"Cheers!" Marcus and Emily said together as they clinked their shot glasses together and smiled as they downed more shots of straight vodka.

Emily was beginning to feel light headed. Marcus was starting to feel his endorphin levels rise as he gazed at Emily and thought to himself how happy he was that he had her all to himself.

"I love you." He said to her.

She blushed, smiled, and began to laugh. "I love you." She said, stumbling into his arms and burying her drunken smile into his chest.

"I've never loved anyone before you, Em." Marcus's swirling thoughts seeped out through his teeth. "You taught me how to love another person for the first time in my life."

She pulled away from him and smiled as she looked up at him. Just as she was about to kiss him, his phone began to ring. It sat on the kitchen counter behind him and violently vibrated as his ringtone jingled.

His shoulders slumped and he turned around, grabbing his phone and not even bothering to check who was calling. "Hello?" He answered.

Emily could hear a woman speaking very quickly on the other end of the line. Marcus's whole demeanor changed and Emily thought it was best to give him his privacy. She wandered around the corner, but not too far. She wanted to still listen in on what was happening.

"Mah, calm down." Marcus said. Immediately, Emily grew worried. Marcus's mom rarely ever called him. Whatever happened, it must be serious.

"What do you mean he's getting out?" Marcus questioned, his heart began pounding in his chest.

"Your father's lawyer got the judge to reconsider his case." His mom explained. He might be gettin' out on probation if this court hearing goes the way your father wants it to."

"This can't be happening." Marcus's blood began to boil under his skin. His father was the one person in this world he hated the most. Some think Marcus hated Heidi the most in this world, but she doesn't even come close to how much Marcus hates his father. "Don't worry, Mah. I won't let him hurt us again."

He hung up the phone and his intoxicated mind began spinning in his skull. His dad had been sent to prison when Marcus was young and his mother was pregnant with his sister. Marcus's dad had always been a bad influence on him. He got locked up for drug possession and intent to distribute, illegal firearms, and domestic abuse. He wasn't someone you wanted to piss off in the streets.

Marcus stood by the kitchen counter, staring at his phone while memories flooded back to him of the times he would stand at the top of the staircase listening to his parents fighting. The sounds of his mother's screams, glass breaking, the thud of her body as it was being shoved to the ground by this much larger man he was forced to call his dad.

Emily peeked out from around the corner and saw Marcus standing there in silence, just staring at the counter. She cautiously approached him and reached out a hesitant hand, resting it on his shoulder. Within milliseconds, Marcus reacted to Emily's touch and whipped around to face her, grabbing her forearm in the process. The alcohol had only heightened his reaction to emotion and anger was coursing through his veins. He glared at Emily, his grip growing tighter on her arm. He let go and placed both his massive hands on her shoulders and pushed her to the ground. Her body hitting the ground made that all too familiar sound. Marcus stared at her in disbelief as she cowered away from him. He took a few slow steps backwards and then flipped around and ran out of the apartment. That was the first time Marcus had ever harmed Emily.

***

"Are you going to call Andy back?" Emily asked as Beth paced back and forth with her phone in her hand.

Beth stopped walking and grimaced at Emily. "I have to, don't I..."

Emily nodded. "Just find out what he wants from you. It could be nothing. Maybe he just wanted to talk and ask you about how you're doing."

Beth took in a deep breath and nodded. "You're right." She agreed. She sat down on the bed next to Emily and hovered her thumb over Andy's name on her phone screen. She looked at Emily who simply nodded and Beth looked back down at the screen and pressed down on Andy's name.

She listened to it ring a few times and her adrenaline began to rush. Just when she thought it was about to go to voicemail, that familiar deep voice answered.

"Hello?" Andy said.

Beth could feel her heart stop. "Andy." She said. "It's... It's, uh, it's Beth."

"Oh, hey!" He sounded so casual. "I'm glad you got back to me. I have to ask you something."

"O-Okay." She stuttered slightly.

"The guys and I were talking and we're trying to plan out a North American tour for the spring. We need bands to tour with us and we were hoping you guys would be interested." He offered.

Beth's eyes grew wide. "Wait, what?"

Andy chuckled. "We want you on tour with us." He repeated.

But what Beth heard was I want you with me. I want you back.

Notes

hope you guys like this chapter. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get this up. work has been super crazy with it being summer soon and memorial day weekend is here so I've been working a lot. I know the whole thing with Marcus is probably a bit of a shock but my characters are by no means perfect and I wanted to show some really deep character development with him. I'm going to be getting more into some character development with Emily as well in the next couple chapters. You guys know Beth pretty well and you know some stuff about Heidi from the prequel but I know I've kind of left out Emily and Marcus from the backstory/development stuff. I'm going to try and throw some stuff in for Spencer as well. I know you guys don't know much about him or his family either.