Brett drove to the bar in Huntington, with Vicky navigating from the passenger seat. I'd gotten dressed in the outfit I'd planned to wear to Danielle's party, shooting my newfound friend a text to apologize for not making it.

You ok? she'd sent back.

Tell you all about it tomorrow. I replied

Hope whatever it is goes okay. She replied, with the slanty frown emoji.

I felt like a jerk for blowing her off, but I needed to see for myself whether Ethan had outright lied about taking his mom to the airport. I hoped I would be able to come back to Brett and Vicky with a triumphant grin to say someone else was playing guitar for the band, but the closer we got to the bar the next town over, the more my dread intensified.

As the dark highway whizzed past, my finger hovered over the send button on the text I'd typed but hadn't had the guts to send.

How's the drive to the airport?

When Brett signaled and pulled off for Huntington, I grew a pair and pressed send. The wait for a reply was agonizing, but none came. I kept telling myself it was because he was driving, but I had a sneaky feeling it might also be because he was on stage at a battle of the bands.

When we pulled up outside the club, I felt like I was three seconds from spewing my dinner all over the back seat of Brett's car.

"You want me to come in with you?" Vicky asked, turning around to survey me. Brett was watching me in the rearview mirror as I stared with trepidation towards the club entrance.

"We're coming in with you," Brett said, switching off the ignition before I could answer. I swallowed when I met his gaze in the rearview, that barely stifled anger still there in his eyes. I had a feeling that if he laid eyes on Ethan in that club that there would be blood.

We climbed out of the car and Vicky sidled up to the bouncer, flashing her fake ID and convincing him to let us cut the line. He stamped my hand since all I had was my drivers' license that said I was very much under 21, but Brett flashed his own fake ID and the three of us strode into the club.

The place was positively booming with sound and hazy from the heat of all the bodies packed into such a small place. The stage was tucked at the back, the music so loud I could barely think.

"We'll get a drink at the bar, you go investigate," Vicky shouted into my ear, while she herded Brett towards the bar at the opposite side of the venue. Brett was straining to see who was up on stage and I figured it would be a good idea to have him on the other side of the room if indeed it was Ethan on stage.

As I made my way through the crowd, the room dipped into a large dance floor area, a few steps leading down into a mass of bodies. I paused at the top and clenched my jaw to keep from throwing up.

Ethan and his band were wrapping up a song I'd never heard before, Ethan jamming on his guitar with a sheen of sweat on his smiling face. As it ended, the crowd went wild and I couldn't stop from staring at him. Their drummer ripped off his shirt and tossed it into the crowd. There was a flurry of motion and I recognized the familiar faces of the girls from Corey's party as they scrabbled for the shirt towards the front of the crowd. I snorted at how pathetic it was, these boys playing rockstar at some tiny middle-of-nowhere club. But mostly I snorted at how craftily I'd been played.

"Thanks, and goodnight," Corey, their lead singer and bassist said, when they'd finished their songs. Setting my jaw, I fought the crowd as I made my way towards the stage. This ended now.

I maneuvered my way through the crowd, deliberately avoiding the crowd of Clariview girls that was milling around near the stage. I kept an eye out for Dakota, surprised that she wasn't in on this sneaky lie. By the time I'd made it to the stage, the band was gone and another had taken their place, plugging in their guitars and trying out a few chords.

"Hey, where's that last band at?" I asked a security guy standing next to the stage.

"They'll be out later," he shouted dismissively, as the next band blasted into a roaring rock song.

"I kinda need to see them now. My boyfriend's the guitarist," I persisted. The security guy looked me over, his eyes settling on the underage stamp on my hand.

"Through there," he said, jutting his chin towards a dim hallway set in the back wall. I thanked him with a smile and made my way over to the hallway. It led to a set of stairs into a grungy basement area, the noise of the club above muted by the walls, but the sounds of several people talking and laughing below.

I made my way down into what seemed like a little makeshift lounge area. Just as I cast my eyes around for where the band could possibly have gone, Corey appeared out of one of the closed doors along the back wall.

"Madison?" he said, his brows crashing together. I forced a smile onto my face.

