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"That son of a bitch." hissed Ashley and clenched and unclenched her fist. "I really will kick his ass when I see him. How could he say those words about your mother? Anyone who knows her knows what a jewel she is."

They had sat behind the counter of the boutique that Ashley worked at. It was almost four in the afternoon and finally, the shop was less crowded. Even Alison had helped after she had arrived. Ashley's manager was a young and friendly girl who let them finally sit and talk and Alison had just finished telling Ash everything, even what Xander had called her on the first day of school.

Alison chuckled bitterly. "Well, everyone except arrogant Xander King." she said sadly.

"You should tell your mum." said Ashley seriously.

"What?" said Alison shocked. "Are you out of your mind? If I tell her, besides the fact that she becomes so sad, Albert will find out and only God knows what he will do to Xander."

Ashley snapped her finger. "That's the point." she said. "That bastard really needs to learn his lesson."

Alison sighed and shook her head. "As much as I hate him, I don't want to turn his father against him." she said. "No one deserves it."

"You are too good for this world, Al." said Ashley and put a strand of her straight short blond hair behind her ear. "By the way, call your mother and tell her that you will stay at my house for a few days. There is no way in hell I let you go back this soon."

"I will. She must have arrived by now." said Alison and fished her phone from her pocket. "While I do this, you call the boys. Let's go out tonight."

"okay." asked Ashley. "First let me service that customer," she said and left Alison.

"Hi, mum." said Alison as her mother picked her phone. Her heart clenched remembering Xander's words about her mother but for the sake of her mother she kept her voice happy.

"Hi, sweetheart," answered Eva happily. "We will be home in just a few minutes. I have missed you a lot."

"Um, actually mum, we have a situation here." Alison decided to lie to keep everything hidden. "The boys had found some trouble. So we are going to stay at Ashley's house for a few days. Her parents have gone on holiday and she is alone. Please somehow convince Albert."

"Oh." was all Eva said, shocked.

"Please, mum." pleaded Alison after a minute of silence. "I really need to stay with them."

"Okay, my dear." said Eva kindly. Alison could almost see the warm smile on her face. Although, what she couldn't see was lines of worry on Eva's forehead. "You can stay with them. Don't be worried about anything."

"Thank you, mum." smiled Alison. "I love you."

"I love you too, my dear. Bye." said Eva and ended the call.

"It's so odd." said Ashley with her eyes fixed on her phone. "Boys don't answer their phones."

"What?" frowned Alison and tilted her head to a side. "They always have their phones with them."

Ashley sat down. Her brows were furrowed. "Now that I think, they were acting so odd in the last few days." she said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean by odd?" asked Alison slowly getting worried.

"They were so secretive." said Ashley. "I caught them a few times whispering when I was not around."

"Let's call Jeff, Ed's co-worker." said Alison and called Jeff. But What Jeff told them, made them more worried. Ed had not gone to work that day. He never skipped his work because he needed the money badly. Turned out that Logan had not shown in the garage he was working as well.

"Okay," said Ashley. "Now I'm officially worried. Where the hell are they?"

"Didn't they mention anything?" asked Alison panicked.

"I'm telling you, they were so secretive." said Ashley and began to pace back and forth. "They never do this. They never keep anything from us. What has happened? It must be something ..." she suddenly paused as an idea popped in both of their minds and they stared at each other wide-eyed.

"They can't. They promised to never do it again." said Alison.

"We should find them soon." stated Ashley firmly.

"I have an idea." said Alison as she unlocked her phone and opened the browser and typed an Url. "You know Logan tends to lose his phone a lot. So he had registered his number on a website that locates your phone's location, based on its last signals so you can find it easily. We only should log in with his account."

"And you know his username and password?" asked Ashley as she looked at Alison's phone from above her shoulder.

"Of course I do." said Alison as she entered the account and pressed the search button. "He has a memory of a fish so he asked me to remember it as well."

They waited for a few seconds until a red dot appeared on the screen. "Okay let's go. My work time is finished." said Ashley.

They both grabbed their bags and walked outside. Ashley had brought her father's car so they sat in and after 20 minutes, they were standing on a sidewalk.

"That's the building where the signal is coming from." said Alison as she pointed discreetly to a building in front of them on the other side of the street. Two bald and buff men were standing in front of the door and were checking people who wanted to go inside.

"They must be inside." said Ashley through gritted teeth. "I'm going to kick their asses before your oaf of a brother."

"How are we supposed to get in?" asked Alison.

Ashley unzipped her jacket and pulled her tanktop's neckline a bit lower. She ran a hand through her blond hair and winked at Alison. "Use your charms." she said before passing the street toward the building. Alison smirked and followed her.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen." slurred Ashley once they were in front of the two giants.

"What are you two ladies doing here?" asked one of them with a smirk as he eyed them up and down. His eyes lingered on Ashley's chest a bit longer and she tried to not shiver in disgust.

"Well we are here to join the party here." said Ashley.

"Sorry, sweetie," said the other man. "But here is anything other than a party. Although if you want I can take you to one later. We should not let beauties like you become disappointed."

