It was all falling apart. Cracks and fissures spreading web-like through everything that they had. Everything that they were, just crumbling away. Maddison watched it all with a sort of detached horror—the kind usually reserved for violent collisions—as Everett put himself between Chase and Julien, as if to protect the artist from the blonde's rage. As if he expected him to physically lash out.<br/><br/>What the fuck was happening?<br/><br/>He'd glanced wordlessly at the raging male when he'd addressed him, but didn't answer, didn't bother to try, found that he couldn't even if he wanted to. Case was on a collision course. And Mads was trapped in a glass box. Forced to watch everything shatter into a million tiny fragments. They needed to fix this, needed to mend the cracks before it all came falling down around the four of them. Didn't the others see what was happening? Didn't they fucking see!? He tried to warn them; banging on the shatter proof glass and yelling at them all to pay a-fucking-ttention.<br/><br/>No one did.<br/><br/>Watching Case leave, that dejected slump to his shoulders, Maddison wanted to follow after him. Wanted to be anywhere but here, but he couldn't move. He was frozen to the spot. And then there was Jules, who clearly wasn't taking Case's outburst all too well. It was obvious that he was panicking and Mads made to move towards the brunette, when he smacked right into the metaphorical brick wall, unable to look away from the scene that played out before him, blunted nails scraping against the surface of the desk as his fingers balled into a fist. He blinked rapidly, fighting against the burning itch behind his eyes as the giant that had been stepping on his chest took hold of his insides and crumbled them to dust.<br/><br/>It was only when Everett turned to him did he snap out of his daze, lips twitching in a parody of a smile in response to Everett's wordless apology. He didn't need to be asked twice as he was already pushing away from the desk. Did he want to check on Case? No, not really. Not like this. Case could be difficult at the best of times and right now Maddison couldn't even trust his own state of mind. His control was slipping, falling into pieces at his feet with the rest of him and he didn't know how much longer he could keep it together.<br/><br/>But anything was better than being in the presence of those two any longer. He needed out.<br/><br/>And then the art room doors were closing behind him and he could finally breathe again. Or at least he tried to, but it got stuck in his throat, and he pressed the back of his hand against his mouth to stifle the strangled sound that tore through him. No, nonono! He was<i>not</i>doing this in the middle of the school hallway. Thumb and index finger pinching his arm, he closed his eyes, focusing on the pain in his arm rather than the one in his chest as he counted down from 10. Even went through the alphabet backwards. One. Two. Three times before feeling any semblance of calmness.<br/><br/>Arm throbbing—it'd likely bruise—he went in search of Case, eventually catching up to the blonde, his footfalls echoing off the walls of the empty halls as he jogged to fall into step beside Case, letting the silence linger for a time before finally saying, "So...that was explosive." He was poking the bear, he was aware of that. And did it anyway. Pushing through the front doors of the high school, he squinted in the sudden brightness while holding the door for Case. "Did it actually make you feel any better?"