Party Time

Kenny let out a bemused laugh as he all but fought his way out of the center of the dance floor with Quinn, Mindy, and Avery at his side. "I knew it! I fucking knew you could dance, didn't I say it?!" Quinn almost howled with laughter as she playfully hung off his arm for a moment, "Mindy?!"

"You did say it, but if you ask me, I think he has two left feet!" Mindy teased earning some laughs from the rest of the group, Kenny included,

"And what about you?! All I saw was you busting out moves from the days of disco!" Kenny fired back causing Quinn to let out a gasping "Oooooh" while Mindy gave him a few playful slaps on the arm and chest, "Do not dish out what you can't take, Mindy!" Kenny merely replied with a quick wink to his friend.

The current song Glass White was playing came to an end just as the group of four reached the drink and snack table, "Guys, as much as I love being put in the center of a giant crowd of people I don't know, I think I'm going to go look for my brother," Avery piped up as he lifted to his toes, and loved over the heads of the partygoers, attempting to spy his older brother,

"No problem, I wish you luck finding him, Brian sure knows how to pack a place," Kenny noted with a small shake of his head. Avery nodded and bravely decided to part his way through the sea of the temporarily calmed group in the den, "Hope he doesn't die,"

"Oh shut up," Quinn giggled,

"Ken, you want a drink?" Mindy offered as she looked over the table of sodas and ****, "I know we haven't really had a straight drink before but...now might be good a time as any," The Asian offered, looking up at her best friend with a hopeful smile,

"I don't know..." Kenny hesitated, feeling a bit wary with the idea of also getting drunk during the same night his girlfriend was clearly pissed off with him.

Quinn, however, seemed to be having the same thought process with a different outcome, "You definitely should, with the night you're having? Something to loosen the tension at least, right?" Quinn pressed as she looked over the table, "Nothing crazy,"

"Night you're having? What does she mean by that?" Mindy immediately asked, leaning in with a little bit too much interest for her own good,

"Nothing, it's...it's nothing," Kenny attempted to deny with a small exhale, "Anna and I are just...having a bumping night, it'll smooth over," He reluctantly added,

"Alright...so why don't we help smooth you over with a little drink before we get back to dancing," Mindy replied, her eyes almost lighting up from the news,

Kenny lifted a hand and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Unless you really don't want one," Quinn suddenly offered in a gentle tone, her hand reaching out and resting on Kenny's shoulder, "No pressure or anything,"

"Thanks, Quinn...just feels a little weird," Kenny admitted to the redhead. Mindy turned her head, her brown eyes narrowing as she stared girl.

Before Mindy could act, or Quinn could even notice for that matter, Juliet suddenly burst through the crowd as well with a loud grunting, exasperated exclamation, "Jesus! How you can pack so many fucking people into one place is beyond me!" Juliet hissed under her breath as she pressed at her wrinkled clothes, fixing them as she approached the group, "Finally, I've been looking for you guys for twenty minutes!"

"Julie!" Quinn cheered as she ran over and flung a hung onto her clearly frustrated friend, "I didn't think you'd come considering who was throwing the party,"

"I wasn't," Juliet gruffed retorted as she turned to Kenny and Mindy who both were looking at the girl a bit warily, "I only came because of you two,"

"What did I do?" Kenny innocently replied while holding his hands up, suddenly more worried to see his cousin than anything else,

"Nothing I know of yet," Juliet replied, her tone forewarning, "But you," She continued jutting her finger out to Mindy, "You've got some explaining to do,"

Mindy's eyes widened and she gulped, "M-Me? I didn't do anything," Mindy denied as Juliet stepped away from Quinn, approaching her slowly,

"Uh, yeah you did," Juliet scoffed as she gave a final look around the party before staring directly back into Mindy's eyes, "Why in all that is fucking holy are you currently playing around with the biggest sleazeball this side of the country?!" Juliet exclaimed with a toss of her hands, her tone shifting from angry to bewildered, "After everything we've talked about to each other, all those moments of talking about the right kind of guy we'd want, and you go to Brian?!"

Mindy felt the pressure inside her drop, her stomach relaxed and her heart stopped thumping at a wild pace, "Oh that..." Mindy said with a slow exhale,

"Leave her alone, Julie. You may hate the guy but Brian isn't as bad as you think he is," Juliet glanced to her cousin with a frown, "What? All I'm saying is you can't be mad at Mindy for liking him,"

"He's got a point," Quinn agreed with a simple shrug, "Girl likes a blonde rich pretty boy, who could blame her? Worse people she could date,"

"Oh really, like who?" Juliet rebuffed with a scoff,

Mindy cringed at the conversation and couldn't help but jump in to correct it, at least to some extent, "Let's take it easy with the labels, Brian, and aren't officially dating or anything. We're...friends," She weakly finished, struggling to come up with anything she'd like to genuinely be called with Brian now,

"With benefits," Kenny snickered,

"Stoooooop," Mindy whined back immediately, " I haven't teased you about Anna, at least do me the same favor with Julie,"

"Anna?" Juliet repeated, her eyes going wide and her attention turning right towards her cousin, "Anna Ross? When the hell did that happen?"

