How To Rule Your High School

Epilogue: Madison Carlisle, A-Lister

"I'm going to kill him," Brett raged, kicking the dashboard yet again. Vicky had forced him to let her drive, not trusting him not to turn back around so he could go pummel Ethan.

"No you're not, you're going to let Maddie handle this," Vicky said, shooting me a look in the rearview mirror. As soon as the adrenaline had left my system, the queasiness had taken over again. Instead of feeling on the verge of tears, I felt sick because of how stupid I'd been.

He'd played me. He'd played me so badly. I'd bought his excuses and Dakota's lamenting just like the idiot they probably thought I was. I hadn't listened to my friends when they'd tried to warn me. I hadn't even listened to my own brother. I was a fool, a complete and utter fool for allowing myself to be so manipulated by someone I barely even knew. And my reason for not sticking to my guns and ending it with him at his condo last Tuesday was because he was a phenomenal kisser. I bitterly wondered how often he'd practiced that particular skill with Dakota.

What turned my stomach the most, however, was the realization of how much of a jerk I had been to the people that cared about me. Vicky and Brett didn't have to come all the way to Huntington, but they didn't want to see me played. Courtney and Tyler didn't have to stage that intervention at the Beanery, but they'd tried to warn me about the jerk of the century. Brandon hadn't wanted to lecture me, but he had waited up that night so he could try to talk some sense into me.

And the fact that Ethan had convinced me to turn my back on the people who really loved and cared about me made me mad. It made me raging, seething, thundering mad.

"Yes, we're going to let Maddie handle this," I said darkly, meeting her gaze. The smug smile slipped back on to her face as she turned her attention to the road ahead of us.

I hadn't bothered asking where we were going because it was clear Victoria had something planned. We exited at Clairview, driving through town until we came up to Kyle's house. Brett's rage had boiled down to a simmer, but he still slammed the car door with more violence than was necessary. Vicky came around the car to link arms with me as we walked along the packed driveway towards the house.

"Nobody plays an A-Lister, Maddie. We'll make the bastard pay, just follow my lead," she said, her blue eyes glinting in the moonlight as I nodded.

*********

The party was in full swing when we arrived, a trio of drunken seniors straining the porch swing chains as they caroused on it. Brett stormed by them, disappearing into the party house. My presence next to Victoria attracted stares, especially since most of the partygoers were drunk and probably thought they were hallucinating my return to their ranks. I thanked my lucky stars that I hadn't felt the need to bawl my eyes out in the car on the way over. There would be time enough for crying later and if I had to take a guess as to what Victoria was about to do, I couldn't afford to look any less than my best.

"So here's what we're going to do," Victoria whispered, her mouth almost in my ear so I could hear her over the music and party noise, "We're going to find..."

"Maddie?" came a voice from behind me. Whipping around and nearly knocking Vicky over, I came face to face with an incredulous Tyler.

"Tyler..."I managed, my gut taking another plunge as the enormity of how badly I'd wrecked whatever friendship we'd had dawned on me. I was opening my mouth to ask him if we could talk when Vicky gave my arm a sharp tug, shooting Tyler an annoyed glance.

"You two can flirt later, but right now we're in crisis mode," she snapped, dragging me away from him. I looked back at him over my shoulder, mouthing "wait for me". In response he simply took a drink of his beer, watching me go with a concerned frown.