Misconstructed

Nineteen

Getting to the punch bowl, I take a red plastic cup and dip it in the drink, scooping it up. How dare he turn on me. Who does he think he is? Taking a sip of the punch, I notice a strong scent of honey and maple, making me wonder just how lethal this drink is. It's perfect for tonight. Emotions come flooding my mind as the memories start playing.

Not two seconds later, Rex walks through the doorway, eyeing me. "So this is where you're going to be tonight? Drowning yourself in god knows what?"

"As if you care." I spit, not wanting to listen to him right now.

"I do, which is why I won't let you kill yourself tonight."

"You probably text her too," I pause for a second to see his reaction, and it doesn't fail when his face falters a little bit. "You know how much we've texted? Zero times! She told me she was too busy in a letter." I shrug at him, taking another sip of my drink before deciding to down the rest of it.

"We should go back home," He tries reaching for me but I just shake him off.

"You go, I'm busy," I tell him, grabbing more of the punch. I'm worried now, that first cup had more of a punch to it and I'm not one to know when to quit. Dustin snakes his arm around the back of my neck without me noticing but I don't flinch. If anything, he's here to do the same thing I am and that's drink.

"Saxton, I really think you should come with me." Rex reaches out his hand.

"Hey, Dustin, where are your keys?" I ask him, holding out my hand. Slapping them on my palm, I grasp my fingers around the cold metal.

"You're not driving," he tries telling me, to which I laugh. Genuinely, I laugh. Does he really think he's going to tell me what to do? Dustin doesn't seem to be paying attention, which is good for me in this instance. Taking my drink, I start walking towards the front door. Rex reaches for my arm, holding me back. "I said, you're not driving."

"And who's going to stop me?" I shove Rex off of me a little too hard, to the point that he falls to the ground, knocking someone over and a nightstand. Knowing he's going to get back up and probably hit me, I hastily make my way to Dustin's car. His car is parked right in front of the house on the street giving me easy access and exit.

I'm panicking a little bit but that's only because it's hard to act like I can walk right now. I get in and lock the doors behind me. Rex almost scares me when he pounds on the window. "Dude, don't do this!" He yells at me, trying to open my door. Dustin's right behind him, quickly regretting his decision to give me his fathers keys.

"Dude, don't do this. My dad will kill the both of us." It's true, his dad is a scary man when he wants to be. I want to drive down the street, lights off and see where I end up, but I don't. Instead I unlock the car and accept my punishment.

Dustin takes the keys from me, but Rex rips me out of the car, spilling my drink all over the ground. "What the hell were you thinking?

"He wasn't," Rex answers for me, pushing me against the car as he shuts the door. Pinning me, the two of us stare into the others eyes, although, between the two of us, I'm the one that has to look down to him. Only by a few inches though. Dustin decides to leave and go back into the house. "Listen, I'm sorry about Sam. I really am." I roll my bloodshot eyes at him. "But you have to let her go."

"I have," I lie. "You don't see her here do you?" but I know it's because I've driven her away with my madness. I've driven her away, just like I did Maddie and now I'll probably do it to Janice because that's who I am. I hurt the people that I care about. "You lost the bet by the way." The way his eyes go wide tells me that he knows exactly what I'm talking about.

"You didn't," his obvious disapproval fuels me from the inside. As if a flame is igniting. I snicker under my breath. He knows I did though, everything about me tells him I did it. My body language, my smirk, my messed up hair. He knows exactly what I did, and I'm not sorry. "You do realize that you just messed up her career, right? What I've been warning you will happen."

"Would you shut up? No one's going to tell," I smack his chest but he stays quiet, making me question his loyalty to me right now. "No one's going to tell, right? Right?"

"Right," Rex finally says after some goading, there's no way I'm leaving his site until he swears to me that he's not going to tell.

"Rex, I'm serious, if you tell anyone her career really will be over." I tell him as if he hasn't been telling me the exact same thing.

"Well maybe you should have thought about that." he shrugs his shoulders. "Maybe you'll actually listen to me next time when I tell you something like this would happen."

"Please swear to me, swear to me right now."

"I swear!" He yells at me. "But mark my words, if you hurt Maddie again, so help me, Ms. Fits is going to regret coming here." And with that he turns to go back into the house. I on the other hand stay where I am for a moment, against the car.

Looking up, I see Maddie in the window staring back at me. No doubt she saw everything that just happened, but there's no way that she heard anything. It was just a one and done type of deal with Janice, there's no way any of that will happen again.

Sarrowly waving to her, she waves back and I know I haven't lost one of my best friends. Somewhere deep down, I know she still does and always will care about me, and I her. She on the other hand thinks I probably don't care about her, and I'm sure it'll stick once she finds out about Janice and I.

Daniel appears through the window beside her. Kissing her on the cheek, he makes direct eye contact with me as he shuts the blinds. Tonight is definitely not how I thought it would go, and I doubt it'll get any less weirder, but maybe the alcohol will help.

I take myself back inside and back into the kitchen where it's filled with party goers and losers - people that have nothing going on in their lives. Grabbing another cup, I pour myself some more of this jungle juice and let myself have it. I'm ready to forget the night already and everything that's happened thus far.

"I thought you said to never drink the punch." A familiar voice says from behind me. Turning around, Danny is nowhere to be seen, but Maddie is in full view.

"What brings you down here?" I ask, taking another sip of my drink.

"To be honest, I really needed to get away from Daniel. He's become a little too much lately when he drinks. She holds up a cup to her mouth and I notice the black and blue mark around her wrist.

Grabbing it from her, not caring that I've spilled her drink as she freaks out, "What the hell is this?" I hold out her wrist to her so she can see what I'm talking about.

She snatches her wrist away, letting me know it's none of my business.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You're really going to stand there and act like I don't see it?" I'm in her ear now.

She gently shoves me away, "I have no idea what you're talking about." Placing her cup on the counter, she exits the kitchen. It seems like we can't even have a proper conversation without her freaking out. I sigh as I turn back to the punch bowl, ready to end my night in peace as I take another sip from my cup.