(3rd Person POV)

"This is a bad idea, Duff. They can handle themselves."

"Well if they're not comin' out, then we're going in. I don't care if we embarass them, Axl. They shouldn't be out at a party like this anyway."

Duff and Axl's strides match as they walk up the long drive to the house that corresponds with the address Michelle gave. Already, the sounds of the party going on inside are booming, and Duff wonders why he's the one about to be shutting it down, and not the neighbors.

He starts shaking his head then, anger filling his insides. So much so, that he stops in his tracks, hands running through his blond hair. "I can't believe them! God, they've got me out here, at a highschool party to pick their asses up! It's almost one."

Axl rolls his eyes, sighing deeply. He's not thrilled himself, but jeeze, could Duff relax a little? This is the same guy who stays out till eight A.M., high out of his mind, Axl thinks to himself. I know the girls are a soft spot, but seriously. . .

"She told me Chas could've been throwing up. . . She's just a kid, Ax!"

I need a fucking drink. "Yeah, and we're here now, so are we gonna go in there and get her and Michelle or not? Look man, I'm worried about 'em too. I don't want them doin' anything bad. But sitting out here having a panic attack isn't gonna help us."

Axl so badly wants to see Chas, and make sure she's okay. When Duff was screaming in the car about everything Michelle did and didn't say, Axl couldn't press on the gas any more than he already was. They ran through two red lights.

Duff just nods. "You're right. Okay. Ugh, fuck. I hated high school. Let's go, damn it."

The second the two of them step through the slightly ajar front door, kids stare.

No one gets in their way, or says anything. It's all in their expressions-confusion, curiosity, even fear.

"I hate this," Duff grumbles the second he passes by a girl in a huge frilly prom dress, who spills some of her drink down the front of it as she stares.

"Are we just gonna wander around like a parade or some shit, or should we ask somebody if they've seen 'em?" Axl murmurs back, praying Duff can hear him over Billy Idol. If he talks any louder, he's afraid people's heads will spin all the way around.

"Ugh, fuck."

It's another two minutes before Axl rolls his eyes at Duff again, and marches up to the closest group of kids. "You know Michelle and Chasity?"

They don't look up at first, but after a few awkward seconds, one of them, a girl, pays attention to Axl, and just behind him, Duff.

"You talkin' to me?"

"Yeah. You know Michelle and Chasity?"

"I'm their brother," Duff adds.

Axl shoots him a look at that.

"Oh." The girl looks back and forth from Duff to Axl, a smile growing on her face. "Yeah, I know them! They were just in the backyard. Dylan Reynolds attacked Chasity, and Michelle threw her shoe at him!"

"She knocked him out. You should've seen it!" One of the girls nearby adds. "Chasity put up such a fight! It was crazy."

In this moment, Duff feels like he's detatched from his body. Like this can't be happening.

Axl can't even process it. His mind is blank, until vivid fantasies of bashing in Dylan's skull fills his head.

"Excuse me-What the hell?!" Duff shouts now, screaming right into Axl's ear.

The girls back away a little at that.

"Sorry-But what?!" Duff only gets louder now, and people nearby start to crowd around.

"Woah, you guys can calm down, they're fine-"

At the same time, Duff and Axl take off as quick as possible, barreling through the jam-packed house in their boots and leather, causing a whole mob of people to follow them in their commotion.

Outside, Chasity nearly falls to her feet the second she gets a glance at Axl.

"Why would you call them?! I don't wanna see him!" She shrieks, practically hiding herself behind Michelle.

So much longing wells up in her chest, alongside all her pain.

It's hard to focus solely on that though, because then Duff and Axl are up in her and Michelle's faces.

"We were outside forever! What the fuck-You actually knocked him out?" Duff hollers, both his hands gesturing to the ground where Dylan lays, asleep.

Some guys from the football team Dylan is the quarterback for have taken to trying to wake him up, fanning his face and everything.

"He's fine! He's a fucking dick!" Michelle fires back, just as loud. "I got off the phone with you, and he was trying to kill Chas!"

All eyes snap to Chasity now, as she feels her own start to water.

"I don't wanna talk about it," She mutters, wrapping her arms around herself.

It only makes Axl more upset, seeing her this way.

The girl looks like she's seen a ghost, He thinks to himself. That fucking asshole. . .

"No one hurts you and gets away with it."

Everything happens so quickly then, Michelle and Chasity unable to keep up with the chain of events.

One second, Axl is marching to where Dylan and his supporters are, and then the next, he's throwing a punch at one of Dylan's disciples.

"Axl!"

"Oh my god. Oh my god." Chasity can't do anything except for bury her face in Michelle's shoulder. Flashes of Axl in handcuffs, then a mugshot fill her head, and she thinks about how this night can't get any worse.

At least, not until Axl starts slapping Dylan across the face.

"Wake up, motherfucker!"

Duff and Billy are now fending off the football players, one of which already has a black eye forming from Axl's rings.

"Let's just go! C'mon!" Michelle pleads, not able to stomach the sight before her too well either. Getting him to stop trying to choke out Chasity was one thing. Waking him up just to put him under again is another. . .

Seeing Axl and a now awake and really, really angry Dylan wrestle it out in Brooke's backyard was something no one thought they'd be seeing, but they better believe it.

Duff momentarily steps away from the kid he just decked to go over to Dylan, and manages to get in a few punches of his own. "Keep this motherfucker still, Axl! This'll fucking teach him."

