Confrontations

Anna watched from the corner of her eye as Kenny turned away, slipping out of the den with what looked like Quinn or it was at least another red-haired girl from the school. Her face slightly tightened and a small frown grew on her face. Brian had warned her about Kenny's crush on Rachel, and while that did irritate her slightly from his lack of honesty on the subject, she still was able to accept it. What she wasn't very eager to accept, however, is her boyfriend seemingly spending all his time away from her tonight with another girl. Once again this double-standard that Kenny put forth reared its ugly head, it was alright for him to spend time with another girl but not for her to even speak to Eric.

"Hey, Anna, you okay?" Ellie asked with a light tap on her shoulder, "You look pissed!" Anna let out a sharp exhale through her nose and turned back to face her friend fully,

"Totally fine," Anna gruffly replied, putting on a fake ear-to-ear smile, "Let's do something fun! I want to do something fun!" The blonde continued in a sharp, direct tone causing Ellie to stare back at her in uncomfortable concern, "Let's go dance up by the front where Nikki is!"

"Up there?" Ellie repeated with a glance towards the crowded "stage" that White Glass was playing on, "You hate being in the middle of crowds,"

"Yeah, I do, but right now it looks like fun, and I want to be somewhere where I can't think!" Anna retorted as she quickly grabbed Ellie by the wrist and began to pull her into the dancing crowd,

"Oooookay," Ellie reluctantly accepted, not exactly understanding where Anna's frustration was coming from, but seeing as this was one of the only times she'd seen the girl visibly angry in her life, she wasn't going to pry.

Working their way almost to the front of the crowd, Ellie and Anna found themselves in an open area, big enough to spread out, "Fuck it, this works, come on!" Anna called out to Ellie with a smile as she lifted her arms and began to dance.

Ellie let out a giggle and joined right in, "Okay, you were right, this was a great idea!" For close to an hour Anna and Ellie danced together, song after song, letting her get out some of her pent up frustration from the evening. Anna had no intentions of stopping any time soon, but unfortunately Ellie had other obligations, "Hey! Sorry, but I need to go see Will, he's been trying to wave me over for twenty minutes!"

"Okay, I'll be here!" Anna shrugged back, letting her friend slip away without much care. What Anna didn't expect was the light tap on her shoulder only minutes later, "Yeah?" Anna asked as she spun around with a smirk, expecting to see Ellie or maybe even Nicole. Her eyes widened, however, when the she realized the person standing before her was Eric.

Eric gave a slightly sheepish smile and lifted a hand to wave, "Hey," Ironically, Anna had been so upset with Kenny tonight that she had all but forgot about why their fight even happened. Hours into the party, the fact that Eric was somewhere in the building hadn't really occurred to her, but now here she was, standing face to face with her ex-boyfriend all alone, "I was looking around forever, definitely didn't expect to find you here,"

"Hi..." Anna merely replied, her mouth almost immediately going dry as she spoke,

Eric lightly laughed, "Yeah, hi," He returned jokingly. The pair went silent, Anna was like a deer in headlights, she didn't know what to say, didn't know what to do. Should she talk to him? Should she run away? Why was her heart pounding so damn hard? "So...how have you been?"

"I...F-Fine! You?" Anna's cracking voice asked back,

"Okay, Dartwin is way different than Greenwall, I've made a few good friends. One is here with me...somewhere," Eric murmured while looking around the room, "I'll have to have you meet her tonight,"

"C-Cool, uh, I'd love to..." Anna squeaked back, "Hows...How is your family?"

"Dad and Michelle are doing good, though, they kicked Brett out of the house," Eric explained, not sounding too concerned over the situation with his older brother, "Not that I'm too upset about it, I was always happier when he was on campus,"

"Yeah, I remember," Anna nodded, giving Eric's creepy older brother a brief thought before shaking her head, "Well it was good to see you?" The blonde swiftly added, starting to turn away. Despite everything that was said and done between her and Kenny, the longer she was talking to Eric the more guilty she was feeling,

"Wait, uh, Anna," Eric quickly said reaching out and gently grabbing her shoulder, "I was hoping we could talk seriously for a second?"

"A-About?" Anna gulped while glancing back to him,

"Us...I...I haven't been able to...put us to rest, and when I got invited and knew you were also going to be here, I thought...well, maybe we could talk about everything that had happened. Maybe see if you thought we...made a hasty decision?" Eric explained with a small hopeful smile,

Anna's stomach dropped and her blood ran cold, "Us?" She repeated softly before stepping back and blinking rapidly, "I need to...I um...I'm sorry, excuse me!" Anna blurted back as she turn and took off through the crowd, running with purpose to the only private place she could think of. Eric, all the while, watching the fleeing girl with a defeated sullen expression.