"Hey Corey!" I gushed, "You guys were awesome tonight! D'you know where Ethan is?"

"Um..." he began, flushing, "Nope. I...I haven't seen him since he left the stage,"

"Really?" I said, "The bouncer said you'd all come down here, you sure he's not in there?"

"No, I'm sure," Corey replied, a little too quickly. I kept my smile in place as I stalked towards him, reaching around him for the door handle. He reached out to try and stop me, which resulted in me shoving him backwards into the room, the smile gone from my face now.

From that point on, everything seemed to happen at once.

All the talking and laughter in the room came to an abrupt halt as Corey hit the floor, all eyes on me as I stormed in. All eyes except for two, because their faces were locked together in a makeout session. It was only when the silence had stretched on uncomfortably long that Ethan detached his face from Dakota's. My hands balled into fists as I gauged the distance between me and the sofa and whether I'd be able to lunge far enough to land a punch in my heeled boots.

"Maddie," he said, his eyes bugging. He reached out to try to shove Dakota away, but she held fast, still straddling him as she glanced back over her shoulder. Her bare shoulder. My nemesis' shirt had somehow disappeared.

Forget punching. This merited revenge so much worse than a simple punch.

"Maddie, wait, you don't-" Ethan began, all but throwing Dakota to the floor so he could stand. Whatever cutting words I'd been preparing to say upon bursting into the room died on my lips, the hot anger that had propelled me downstairs into this cesspit of a club basement solidifying into something icy and hard.

"You crossed the wrong person, you son of a bitch," I said quietly, feeling as if a bucket of water had been dumped on my head.

They were right. They were all right. Brett, Vicky, Courney, Brandon, Tyler...all the people I'd so quickly abandoned because some lying creep had gotten into my head, they had been telling the truth all along. Now that I'd seen it with my own eyes, now that I'd been faced with what they had probably witnessed behind my back for weeks, I felt like a complete and utter fool.

And nobody makes Madison Carlisle look like a fool.

The world snapped back into focus again for the first time in weeks and as my epiphany cleared my brain, I realized that Ethan was making a break for me. Without giving him one more second to spout yet another lie, I turned on my heel and dashed as quickly as I could back towards the stairs.

"Madison, just wait!" Ethan shouted from behind me, as I prayed that Brett and Vicky were somewhere nearby to act as reinforcements. As luck would have it, just as my foot hit the first stair at a sprint, reinforcements were already on their way down.

"Where is he?" Brett demanded, despite Vicky tugging on his arm as she staggered down the stairs in her 4 inch heels behind him.

"Madison don't!" Vicky shouted, "He'll get arrested! Don't-"

"You need to listen to me, I didn't-!" Ethan shouted, coming up behind me, Dakota's bright red lipstick still smeared all over his face. Brett roared and Vicky screamed as he ripped free from her and thundered down the stairs towards me.

Four steps up, I felt a hand on my elbow and reacted on instinct. My curled fist swung around and connected with something fleshy. Pain shot through my hand, but it was muted by the satisfaction of seeing Ethan stumble backwards, his nose bloody. The pain was enough, however, for that icy calm to flood me once again, Vicky's screaming cutting through the cacophony. I whirled around, leaning forward to give my brother an almighty shove back up the stairs, his running back bulk nearly knocking me off my feet. I grabbed the banisters to keep from falling as Vicky snagged one his arms, dragging him away as best she could. If Brett made it to the basement, there was no way he would leave this club without an assault charge.

"He's not worth it! He's not worth it!" Vicky kept shouting in my brother's ear, but his face was red and his jaw was working and I knew that meant he wasn't about to let this one go.

"Get out of here before the bouncers come!" I hissed, shoving him up the stairs after Vicky.

"You're a dead man, Wheeler!" Brett roared, finally allowing Vicky to pull him backwards as the bouncer poked his head around the corner to investigate all the noise.

Ethan had frozen in place, watching with something akin to horror in his eyes as we dragged my raging brother out of the club.

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Well that certainly was the nail in the coffin! How do you think Madison is going to handle it going forward? Hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you did, please don't forget to vote and comment! :)