Thanks to everyone for the kind reviews of the first chapter, and thanks a ton to Shiny Jewel for the input when I found myself to be a little stuck. :) This is way harder to write than I thought it would be, but I still think it's an interesting concept to tackle and I'm excited about it. I'm thinking there will be one more chapter after this. Enjoy!

"…and if you threw a party, invited everyone you knew… you would see the biggest gift would be from me and the card attached would say—"

Rayna stopped herself short, realizing that she had sang along to the Golden Girls theme song without realizing it. She looked up from her iPad and around the room, feeling the need to verify that no one was in fact around to hear it. She knew Deacon was in the shower, Daphne was preparing for bed and Maddie was at Talia's, but none of that knowledge helped. Embarrassed, she muted the TV.

Smiling to herself, she took a sip of her tea and reveled in the fact that her life had finally come down to where it needed to be. For so long, she had been a nervous mess—there was always something with Deacon, or Teddy, or her father, or the label… now, it seemed her biggest worry was if anyone knew she knew the Golden Girls.

As she sat her tea mug on the end table, she caught a glance of the Tiffany yellow diamond on her hand. She was sure that she finally had it all: a thriving business of her own, the marriage she had always wanted, and two perfect daughters; one of whom was mere days from receiving her high school diploma a full semester ahead of her classmates.

Bliss.

She didn't want to let the word travel through her head, but she couldn't help it. It simply was.

Her thoughts were startled when her phone vibrated beneath the couch pillow she was half laying on. She put her iPad aside, using her free hand to dig the phone out.

Maddie.

She looked at the clock on the cable receiver. It read 10:38. She sighed, assuming her eldest was going to ask for an extended curfew.

"Hey, sweetheart—"

"MOM?!"

The shrill, shrieking panic in her daughter's caused her to sit upright immediately, knocking her iPad to the floor.

"Maddie? What's wrong?"

"She won't wake up!"

Rayna froze, feeling her entire body go cold.

"Who, honey? What's-?"

"Talia! We were at this party and she got really drunk and I was driving her home but now she won't wake up!"

Rayna closed her eyes, trying to suppress the chunks rising in her throat. Memories she'd thought were burned away forever came creeping back, cutting her very soul to the core. She felt her hands beginning to shake, but she knew she had to steady herself. She had been here too many times before and as much as she hated it, her little girl needed her help.

"Is she breathing?"

"I don't know," Maddie choked through her sobs. "I think so."

"Sweetheart, listen. You need to slap her face as hard as you can and pinch her arm. It's okay if you break the skin; you just need to see if she responds to anything."

Rayna fought the tears as she listened to her daughter's innocence being sucked right out of her while she screamed her best friend's name and smacked her around. Oh, how she'd wanted to protect her from anything like this.

"She looked at me for a minute then closed her eyes again. Should I call an ambulance?"

"Where are you?"

"Woodmont Park."

"Honey, you'll get to St. Thomas faster than an ambulance will get to you. Drive her there right now and I'll meet you. Make sure her seat is upright so she doesn't throw up and choke, okay?"

"Okay," Maddie squeaked. "Mom?"

Rayna was already grabbing her purse and slipping on her Uggs at the front door.

"Baby, just drive. I love you."

She hung up the phone as she was running out the door, not even bothering to go upstairs and clue Deacon into what was happening. She found herself petrified for not only their daughter's wellbeing and that of her friend, but for his as well. She didn't know what awaited her in the emergency room; she wasn't even sure what condition Maddie was in.

All she knew at that moment was utter dread.

"I really don't want it, Talia."

Maddie's gaze became chillier by the second. Talia simply rolled her eyes, as she'd done so many times that night already. The others in the room awkwardly watched the exchange.

"So you're just always going to make me out to be the crazy drunk girl while you sit there all perfect? Is that it? You can't even have my back just this once?"

Maddie furrowed her eyebrows. Talia's sudden frustration was nothing short of confusing.

"What are you talking about?"

"'Wah wah wah.' It's all you ever do," She looked to the two boys on the other side of the couch, gesturing wildly with her hands. "It's all she ever does. 'My daddy drinks too much so I can't take one little shot.'"

"TALIA!" Maddie screamed, her voice tinged with equal parts anger and hurt. The look in her eyes begged the girl to stop her tangent. She really had no idea where this resentment was coming from.

Talia edged closer, putting her face so close Maddie could feel her breath. Her eyes were like knives, dicing Maddie to pieces.

"You're such a chicken shit."

Maddie looked down at her trembling hands. She was hurt; she was mad; she was embarrassed. She'd been friends with this girl since third grade and now here they were—at a party they shouldn't have gone to, one cutting the other to shreds for no apparent reason aside from her own personal problems. In front of others, no less.

She reasoned that maybe taking the shot would be the best thing. It might bring Talia off her ledge, everyone at the party who called her a prude could suck it, and at this point it might quell her anxiety.

She wrapped her hand around the glass, swearing she could feel the burn radiating in her finger tips as they curled around it. All she had to do was pick it up. It'd be so easy—and she'd no longer be a chicken. She'd be brave, right?

She closed her eyes and lifted the glass towards her mouth, not once looking at anyone in the room.

Talia watched, mesmerized.

This was it, Maddie thought.

This was it… until everything, every emotion, and every bit of her conscience flooded her all at once. The levee broke and she screamed, throwing every drop of the precious spirit in her friend's face.

Maddie picked at her thumbnails numbly as she sat in the ER waiting room, rehashing the moment in her head over and over. By now she felt guilty, believing that had she not lost her temper and thrown the drink in Talia's face, had she not gone and hidden in the stables and cried by herself for nearly an hour, had she stayed… maybe Talia wouldn't have gotten so out of control.

She rested her puffy eyes in her hands, looking up only when she felt her mother's hand gingerly touch her shoulder.

She looked up, meeting Rayna's eyes with such fear and fatigue that she couldn't fight the tears immediately spilling down her cheeks.

Rayna held her close, whispering over and over that everything was going to be okay.

Her own tears fell into Maddie's light brown hair as she prayed she was right.