"A few days ago," Mindy answered for him, "They've been playing kissy-kissy all fucking day for the last three days. This is literally the most time I've gotten to spend with him since we got here," She finished, doing her best to not sound as bitter as she felt over that fact,

"How come? Where is that girl? Why aren't you with her now?" Juliet asked as her head swiveled searching the area for the blonde with a small excited smile, feeling ecstatic that Kenny had found someone for himself,

"She...is spending some time with a few friends," Kenny partly lied, knowing how Juliet loved to pry into his business, "We figured we'd both take the party off tonight and see who we could," Kenny continued looking to Quinn and nodding, silently asking her to give him a hand,

Quinn looked back at Kenny with a perturbed look before everything clicked in her head, "Oh, yeah! We've been dancing, hanging out with Avery, probably are going to go play some pool or something later," Quinn tacked on, internally giddy that Kenny had turned to her for support, that hadn't happened before.

Juliet continued to scan around the room before pointing out a finger, "Oh there she is," Kenny's eyes instantly snapped up, looking out to see Anna, Ellie, and a few other girls working their way into the den. It was like lightning that the pair's eyes met and they silently stared back at one another. Kenny wasn't sure what to do, and neither did Anna. The awkward fight that was only reinforced by Brian's "advice" still left a lingering tension and instantly Kenny felt nothing but unease. The blonde's face slightly tightened, showing a glimpse of that resentment once again, and she turned back to Ellie and her friends.

"Well, call her over, at least let me say hi," Juliet suggested, and Kenny's heart skipped a beat.

"N-No," Kenny coughed back causing Juliet to look back at him in surprise, "It's just...she's with her friends, we're over here, it's...too annoying with all these people. I'll have you guys meet up later," Kenny explained in a low tone, more disappointed in his own cowardice when it came to facing Anna again. As much as he wanted to talk to her, even apologize for the way their conversation had ended, he couldn't. He was afraid of what she might say, what Anna could be feeling about him now, Kenny needed more time...tonight, once the party was over, that would work better. "Quinn, you said pool, right? That was still something you wanted to do?' Kenny easily suggested looking at Mindy as well,

"Whatever you want," Mindy warmly replied as Quinn nodded as well,

"Cool, let's go do that," Kenny finished as he pushed himself off the edge of the table and started to make his move towards the exit of the den,

"There you are!" Brian's voice suddenly chimed in causing Mindy's whole body to tense for just a moment before she spun around with a wide smile, "Easy to lose you in a party this big," Brian laughed as he leaned in and planted a long kiss on her lips. Juliet nearly gagged while Quinn and Kenny diverted their gaze from the sight,

"Talking about me? You've become quite the busy guy, hosting for all these people," Mindy giggled as she wrapped her arms around Brian, hugging him tightly so she could bring her mouth right to his ear, "Leave me the fuck alone, I'm making progress over here," She hissed out to the teen,

"I need you for a few minutes, if Rachel doesn't see us at all, she'll get suspicious," Brian returned with ease as the hug broke and he took Mindy's hand, "You guys mind if I borrow her for a minute? Got Devin to play us something good, and call me cliche, but at a party, I want to dance with the girl of the hour,"

"All yours," Kenny smirked, feeling genuinely happy for his friend once more, hoping that this was another point in the collum of Brian and Mindy becoming a genuine couple, "Have fun, Mindy,"

"Yeah...I think I will," Mindy returned, forcing her happiest smile that she could, playing the shy but excited girl to perfection,

"Barf..." Juliet shivered as the duo slipped away to the dance floor,

"You coming, Julie?" Kenny asked as he and Quinn took a few more steps towards the den exit,

"Shit, yeah, give me a minute, I need to go find where Claire and Lila, let them know where I'm going," Juliet sighed, "I'm betting they will be where JJ and Will are,"

"That'd be over there by the fireplace," Quinn pointed out, "Jock central,"

Juliet looked over to the far left corner of the room, she spotted the hockey team dotted with cheerleaders, and sure enough, she saw Claire sitting with Henry while Lila stuck around near the edge of the group. "Oh joy, I only need to push past a hundred people," Juliet sarcastically muttered to herself as she pursed her lips and once again braved the crowd.

Kenny let out a small chuckle as he watched his cousin disappear into the swarm, "Guess it's just me and you for a few, huh?" The teen said as he looked over to Quinn,

"Who needs them, three's a crowd, right?" Quinn joked back as she looked back at Kenny with all smiles. Kenny nodded and the pair headed off, working their way out of the room together.

Meanwhile, on the far side of the room, JJ stood mostly at the back of his group, drink in hand and a stoic expression on his face. For most of the party up to this point, he had been having a good time, talking to Will, as well as Kailyn when she came around, but as of the last thirty minutes, he went silent. His eyes had trained themselves on the figure of a dancing Mindy. Watching the way she moved, the smile she had whenever she looked at Kenny or laughed at Quinn's jokes. He found himself with the odd sensation of wanting to ask her to dance, or at least he did until five minutes ago.

That's when Brian suddenly showed up at the table, wrapping his arms right around Mindy, and kissing her yet again. JJ's joy, his enticement in Mindy all shriveled away as he watched Brian talk to her, hold her, lead her out to the floor. The jock angrily guzzled more of his drink, bitterly thinking again how wrong Brian was for Mindy, how he had no business being with someone as good as her. All Brian could do to Mindy was use her and mess her up. The longer they danced, the worse these thoughts got, and if it didn't end soon...JJ felt like he might have to do something about it...