"Shit," Ashton cursed, breaking the silence that had already stretched for far too long.

The word was loud enough to alert the lip-locked paiar, and whether it was the tone he used or the familiarity of his voice, it was enough to break them apart.

"Shit," Declan said, repeating Ashton's profanity. The word slipped through his shimmering lips as he took in Willa's face, his cheeks reddening even with the powdery white paint coating them.

She was sure that her face was as pale as a ghost.

"Crap," Camille squeaked, breaking the trend. She raised a hand to brush her luscious hair from where it had mussed from Declan's finger tips, and in a sudden moment of heart plummeting realization, Willa suddenly noticed that the shade was identical to the girl's in the photos that Miles had sent her.

Swear words bubbled in Willa's throat and the violent urge that had swept through her earlier resurfaced.

Ashton took her hand firmly in his, and for a moment she let herself be glad that there was someone there to ground her. Because, with the hate and heartbreak seething through her veins, she wasn't sure if she could hold herself together on her own.

"There's a problem going on in there," Camille said, her words mindlessly filling the silence as she pointed towards the house. At least she had the decency to be blushing in embarrassment. 

Two-faced bitch.

But Willa couldn't even find it in herself to be mad at her just yet. Not when the boy beside her had managed to fracture her heart for the second time.

"There's a fight," Camille continued. Her wide eyes were fixed on Ashton's. "You should go check - I think... you should go in there."

Beside Willa, Ashton tensed, his fingers tightening around Willa's, which were already gripping his with all her strength.

"It's Ben," she said finally, her words falling quiet. 

Camille looked to Declan, and then back to Ashton. She was much too ashamed to look at Willa, and it only made fury grow.

She was sure she was going to explode.

"Ben?" Ashton asked. His demeanor was instantly shifted, and to some degree, Willa's had too. "Ben's in a fight?"

Camille nodded, and instantly Ashton's feet were moving forward towards the house, Willa in tow. Some of her rage had converted into to worry at the thought of Ben - innocent, care free Ben - getting into a fight.

"Willa, wait!" Declan called, and then he was stepping forward. "Willa we need to talk. Please. You're pissed, I know, I'm such an idiot. Please hear me out - just talk with me."

She hesitated.

Willa's eyes met Declan's, the jack-o-lanterns in the yard casting an orange glow over his cheekbones. Everything about him, every action he made, now felt designed to kick the shards of her heart further and further into the ground.

"Go screw yourself," Willa spat, and without another glance, she followed Ashton's lead, led by his warm hand around her own.

Declan could go finish making out with Camille in the garden if that's what he wanted. She couldn't let herself care anymore.

Ashton was through the sliding doors in two seconds flat. Now that most of the party-goers had migrated to the dance floor to witness what was going on, it was hard to get a grasp of the situation. Willa found herself craning her neck and standing on the tips of her toes, still unable to see anything but bits and pieces of people's costumes.

"Oh God," Ashton said, his height allowing him to easily see was causing the commotion.

Willa didn't have the chance to ask what was happening. Instead, she was thrown into motion trying to stay close to him as he dove into the crowd. She didn't let her grip on his hand slip, still afraid that by letting it go she would be falling. She was frightened of what would happen when she lost the connection - when she was left to feel the brunt of hurt and anger that Declan and Camille had ignited in her heart.

When they finally slipped through the last of the gathered students, Willa saw that Camille was indeed right. 

A small clearing was present in the corner of the room, where action had clearly taken place. The first person she noticed was a furious looking jock with a flock of similarly built guys holding onto his arms - one of them being Hugo, still wearing his toga.

The second was Superman, also identifiable as Ben, cradling his nose which was spewing with blood.

Willa was sure the jock's face crumpled in fear when he noticed Ashton enter the scene.

"What the fuck did you do to my brother?" Ashton yelled, his tone defensive. He let go of Willa's hand to approach the boy, who was now free of the grip of his friends.

Willa knelt by Ben, who was looking at the confrontation before him with fearful eyes. She regretfully grabbed the corner of his cape - which was already dotted with blood - to stem the flow which was leaking from between his fingers.

"Accident," the boy said with contempt. "It's nobody else's fucking business."

"Come on," Hugo said, yanking his friend up by the collar of his Dracula costume. He looked to Ashton. "He's just too drunk... sorry about your brother."

She was sure Ashton was going to punch him. The anger was evident in his posture, in the rage curdling in his eyes. But instead, he turned to Ben.

"What happened?" he snapped, and he knelt down beside Willa.

By now, with the perpetrator disappearing into another room with his cronies, the crowd of people had started to dissipate.

