Chapter 24 #3
Ten minutes later, Betty is on stage belting out a song, head thrown back, clearly in her element.
Aria and the man who was staring at her — Jaxon — have joined us for a round of axe throwing, and it's clear Aria is just as competitive as me when Jaxon and Craig nearly hurt themselves laughing at our trash talk.
"You're gripping it wrong," Jaxon says to Aria, watching her line up her throw. "You'll never hit centre like that."
"Says the man who just hit the wall," she retorts.
"That was a warm-up throw," he says, pretending to look insulted.
"For what, us? To get our insults ready?”
I cackle. "Oh, I like her."
"Don't encourage her," Craig says. "You're supposed to be on my side. We agreed on teams. Us against them."
I scrunch up my face. "We did not agree on anything. You just started calling us 'Team Winner' without consulting me. I would never join a team with such a loser name."
Aria throws her axe. Hits dead centre. I jump over to stand next to her. "And that is why I'm on Team Target This!" And without any prior consultation, exactly on cue, Aria and I both turn around and point to our butts and then dissolve into giggles, entirely missing when we try to high five.
It takes a good five minutes before either of us have composed ourself enough to be allowed to hold an axe in our hands.
I'm about to take my turn when something shifts in the room.
I pull my hand back, looking toward the door, having caught something at the edge of my vision.
"You right?" Aria asks, following my line of sight.
"I don't know," I say, trying to place what's wrong, when I see him, right at the entrance.
A man. Big, red-faced, swaying, shouting something I can't make out over the music, and for one stupid, hopeful second I think he's just drunk, just loud, someone's messy mate who'll get walked out before anyone has to stop having a good time.
Then he grabs a chair.
He doesn't throw it right away. He just holds it, both hands white-knuckled around the back, staring up at the stage.
"Kevin." Betty's voice cuts across the room. The music dies instantly. Any playfulness is gone. "Kevin. Put the chair down. Right now."
"You said you'd call me back." His voice cracks somewhere in the middle, like he's wounded rather than angry. But the chair over his head says otherwise. "Three weeks, Betty. Three weeks and nothing."
"Not here." She's already stepping back from the mic, hands up, placating. "We can talk. Just not like this."
"You always say that!" he shouts, and I jump.
Someone near the bar says something low to the nearest staff member, and I catch the word “security”, and for one breath I actually think it's going to end here, contained, everyone going home with a story about the mad night at The Woodyard rather than living through anything worse.
Then he throws the chair.
Thankfully, it doesn't even go near her. It skids sideways across a table, catches the edge of someone's drink, sends glass shattering across the concrete.
Chaos breaks loose. Patrons shout, everyone moving in every direction. Chairs scrape the floor as plates and glasses crash to the ground in the fray.
"Aria? Are you okay?" I shout looking for her, but the panicking bodies make it hard to see anyone. "Where's Betty—?" I yell to Craig, but when I spot him, he's already halfway to the door.
I can't believe it, but I can't focus on him right now.
There's a shout to the left as a woman falls as she rushes for the door, and the guy with her hauls her to her feet and pulls her to a far wall.
My heart is going too fast, pounding in my ears. Somewhere in the chaos, Kevin is still shouting, and there's a terrified scream as another chair flies across the room and over the bar. I cover my head on instinct, ducking down, looking around for Aria.
Suddenly someone grabs me from behind, and pulls me down, and I bite down a scream, turning to see Jaxon pulling me to his side, where Aria is ducking.
"Alexia! Thank god you're okay," she says, voice shaky.
"Come on, I've got to get you guys outside," Jaxon says, looking around, hand hovering over Aria's head.
"Where's Betty?" I ask, trying to plan our path to the door as patrons run for it and Kevin storms through the bar.
"I saw her band pull her into the back room," Aria says, obvious relief on her face.
"Okay, when I say run, run for the door," Jaxon says.
The bar is quickly emptying, and for that I'm glad. Two security guards converge on Kevin, who's flailing at this point, wailing a desperate love confession to Betty, kicking tables and chairs out of his path.
"Okay, his back's turned, run!" Jaxon says, grabbing Aria, her hand gripping mine.
We're almost to the door when I hear the commotion I'm guessing is Kevin being tackled to the ground.
I turn, just in time to see the glass, but not fast enough to duck.
It catches me across the side of the head, and the whole room tips sideways, floor and ceiling swapping places, and I have just enough time to register the cold of the wooden floor rushing up to meet me before the noise cuts out completely.
The last thing I hear is Aria and Jaxon shouting my name.
Then nothing at all.