All Michelle can truly do is stare, her hand holding Chasity's so tight it hurts.

Dylan lays there, a shit-eating grin on his face as he looks up at Axl, blood running into his mouth as he does. "I beat up your bitch, Axl! But you know what? Maybe I should've just done what you do instead, maybe I should've-"

"Shut the fuck up! I'm gonna kill you, you son of bitch. You're not gonna wake up once I'm done. You're never gonna look at her, or lay your hands on her ever again! I'm gonna kill you." Axl roars, his voice not that far from sounding like an animal. It's entirely carnal now as he does as Chasity did earlier, hitting and punching whatever parts of Dylan he can, only with so much more force.

It makes Chasity's stomach turn as she hears the sound of flesh hitting flesh, and when she gets the courage to look up and make sure that it's not Axl on the ground, Dylan's face is just a blur of bright red.

"Oh my god." Chasity stares in horror, not even breathing. "Duff! Axl! Stop it!" She can hardly get her words out through her sobs. This is all my fault. If I had just sat there in the car that afternoon, if I hadn't told Dylan anything. If I had just dealt with it, gone on a date with him. None of this would've happened.

"Please stop. Oh my god, please stop!"

By some miracle, Axl listens.

Panting, he stops his own fist, mid-air, his body hunched over Dylan's in the grass. For a second, it's like all he sees is Chas as he glances over his shoulder.

The girl he's currently fighting for. One he'd defend till the end. That's been more than proven tonight.

The girl he's falling for, so fucking fast.

Chasity.

"Take me home, Axl. Please."

Just like that, Axl gets to his feet. He doesn't even care that Dylan is still alive, but all that matters is Chasity.

"Stay away from her," Axl warns one last time.

Dylan mutters a fuck you, but Axl could care less. He feels filthy now, and not just because he's got somebody else's blood on him. Dylan's entire being makes him feel that way.

"Let's get the fuck outta here."

On their way out, Duff, Michelle, Chasity, and Axl all don't look back.

They run out of Brooke's house like there's no tomorrow. Luckily, they don't have to push anyone out of the way, because people step back immediately, letting them pass.

Once they reach the Camaro, Duff gets behind the wheel, Michelle taking shotgun, as Chasity and Axl slide into the backseat.

"Drive, Michael! Go, go, go!" Michelle pounds on the dash.

"Careful! She's still new!" Axl scolds Michelle.

Duff turns the key in the ignition, and the breaks squeal the second the car lurches forward.

As Axl grabs at the back of the front seat with his hands, his rings catch the light flooding into the car from the back window. Chasity's eyes gravitate to them immediately, and just as quickly as she sees the blood and bruises marking Axl's knuckles, she begins to cry all over again.

Those same hands come up to the side of her face then. Axl's thumbs smear the mascara running down her cheeks as he cradles her face in his hands. "Oh, Chas. I'm so fucking sorry, honey. You're alright."

Chasity grips onto his leather-jacket clad forearms, her heart pounding. "No I'm not, Axl-"

"No time for talking! I gotta concentrate! Holy fuck. I can't believe this shit!" Duff yells over the engine.

"You can slow down, you know! No one's after us. Dylan certainly isn't. God, that was nuts! You're both crazy." Michelle says in disbelief.

"No one hurts Chas and gets away with it," Axl says quietly, still looking at her. He can't even remember how angry he was five minutes ago as he stares at Chas. "I won't let anything bad happen like that ever again."

"Ditto!" Duff agrees.

Chasity is so close to opening her mouth and asking Axl why. Why does he do this to me? Why does he make me think that maybe, just maybe, he could see me as more?

She just cries instead. Maybe it's the vodka, or the shock from everything she's experienced, or all of it. She doesn't really know.

Chas isn't sure of anything, except for that she's going to be sick the more she cries, and the longer she stares at Axl's wounded hands.

Axl's sure of it too, just from the look on her face. "Pull over, Duff!"

They're down the street from the high school when Chasity empties the contents of her stomach near the curb. Axl's the one to make sure she doesn't fall out of the car or get it in her hair as she does.

"Oh my god! Oh my god!" Michelle squirms, trying to cover her ears. "Could this night get any worse?!"

"She can't hold her liquor like you," Duff insists. He can't help but feel bad. When he first started drinking, he was a hundred and ten pounds and as skinny as ever, just a kid. His first night in a club was spent in the bathroom.

"You're alright, Chas." Axl tells her, one hand firmly gripping onto her hair, the other on her back as she holds onto the car door.

"Oh my god, I-I'm so sorry!" Chasity gasps, groaning. "I-I hope I didn't r-ruin your car."

"You didn't, don't worry. Do you feel better now?"

"Still kinda drunk. Ugh-"

Axl has to look away this time, a pang going through his chest as Chas sobs a little through her heaving.

It's another few minutes before Chasity collapses against the leather seat as Duff drives off.

"What are we gonna do, Axl? We can't take her home, and we can't go to Alice's either. She could throw up again, wake the whole house up. Her parents would kill everybody in this car if they found out."

"Oh my god. You're not saying we're going to your apartment? Are we?" Michelle looks at her brother as if he's grown a second head. "I've never been to your place."

Axl sighs, looking at Chas. Her eyes are closed, and her makeup is on the leather now, but he couldn't care less. "We don't got a choice."

Instead of turning down the girls' street up ahead, Duff stays straight, until the car merges onto the highway. They follow all the signs that read "LOS ANGELES".