"Carter, what the hell do you think you're doing?" I scream at him. "You can't just invade my life like this! What do you want from me?"

"No need to yell, Leila," Carter says, his evil grin never faltering. "I can't pop in to visit an old friend?"

"We're not friends anymore! I told you that at the party back in California and you made it damn sure that the possibility of us ever rekindling our friendship would never exist after sending me all those cryptic messages revealing that you were behind my assault!" I continue to yell at him, my throat feeling scratchy and tears welling up in my eyes. I feel Nicole put her hand on my shoulder, but I shake it off. I'm too angry and hurt and confused.

"You really didn't give me a choice," Carter says, taking a few steps closer to the three of us. "You were pulling away from me once you decided to go straight edge. I see you had no trouble making new friends, though" he scoffs at Nicole and Nate. "And you replaced my love for you with that new boyfriend of yours. What's his name? Oh, yes! Tristan! What a loser, can't even keep his own club."

"How do you know about that?" I ask, the tears spilling over.

"Anyway," Carter evades the question. "Your assault was meant to bring us closer together! You were supposed to come to me for help and I was going to be the knight in shining armor and show you how all of our old habits could take the pain away. You used to be addicted to me and I could tell you missed it."

"Carter, are you crazy? I did come to you for help and you just ignored me! You wanted to keep partying!"

"That was the whole point!" he starts laughing like it's the funniest joke in the world. "We were supposed to party together! But you wanted to leave," he sounds hurt when he says that, but quickly regains his composure to continue as all bad guys do when revealing their plans. He may have changed a lot since the last time I saw him, but he's still a sad cliche. "You made me so upset that I needed to get away. And how convenient was it that I had your car keys."

"You're sick," Nate spits out. "If you considered Leila a friend you would have never done any of those things to her!"

"You're a seriously messed up dude," Nicole adds, stepping towards him.

"Hey, at least I didn't send all of those messages to her," Carter defends himself. "Some of them were really messed up, I could never have the heart to do that to you."

"What do you mean you didn't send all of them to me? They were all from you," I question, even more confused than ever.

"No they weren't," a voice from behind us states. Nicole, Nate, and I turn around to see the owner of the voice walking towards us.

"Katy? What the hell?" Nicole exclaims.

"I see you didn't read my last note telling you to stay away from the carnival; the two of us spent so much time tracking you down tonight. Anyway, I couldn't just sit by knowing the girl who hurt my brother was just walking around this town acting like nothing happened," Katy says, tightening her ponytail.

"Brother?" the three of us question out loud.

"Well, half brother to be exact," Carter says, walking to stand next to his sister. "My dad, who is Katy's biological father, is a scumbag. But he did give me a very loyal sibling with whom I could share all my troubles with. Which I had to do more often once you decided to abandon me."

"You are not twisting this all to be my fault," I angrily say, stomping towards the pair and getting up in both of their faces. "I wanted to better myself. I wasn't trying to hurt you, but you were a toxic friend! I had to leave California to get the help and support I needed and I did just that. You have no right to blame any of your own troubles on me. And don't even get me started on how messed up you are, Katy," I sneer at her. "I didn't do anything to you!"

"No, but your reckless, unloyal behavior towards poor Carter almost cost him his life," she says. "If you hadn't upset him so much at that party, he wouldn't have crashed your car and gotten seriously hurt."

"You have got to be be kidding me," I mutter through clenched teeth. I want to punch both of them so bad, and I am about to, when more emerging figures in the distance stop me.

Brian Johnson walks from out of the shadows, a freshly busted lip glistening with blood under the faint light of the moon. Two huge guys who could rival the security at The Underground emerge shortly behind him, each with an arm from a fourth person between them. I squint, trying to adjust my eyes to see who it is. My heart drops to my stomach.

"Brian what did you do!" I yell, running towards a beaten and bruised Tristan. The two thugs release him, letting Tristan drop to the ground in a crumpled heap. I fall to my knees beside him, touching his face gently. "Oh my god... oh my god. Tristan, are you ok?"

He groans and manages to open his already swelling black eyes. I can see the pain in his eyes, but it's quickly overtaken by pure anger. Nate and Nicole join me on the ground next to Tristan, pitting their bodies between him and everyone else, shielding him from further harm. I spring back up on my feet and charge towards the offending parties.

I am so furious, so hurt. How could he do that to Tristan. I am so angry that Carter and Katy have been tormenting me since I moved here. I am so frustrated that we can't just be normal teenagers. I finally feel the rage that has been building up inside of Tristan and I'm ready to let it out on all three of them.

But the next thing that Brian says stops me dead in my tracks.

"Ah, I see you and my son have met my potential successors," Brian gives Carter a strong handshake and a bright smile.

That's when I lost it.