Colton's POV

"I knew that was you," he says making his way through the crowd of dancing people.

"Penn," I say, standing up a little straighter. I haven't seen him since I kicked his ass and got kicked out of school. His face seemed to heal completely back to normal.

"I think we have some unfinished business don't you think," he asks. I notice a couple of his friends making their way to stand behind him.

"Nah, I think your trip to the hospital made everything pretty final," I say, turning around to walk away but he stops me.

"You caught me off guard that day," he defends. "Bet you don't have the balls to fight me right here, right now," he says, shifting into a fighting stance with his fists out in front of him.

I'm thinking of knocking his ass out again, but then Camryn enters my mind. I promised her I'd stop fighting. But like Alyssa pointed out, I don't see her anywhere.

"Just hit em!" one of Penn's friends shouts. Penn listens and swings at me, but I duck, and he ends up punching the dude behind me.

I clench my fist and bring it up to meet his jaw, and with that hit, he's on the floor. The other guy he hit turns around and only sees me standing and comes after me. This guys has a good thirty pounds on me so he's slow as he throws his punches.

I'm quick enough to make it out of the way, but with people everywhere, it's kind of difficult.

"Bobby! You're going after the wrong guy!" I hear some girl yell. The guy swinging at me and looks at the girl confusedly. "It was him you dumbass," she says, pointing to Penn trying to stand up.

Bobby turns his attention to Penn and kicks him down before returning to whatever he was doing before he was hit. What the fuck, that was weird.

Penn tries to stand and his friends help him up.

"Okay bitch, can we squash this shit now?" I ask. This is all so childish. Penn rubs his jaw and glares at me.

"Fine," he says, sticking his hand out for me to shake. I'm hesitant to take it, but I'm sure he doesn't want to take his chances with me again.

I shake his hand and walk outside to meet Toby again.

"What took you so long?" he asks once I reach him. I try to understand what just happened myself before I try to explain it.

"Did you know Penn was here?" Is the first thing I ask. Toby's face goes from drunk to serious in .5 seconds.

"No, he's here? Did you see him? Did he see you? Did he try something?" He asks all too quickly. I replay the last five minutes in my head and ask myself if they actually happened.

"Um, yea, he swung first so I knocked him down," I say as if it was no big deal. But it is a big deal, Camryn doesn't want me fighting, and by the looks of it, neither does Toby.

"What the fuck Colton why didn't you call me?!" he shouts, earning the attention of his other friends.

"I was too busy trying to stop the prick from getting a hit on me!" I yell back. I knew I shouldn't have came. I've done a great job on trying to get my shit together but now all that progress is gone. One step forward, three steps back.

"Are you okay, did he get you?" he asks more calmly.

"No, of course he didn't," I say, brushing him away. I could really use a drink right now, so instead of going back inside I grab one from the girl standing a few feet away from me.

"Hey!" she says. I ignore her and keep walking across the lawn. I don't really know where I'm going but I decide to sit on a little brick divider between the houses.

I pull out my phone a smile because I have a message from Cam.

*Hope you're having fun, but not too much;)*

I'm about to reply, but someone nudges me with a beer bottle. I look up and it's Toby. He holds out the beer as some sort of peace offering and I take it.

"Look man, I had no idea he was gonna be here, and excuse the fuck out of me for being worried about my best friend getting into another fight with that douche," he sighs. "It's just, you already fucked him up bad before, and if you do that again they'll probably lock you up longer than like last time, so all I'm saying is, be careful man. A stupid fight isn't worth what you've been working for this last month." He pats my back and stands up to head back to his friends.

I try to forget about the time I was "locked up". I was actually put into a correctional facility which is basically like juvenile hall, but "better". I was there for a few months before my dad finally got me out after buying the house we live in now. He made sure I wished he left me in there that night.

He let me heal before making me pack up all my shit for the move. And after three days of getting our shit put into boxes, I saw Camryn for the first time.

She wasn't my favorite person then, but now I can't imagine her not being in my life.

I bring my phone to my face and decide to call my girl and see how she's doing. She answers on the second ring.

"Hello," she says in a cheery voice.

"Hey babe," I smile, "what are you doing?"

"Oh you know, I just invited Ryder over to watch some movies," she laughs. I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

"That isn't funny."

"Oh calm down Colton," she laughs again, "how's the party?"

"Uh, it would've been better if you came," I say, not wanting to tell her what happened, but I know I'll have to. "Um, Cam something happened but promise you won't get mad at me."

Her laughs stop and she doesn't say anything for a few seconds. She takes a deep breath and then speaks.

"I swear to god Colton if you cheated on me I will cut your balls off and..."

"Jesus Camryn! No! I would never cheat on you!" I shout into the phone, reflexively putting my free hand over my junk. Damn, periods really do fuck with a girls head.

"Well you're at a party full of whores, I don't know what else to think!" she says defensively.

"Camryn, I didn't cheat, I'm not cheating, and I won't cheat, okay? I love you, you know that," I say. Shit I think I need another beer. The little courage I had to tell her about the fight has faded with this argument.

I grab the beer Toby brought me and remove the cap by hitting it down against one of the bricks. I chug it before continuing.

"Okay are you calm now, can I talk?" I ask.

"Mhmm I'm listening," she mumbles.

"I got into a fight," I sigh.

"Colton what the fuck did I tell you!"

"I know I know! He came after me, what did you expect me to do!" I defend.

She sighs loudly into the phone. "Who was it?"

"That, um, Penn Cambridge guy," I say. I hear her take in a sharp breath. She remembers. She remembers the pictures she saw when she was snooping around on me. She remembers how badly I messed him up.

"Oh my god, please tell me you didn't send him to the hospital again! You can get in so much trouble!" I pull the phone away from my ear, because if not, I'd go deaf.

I'm a little hurt that she doesn't care how I am.

"No I didn't put him in the hospital and I'm fine by the way, thanks for asking," I spit, pretty ticked off.

"Of course you're fine, I know no one can lay a hand on my Colton," she laughs. She's crazy. My girlfriend is literally crazy. One second she scolding me, the next she's complimenting me and laughing.

"You're too much Camryn," I sigh and laugh. "Make up your mind, are you pissed or not!" I laugh again.

"I'm on the fence," she says.

"Between what and what?"

"Well I'm mad that you got into a fight. I'm mad that it was with someone you already hurt before. But I'm glad that it was self defense and that you're okay, physically and legally."

"So am I off the hook or what?" I ask, smiling like an idiot.

"Ugh I guess," she huffs and I can picture her rolling her eyes, smiling. "Go have fun, but no more fights."

"Babe, this isn't even fun, I don't know why I use to love these parties so much," I sigh, scratching my head. "There's this girl who keeps trying to talk to me and touch me and I literally want to puke."

Cam laughs as I tell her more about the stupid party and I end up spending my night on the phone with the person I love most, rather than engaging in pointless partying and drinking.