"Come on, boys." said Alison and stepped forward seductively. She looked up and she stared at the man while batting her eyelashes. "If you let us in, we can go to your place later this night. What do you say?" she said as she raised a piece of paper with a number written on it and winked.

The man smirked and took the paper. "You can go in." he said. "I will call you and send the number of the room you should come to later."

Alison smiled and winked at him as she and Ashley walked inside. Their smiles were dropped instantly and both shivered in disgust. "Let's just find these assholes and leave as soon as possible." whispered Ashley and Alison nodded. "Who's number was it?"

"Mason's. I have written it on a paper to memorize it." answered Alison and Ashley smirked.

They walked into a narrow long corridor with some doors on either side. It looked like a brothel. They passed a few couples who were standing there sucking each other's faces. Alison and Ashley stopped in front of a set of stairs. One was leading down and the other up. A group of girls, clothed in almost nothing and caked with make-up, came out of one of the rooms and ran upstairs giggling. Ashley looked at the girls disgusted. "Let's go down. I don't want to know what's going on up there." she said and walked down the stairs.

It was a narrow and dim staircase that turned a few times. A loud noise was coming from downstairs. Shouting and cheers could be heard. They walked down and found a metal door at the end. The tumult was coming from behind it. They looked at each other before Ashley grabbed the handle and opened the door. Their ears were instantly bombarded with the deafening noise and their nostrils were welcomed by the strong smell of urine, alcohol, blood, and sweat.

The cellar was big and they had made what looked like a stage all around it. Down some stairs was a ring where people were fighting. Some standing people with alcohol bottles had blocked Alison's and Ashley's view to the ring.

"Come." shouted Ashley above the roaring of the people. She grabbed Alison's hand and they opened their way through people and docked those drunk men who were trying to pull and touch them. They finally opened their way to the first row and had a look at the ring and those around it.

What Alison saw made her frozen. Her eyes fixed on a young shirtless man fighting another man with long hair and beard in the ring. The young man's body was glinting with sweat making his glorious muscular body shine under the light. His black hair was messy and his handsome face was angry and his gray eyes were looking almost black.

"Alex!" whispered Alison paralyzed and watched as Alex punched the man square in the face and knocked him out. Cheers went up and he walked toward a chair in a corner and sat down. It was only then that Alison saw Simon, Xander, Damien, and Hunter were there as well. They were all shirtless and sweaty and with drops of blood on their bodies. Her eyes returned to Alex and what she saw made her heart ache badly.

A woman in only her sluty underwear was sitting on Alex's lap, kissing his face and caressing his bare chest. What broke her heart more was the fact that he didn't make any move to throw her away. Instead, his arm was securely around the girl's slim waist, keeping her in place and letting her do what she wanted. Alison wanted to throw up. Her head was spinning. She was a fool, a great one. Had she really thought that he was getting himself in trouble because of her? Alex King? The bad boy of school who had girls throwing themselves at him back and forth?

"Alison!" said Ashley and Alison looked at her sad face. Ashley had seen what she did. But it was not the time to comfort her. Ashley wiped tears that Alison didn't know had run on her face and pointed to a table in the other corner of the ring. "Ed and Logan are there."

And sure their friends had stood there, both wearing black T-shirts and jeans. Their backs were to them, but they could recognize them after so many years of knowing each other only from seeing them from behind. Ashley dragged Alison toward the boys. It seemed they were withdrawing money from an ugly man with a cigarette in his mouth, sitting behind the table.

Ashley tapped Logan's shoulder and he whipped around. His angry eyes widened with shock as he saw them. His nose was bloody and seemed to be broken. "What the fuck!" he yelled and Ed turned around too. Ed had a bad-looking wound right above his eyebrow. His shocked face soon turned to utter anger and worry. "What the hell are you two doing here?" he asked angrily.

"Don't you dare." hissed Ashley. "It's you two who should explain."

"Let's not talk here." said Logan as he angrily punched a drunken man who was trying to grab Ashley.

Ed yanked a bunch of money from the man behind the table and gripped Alison's arm tightly. "We are leaving. Now." he growled as the four of them walked toward the stairs to leave the ring.

Alison looked at her left and saw Alex in the same position. But this time, his wide eyes were full of shock and were fixed on her as Ed guided her toward the stairs. She saw Hunter wildly pointing at her while yelling something at Damien and Xander. She looked at Alex once more and saw guilt and anger in his eye. But it was too late for him. Alison looked away. Her eyes were blurred by tears and soon they were surrounded by the wild crowd and out of the reach of her so-called brothers and lover. She felt betrayed so bad.

Soon they left the cellar and ran upstairs and a minute later they were standing beside Ashley's car who unlocked the car and the four sat in without a word. It was raining outside. Alison pulled down her window and let the wind blow at her hot face and inhaled in the fresh air as Ashley drove away from the dreadful street.

In a matter of a week, Alison had been deprived of her freedom, banned from working, had been called whore and gold digger, and now the boy who she thought loved her turned out to be a player who had only played with her emotions. She closed her eyes tightly as tears fell from her eyes. She had never felt that much betrayed and sad before, ever.