How To Rule Your High School

Chapter 18: Crash and Burn

     Katie MacIntyre was henceforth my nemesis.

     I'd skidded to a halt in the living room, searching for Tyler only to watch as Katie peeled herself off of him, sitting exactly where I had been moments before. I didn't miss the fact that her cherry red lipstick was all over his mouth. But instead of throw her off of him, all Tyler did was look around with a thoroughly glazed look on his face. Katie's eyes were on me, trouble written all over her smug little face. A set of empty shot glasses sat on the table before them, but I couldn't even process what the hell that meant. Already I felt the hot prickle of tears in my eyes.

     "Maddie-" Tyler said weakly, finally seeing me through his drunken haze, but he was cut off as the front door burst open behind me and a cacphony of noise assaulted everybody's eardrums. I used two seconds of the distraction to try to gather my wits, another half second to give up restraining myself, and the last three to lunge towards Katie, who had leaped off Tyler and was coming to investigate the source of the noise. Two inches from raking her face with my nails, a set of strong arms held me back.

     "You bitch!" I screamed, fighting with all my might against whoever was holding me. Katie sneered and had drawn her hand back to slap when Jeff appeared out of nowhere to pin her arms behind her.

     "Maddie, cool it!" said Brad's voice in my ear.

     "That's for what you did to Amber at the soccer party!" Katie screamed back, "Or maybe I should tell Tyler about that too and see if he'll still want to be kissing you!"

     Katie's words finally coaxed forth the tears that had been brewing. My insides felt as mushy as applesauce and my brain was unable to form a coherent sentence as it replayed the image of Katie kissing Tyler over and over again. I'd stopped struggling as the mascara ran down my face, Brad's hands loosening their grip on my arms. I could see the crowd forming through my blurry, watery vision and caught a flash of Courtney's red hair erupt into the space at the edge of the group. Brandon's white suit was there too, but nobody did anything.

     "And I thought you were my friend!" I hissed, unable to speak properly.

     "Screw you," Katie said simply. Biting back a sob, I backpedaled until I reached the door and ran out, not quite sure where I was going.

     Stumbling down the stairs, I could hardly see where I was going because my eyes were so hazy with tears. Not that I had anywhere to go. Behind me, the party had erupted with screams and curses as the A-listers realized who'd come storming in before the almost girl-fight that was me and Katie.

     "Madison!" a voice called from behind me. Ignoring it, I continued down the driveway, fighting the urge to vomit. I could barely breathe. My brain was being an asshole and replaying my first kiss with Tyler, followed by his glazed over face as Katie sat on his lap.

     I rammed my fists into my eyes with a scream. I just wanted to lie down and explode into a thousand pieces. I'd gotten my dearest wish and then had my heart smashed to pieces all in the space of ten minutes. Unable to cope, my knees gave out and I fell forward onto the roof of someone's car, sobbing.

     "Maddie," came a soft voice in my ear as someone rested a hand on my back, "Shh Madison, it's gonna be okay,"

     "No it's not!" I screamed, throwing the hands away and whipping around to face Ethan. Unable to feel an iota more of anything, I collapsed onto his shoulder. His hands found my back and he tried to quiet me.

     "Come on, let's go home," he said a few minutes later, drawing back to look down at me. I nodded weakly, vainly attempting to brush tears from my ruined face.