pick up chicks had been shot down by those whose hearts were stinging instead of their cheeks. Women were the cause of their problems, so why would they want more?

After the revelation that Serena and Calem were now possibly an item because according to Gary.

"They seemed to be hitting it off real well," Ash felt like his soul had been sucked in the vacuum, his heart trampled upon. Clearly, because of his own foolishness, he had brought this misery upon himself yet that thought only served to intensify the hurt, not pacify it.

Gary draped an arm around his shorter friend. "Listen Ashy-boy. Forget about Serena. There are plenty of pretty fine fish in the sea. And if she's friends with the violent chick, I'd stay far away from both of 'em."

Ash sighed. "But, I just figured out I like her."

"From my experience, women do not appreciate to be lied to. You lied to Serena big time which means you probably have no chance with her. And Calem's a model. Girls love that."

"Is this supposed to be your form of consolation?"

"Yeah. Pretty much."

"You suck at it."

"Yeah well at least I'm - oof-," Gary stopped talking as he and Ash ran directly into Brock and Kaiwe's backs. "Why'd you stop?" Gary added.

Sliding his arm off Ash's shoulders, Gary took a step back and peered over Brock's head. Ash watched as his eyes widened and he let out a small curse. The other two men were also staring straight ahead silently. Was there some gang blocking the way or a fight?

Ash sidestepped away from the guys so he himself could see the cause for this silent spell and as soon as he had revealed himself, he wished he hadn't. In fact, he wished he had never left Brock's tonight.

......

At exactly 11:30 on Saturday night, if one were to stagger beyond the confines of Rooney's Bar to attempt to make their way to another place, they would actually find themselves stepping out not onto the usual sidewalk littered with pieces of broken glass but instead, they would discover that they were situated directly in the middle of a battlefield.

The air was no longer heavy with the stench of cigarette smoke but saturated thickly with a sickening amount of tension. Not a word was uttered for a couple of seconds, the levels of stress within each individual rising silently, minds racing as to what to do and wondering whether to speak, and if so, say what?

Serena and Shauna stood side by side, each locking eyes with the object of their hatred across the invisible line of mistrust while Calem stood behind them.

Brock and Kaiwe stood just as uncertainly between Gary and Ash, the former subconsciously rubbing his cheek, biting his lip and trying to form a plan of escape.

Luckily, no one had to make the tough decision and be the silence breaker as one man actually did stumble out directly into the line of fire, however, caused him to be completely unaware of the brewing storm and instead, he tumbled backwards directly into Shauna.

Finding herself suddenly with about two-hundred pounds of raunchy male practically dropping her down, Shauna threw her arms up and tried to shove the drunkard away. Realizing that small hands were on his back, the man turned and grinned down at Shauna.

"Hey," he said leaning forward, the stench of alcohol seeping out and even Serena couldn't help but gag.

"Get away from her!" two male voices rang out.

As Calem kindly escorted the drunkard away by grabbing his upper arm and throw him to the side where he passed out against the building wall, Shauna looked up in surprise at the men who had spoken in her defense.

Kaiwe, she could understand. But Gary? And why was her cousin with the jerk? Bah, never mind that. She'd deal with Kaiwe later.

She folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so worked up Pervert Prince?"

"Who says I'm worked up, Little Maria?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure I just heard you shout 'Get away from her,' and you're standing in an offensive pose."

Gary relaxed his arms that he had subconsciously risen, criticise himself for this unexplained behavior. Why had he felt his blood pressure rise when that man stumbled onto the crazy chick?

He opened his mouth to retort but the crazy chick apparently was not done talking. "Didn't I leave you back in that alley crying? Are you following me? You're like a bloody curse!"

"You were crying?" Brock asked with a grin.

"Shut up Brock." Gary narrowed his eyes, sorry he had even shown a shred of concern for this female assassin. "I was not crying and I am not following you. We just happened to be headed here. Why are you here? This isn't a place for nuns."

"None of your business now is it?"

"No. No it's not."

Silence settled between the groups once again and Serena decided it was now her turn to have her say. But it was such a hard choice to figure out who to chew out first.

Gary for his inappropriate actions towards Shauna or Alvin with his breakup on Melody?

One look at Gary and his still injured face show that Gary had suffered enough. For now.

Alvin it is.

Serena's eyes seek out the man. He was currently trying to sneak away and hide behind Brock's taller frame. And why was Alvin with two people she knew! Well, he wasn't going to get away that easily.

"err could you exuse of moving over a little? Thanks," Serena said as she defiantly strode over and pushed Brock to the side to reveal Alvin Ketter's hunched form.

He grinned up at her sheepishly. "Hey Sere."

Despite the overwhelming anger bubbling within her, Serena could still feel her heart jolt as their eyes connected. She cursed her heart and mentally demanded it to stay still as she reprimanded the man.

"I will say again for about the thousandth time this week, Sere is reserved for special people and that list does not include you. Secondly, what the heck is wrong with you? Did you not read the papers when you signed up for my service? You are not to dump your partner like that!"

"Ah," Alvin chuckled nervously. "You found out huh?" he scratched the back of his neck.

Serena glared. "Yes. I found out when the poor women came flying out of the elevators at the restaurant drowning in her own tears."

Alvin had the decency to at least look down at his shoes guilty. "Yeah. I'm sorry. I- I didn't mean to hurt her."

"But you did Alvin. You did."

"Alvin?"

Serena turned to look behind her at Shauna who had spoken. Her friend was staring at Serena, head tilted in confusion.

"Who's Alvin?"

"Oh sorry Shauna," Serena replied. Her friend was probably baffled as to why Serena was suddenly screaming her lungs out at some guy.

Serena waved a hand between Alvin and Shauna. "Shauna, this is Alvin Ketter, a client of mine. Alvin this is Shauna, my best friend."

That done, she faced Alvin once again to continue what she had started and noticed he was pale in the past few seconds.

His eyes were widened in what almost seemed like fear and he appeared to be looking past Serena towards Shauna while shaking his head slowly from side to side.

His mouth was opening and closing soundlessly as though he were trying to say something but couldn't quite get the words out.

Serena raised any eyebrow at the strange behavior.

What was wrong with the man? He looked stupider than usual.

The matchmaker was about to ask him if he needed someone to knock the sense back into him and that she'd volunteer to do to the knocking when Shauna spoke from behind.

"Alvin Ketter? But, I thought you were Ash Ketchum."

Next chapter coming up