They rode over the dark country road. The wind in his face dried Seth's tears and his sweat. If Nicole hadn't seen them on the side of the road, she wouldn't see them once they got off. He had no idea where they were going. He'd had no idea she rode a motorcycle either. It was a sportbike, a higher-pitched sound, but it moved fast. Seth glanced at the speedometer once over her shoulder and he didn't care to look again.

Eventually, the empty fields on either side of the road began having buildings here and there in the darkness, and after just a while more, Seth saw lights on the horizon. They turned down a gravel road and Nicole drastically reduced her speed over the uneven surface. Trees lined either side of the road, and occasionally it would split to another road, usually with a mailbox at the entrance to it.

Another couple of minutes and cars started to appear parked on the side of the road. Seth knew the sight. They were going to a party. As she pulled to a halt behind a blue Ford Taurus and turned off the engine, Seth could hear thumping music in the darkness. There were no lights on the gravel road, and the thick trees on either side kept him from seeing the lights of the party house, but the music was coming from further down the way. Seth dismounted as Nicole propped the bike up on its kickstand.

She pulled her helmet off and shook her hair out, holding the helmet on her hip as she used one hand to straighten out her hair. She seemed to glow in the darkness, her pale skin almost luminescent. Her black leather jacket and black jeans hugged her figure. She smirked at him for what felt like the hundredth time since he met her.

"We're here."

"Where is... here?"

"You'll see. Come on. Anyone who's running in jeans this late at night obviously needs to cut loose."

Seth followed her down the road, feeling less guilty watching the swing of her hips than he had the first time they had met. He thought back to the events maybe an hour prior. His father slapping him. It wasn't the first time either, though this was the first time Seth had struck back. His father had never hit him with a closed fist, but open-handed… well, that was another story. He'd been eleven the first time, and he'd refused to be spanked for saying a curse word. His father had slapped him across the face instead.

His mother didn't intervene--couldn't intervene. Not when she was living two and a half thousand miles away on the coast, partying on the yacht of the rich asshole who had swooped in and destroyed the marriage of Seth's parents.

"Hey."

Seth broke out of his reverie to see Nicole standing in front of him with one hand on her hip and the other holding her helmet. "This is a party. Don't be such a sad sack when we enter, okay? I've been new enough times to know that entrance is everything, and I, at least, have to make an entrance."

Seth continued after her down the gravel road, the rocks crunching beneath their feet. The sound was gradually being drowned out as the music grew in volume.

"Why do you have to make an entrance?"

They came to a cast-iron gate, belonging to a brick fence behind a row of trees. The music was loud now, and Seth could clearly see lights beyond.

"Because I'm fighting."

Nicole threw open the gate and walked in. Seth knew exactly where they were. And he followed anyway. He didn't have any reason not to. Not tonight.

Through the cast-iron fence, and around a bend in some hedges, Seth emerged behind Nicole into the front yard of a mansion that made Emma's house look laughable. Dozens of cars were parked in the driveway, all of them worth at least five times what Seth's truck had been. There was a light show arranged on the house, with strobes and fog machines and other lighting equipment Seth didn't know the name of. Easily hundreds of teenagers moved around, going in and out of the house, milling about in the yard. Everyone had a drink in their hand and it took Seth less than three seconds of scanning the scene to spot someone getting high.

Nicole looked back at him. "You coming, or you scared?" She had to shout now to be heard.

"I'm not scared. I just know what's going to happen."

"Oh, yeah? What's that?"

A figure dressed a step better than anyone else at the party walked out of the front door, a red Solo cup in one hand, a microphone in the other. The kid looked at them from the front door, maybe a hundred feet away.

"Ayo, our last contestant is in the house! Everyone give it up for Nicole 'the Iron Maiden' Baaaaaaaaaauer!"

Dozens of cheers rose, cutting through the thumping of the music. Seth winced at the volume.

"And do my eyes deceive me? Did he finally man up? Is that the one we've all been waiting for? Hey, Seth my boy! Throw your fists up if you're in the game tonight!"

Seth looked around the yard as everyone stared at him. He knew where this was. They were at David and Anthony's underground fight club they'd been trying to lure him to for years. Maybe Nicole was just their latest scheme to get him here. Either way, Seth had finally reached the point of not caring. He'd just fought his own father. Why not some kid who thought he was tough because he'd gotten into a tussle in the locker room? The void raged inside him, but it felt different than it had before. It felt darker. Angrier. More alive. Seth took a breath.

He raised his fists high.