Willa noticed that Ben's eyes were welling with teardrops. She wanted to hug him, to comfort him in some way, but it didn't feel right to intrude on the two brothers.

"They were drunk," Ben croaked, repeating Hugo's words. "It was a misunderstanding. I just want to - God, I just want to go home. Can we leave?"

Ashton looked at Ben, at his flaming cheeks and shaking breaths. "Let's get out of here. All of us."

Willa could not have been happier to leave.

Ashton pulled Ben's free arm over his shoulder while Willa gave one last deathly glare towards the retreating jocks. She wasn't sure what had happened, but she was sure that with a group like them, it was very likely that they were the instigators.

Just as they were almost through the front door, a hand pulled Willa's elbow.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Aubrey asked, her glittery make-up smudged with a sheen of sweat from dancing. She was pouting.

Willa nodded to the Hartford brothers, who had paused a few steps in front. "We're leaving."

"What happened?" she whispered.

Willa tried not to let tears fall as her brows crumpled. "Declan and Camille - and then his stupid group of friends beat up on Ben."

Regretfully, Aubrey's expression told Willa that everything she said was about to be filtered through the dramatic lens that she used to see the world, and then spat out to the rumor mill of Richmond Prep.

"I'm sorry, I need to go, I'll fill you in properly tomorrow, go enjoy the party," Willa said reluctantly. She didn't want the guys to leave without her.

A wicked grin sprung on her best friend's face. "You're going home with Ashton?"

Willa gave her friend a look, translating you wish.

By the time the three of them had walked down the lawn and back to Ashton's car, the flow of Ben's bloody nose had slowed a little. Willa had thought quickly and grabbed a wad of tissues from the box in the foyer, but it wasn't enough to mop up the damage that had already been done.

"Which one started it?" Ashton asked, the interrogation beginning the moment Willa had shut the door behind her in the back seat.

"It doesn't matter," Ben muttered. He was staring out of the window, his eyes rimmed with red. 

"How long were you even at the party? Ten minutes?"

"Something like that."

"And you're telling me that it was completely random? There was nothing to start it?"

"Nope."

Silence ensued, and Willa realized that they weren't heading towards her neighborhood. Of course they weren't, it made sense that they'd tend to Ben first.

In the wake of the died conversation, Willa found her mind traveling back to the image of Declan and Camille. It was a torturous scene, one that she was sure wouldn't leave her mind no matter how hard she tried to erase it. It had barely been over a week ago that those lips had been on hers.

She felt like she was going to be sick.

They pulled into the Hartford residence, which was a large two-story building not quite as over-the-top as Kelsey's. Its windows were darkened and the driveway empty. Ashton killed the engine in silence.

Willa wasn't even sure if the two boys remembered she was still there. She gingerly closed the car door behind her and followed them inside as Ashton unlocked the house.

"Look," Ashton said to his brother as he flicked on a light in the hallway, illuminating a large living room decorated with ornate paintings. "I need you to tell me if any of them are giving you a hard time, or doing anything, okay? None of this protect them bullshit."

"I'd tell you," Ben said, his tone devoid of emotion. He walked past Ashton and down another hall. 

Ashton looked to Willa, his expression telling her that he wasn't sure whether he should pursue him or leave him to cool down. In the end, the latter must have won. "I'm going to go drop Willa home, okay? I'll be back in twenty minutes or so!"

"Alright," Ben called from what must have been the bathroom.

"They're assholes," Willa said the moment she and Ashton were outside. "It probably wasn't Ben. If they were looking for a fight then it could have been anything or anyone. God knows I spent enough time with them through Declan."

"I know. Ben doesn't have a violent bone in his body, and that makes it worse. God, I could have hit that guy," he said, his breath shaky.

Willa could relate to that one. She resumed her position in the passenger's seat of his car, fiddling with the green scarf hanging over her shoulders.

"I could have hit Declan too, you know."

"I would have done it before you could have," she said darkly. Then she realized that Ashton was being protective, or at least standing up for her. Her chest lifted a little. "But thanks."

His face was shadowed as they moved under street lights, their illumination making hypnotic patterns with the drawings on his face. His lips were pink where the paint had rubbed off, and something about the alcohol and the dancing made Willa feel a little too attracted to him.

"I was only teasing you about cheating by the way," he said, bringing up the conversation they were having before her heart had collapsed once again. 

"I know," she said, feeling a little stupid about it all. But, at the same time, she wanted to win. "I still have no shame, though."

"Neither do I," he said, amused. "I was testing you too, you know."

"How so?"

"You were supposed to use me to make him jealous," he mused, his eyes flickering from the road to hers briefly before continuing. "That was supposed to be my reason for breaking up with you."

AN: thanks for reading! so what did you think of the party and its drama?