Meanwhile, JJ had been tanking more than his fair share of drinks over the last hour, his eyes glued to the scene of Brian and Mindy dancing. His skin crawled whenever Brian got too close, and if not for the amount of people blocking his path, he might have marched over by now and shoved Brian back. A dance or two would have been one thing, but close to an hour of bumping and grinding in front of him? Was Brian specifically trying to piss him off?

JJ finished what was in his cup once again, and this drink definitely set him over the edge. He watched as Mindy pushed up to Brian's ear, said something to him, and turned to leave. Brian, however, didn't let Mindy go so simply, as he reached out pulled her back for one full kiss on the lips. JJ's drunken eyes flared and he took two stomping steps forward, but before he could get far, he felt a hand roughly tugging on the back of his jacket, "James, No!"

Cocking his head back JJ saw his sister sharply glaring at him and before he could speak she pulled him back harder, bringing him over to the farthest corner of the room and pushing into it, standing directly in front of him, "Kai, what the hell?!" JJ exclaimed as his older sister crossed her arms and glared at him,

"Stop it, first off, you're cut off! I've been watching you, you never drink this much, you're making a fool of yourself," JJ scoffed and rolled his eyes, "And second, I'm stopping you from making another dumb mistake tonight,"

"Like what?" JJ sarcastically retorted,

"JJ you've been staring at Mindy and Brian all damn night, you look like you're about to strangle the kid!" Kailyn exclaimed,

"Hey! You're right, congrats!" JJ retorted as he now crossed his arms, "And what the fuck business is it of yours what I do?"

"JJ, you can't be mad at Brian for being with Mindy. It's her decision," Kailyn simply replied,

JJ's face tightened, and he diverted his gaze to the side, "I don't know what you're talking about. Doesn't bother me what Mindy does with someone. What bothers me is what Brian is doing to her,"

"Because you care deeply about Mindy, and you don't want to see her hurt," Kailyn continued with no hesitation, "JJ it's okay to realize you have more serious feelings for your friend. Honestly, this happens to a lot of people, I've seen it before,"

JJ frowned and looked back to his sister, "What are you getting it? No wait, let me guess," JJ muttered before saying in sync with Kailyn, "You love Mindy," JJ immediately groaned, "Oh my god, everyone is a damn broken record! Why can't I care about my friends well being without being in love with her?! Why can't I just know that Brian isn't a good fit and leave it at that?! I can want to protect her just because I am her friend!"

"That's all true, yes," Kailyn calmly nodded, "But that's the reason, and you know it. You're jealous JJ, and I don't mean underneath, I can see it physically. I've watched you tonight, anytime Brian got too close to Mindy or they kissed, you looked sick,"

"I told you, it's because I know Brian is no good!" JJ defensively snapped back,

"Bullshit, because I saw you before that too. When it was just Mindy with Kenny and the others. You couldn't take your eyes off her," JJ wet his lips and receded back slightly, letting his body rest against the wall, "JJ, it's nothing to be embarrassed about! You and Mindy have known each other for years, you're so close, you tell each other everything. You've probably had these feelings for awhile, but it took seeing her with someone else for them to finally surface,"

JJ hung his head, and brought a hand to his brow, rubbing it slowly, "M-Maybe..." He breathed out with a slow exhale, "But, even if I did, it doesn't matter,"

"That's not true!" Kailyn swiftly reassured her brother, grabbing his shoulders and giving them a comforting squeeze, "You said Brian isn't good for her, and I know you genuinely believe that, Rachel does too. Now, I am in no way saying you try and split them apart, that never works and only causes real honest resentment but what I am saying is you go and be honest with her. Tell Mindy how you feel, leave everything with Brian out of it,"

"No, Kai, you're not getting it, even if she left Brian right now, it wouldn't matter," JJ lowly sighed back as he lifted her head again, a new formed sadness in his eyes now, "Mindy wants Kenny, she always has. She told me so. Even if something happened with Brian, she'd immediately want to go back to him,"

"Last I checked, Kenny is dating Anna and last I knew, Brian wasn't Kenny either. What do you have to lose by telling your best friend that you want something more with her? IF Brian can get with her, why don't you think you can?" JJ silently shrugged back, "JJ, I can't promise you that she'll feel the same way, but never taking that chance will always eat you up inside. You don't want to be left asking what if, for the the rest of your life. And, not to forget, ever since I've known Mindy the one thing I've known about her is she wants someone who genuinely cares about her and knows her. You do, you have every bit of a chance to win that girl over as anyone else,"

"You think?" JJ softly asked with uncertainty, "It's...weird, I feel like she can't see me as anything else as a friend,"

"And I'm sure she feels the same when she thinks about Kenny, the thing is, you'll never know until you ask," Kailyn simply replied causing JJ to nod, "So you relax now, you're going to ride out the rest of this night with me, sober up for the morning and tomorrow, you tell Mindy how you feel,"

JJ let out a breaking breathy laugh as he thought it over before nodding again, "Alright...alright, sounds like a plan,"