Lesser Evil

"There you are," Kenny lightly called out to Mindy causing the Asian girl to feel nothing but internal dread, "I swear I haven't seen you like at all this trip, and apparently I'm missing some pretty big stuff with you too,"

"Yeah, tell me about it," Mindy murmured back as she reluctantly walked forward, meeting Kenny halfway down the hallway, "We've both been pretty busy, I guess,"

"I know, and hey, I'm sorry that I've kinda been a ghost since I got here. I didn't expect things with Anna to go so well, I still expect to wake up any second," Kenny explained with a breathy laugh, "Things like this don't happen for me,"

"Don't...talk like that," Mindy chastised as she crossed her arms, hugging her own body uncomfortably, "Any girl would be fucking lucky to be with you. You've always been amazing Kenny, Anna is the lucky one here, not you,"

"I don't know about that," The teen jokingly replied,

Mindy's eyes finally lifted to look into Kenny's, a sincere glare rested in them, "Well I do, and I know better than one else,"

Kenny's smile slowly faded off and for a moment he looked Mindy over, his eyes searching hers, "Mindy..." Kenny started to say, "You and me, we're always going to be friends, you know that right?"

"Yeah...I know," Mindy muttered back,

Kenny reached out a hand and gently rested it on her shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze, "You're my girl, Mindy, forever and always," Kenny wholeheartedly continued, "Anna might be my girlfriend, but you're the best friend I've ever had and ever will have. We know each other, we get each other, and that doesn't change just because we start having other people in our lives,"

Mindy dryly swallowed and gave a short nod, "I know that, but I...I still feel like I've lost you," The Asian girl admitted, unable to bring herself to deliver the full truth of her feelings,

"You haven't and you never will, I promise," Kenny reassured her, "I'm still gonna be right here with you every day, just like always. As dumb as it sounds, you and I aren't "breaking up"," He added on with a warm humming laugh that made a warm rush run down Mindy's body, "Anna won't be the type to keep you away and I know that Brian won't do that either, he's a good guy,"

Mindy's brow twitched, "Right...Brian..." She said under her breath, her teeth almost grinding at the thought,

"Mindy," Kenny suddenly said, glancing behind him to his room for a moment, "Can we be completely honest for two seconds?" The girl looked back silently nodding as her heart started to beat a touch faster when Kenny inched closer to her, "I've always brushed it off, and...maybe pretended it wasn't happening because I wasn't sure what it really meant but...but I think a part of me knows that you have some feelings for me that go past friendship, right?" Mindy's eyes widened and she felt her blood almost go cold, her mind blank unable to find a response, "I don't blame you or anything for that, honestly when i say it, it makes a lot of sense,"

"I-It does?" Mindy squeaked back her legs slightly starting to tremble,

"Of course, we've been through so much together, known each other for so long, I think it'd be weirder if we never had a thought about each other," Kenny easily replied, "I'm sure somewhere inside me too, I had those same thoughts, and that's okay. It's okay that we had those thoughts, but just because we did doesn't mean we can't stay friends while seeing other people,"

"Friends?" Mindy whispered back, her heart sinking lower than she ever thought possible,

"Yeah," Kenny nodded back, unable to catch the look of near depression in Mindy's eyes, "I'm not jealous that you are with Brian now, I mean that. I am so fucking happy for you!" He sincerely stated with another squeeze of her shoulder, "Maybe we could have been something, been happy together, but we didn't take that chance. What's important now is we're both with people who are making us happy," The teen continued, "And we can continue to be just as close as we always were,"

Mindy stared back at Kenny for a few moments, her brain doing its best to process his words, the information that if she had made the move all that time ago, Kenny would have been hers, made her head spin. She gave a few quick blinks if he could have been hers before, then maybe...maybe he still could be hers after, "I...totally agree," Mindy finally said, an easy smile spreading across her face, "I can see how happy you are and I couldn't even ask for more," Kenny warmly smiled back at her, "And I really am grateful that you'd be in my corner too but I don't know about Brian," Mindy hummed with a small shrug,

"What do you mean?" Kenny asked with a curious tilt of her head,

"He's nice, you know, good looking, and between you and me...really fucking good at sex," She nervously giggled catching Kenny by slight surprise, "It's just...I don't know if he's what I really need as someone to date," Kenny gave an uncertain nod, attempting to understand while sorting the information that Mindy and Brian had already sealed the deal as he had with Anna, "Like you said, the feelings I had for you, the were born from the fact that you were my best friend, someone I really knew,"

"Okay, right, I can understand that," Kenny softly replied, "So you and Brian aren't --" He attempted to ask back,

"I don't know," Mindy shrugged with a playful laugh, "I think I just need to keep feeling it out, but for now I at least get to explore and experience what it's like to be physically wanted at least,"

"Oh..." Kenny replied with a slow nod, finally feeling that touch of concern JJ seemed to be feeling about Mindy being with Brian, hoping the blonde wasn't actually using her for her body and nothing more, "Well, I think...that it's good to test things out, I guess," Kenny reluctantly said with a scratch of his head,

"Yeah, I think so too," Mindy nonchalantly replied as she started to step past her friend, "I take it you were coming up here for someone other than me though, right?"

"Uh, yeah, JJ and I started cooking dinner, so I was gonna go grab Anna," Kenny nodded back as he watched Mindy causally starting to walk away,

"Oh sweet, I'm starved, worked up an appetite, you know what I mean?" She giggled, "I'm sure you two did too," Kenny let out an uncertain laugh and nodded back, "Sorry, didn't mean to make it weird, I'll try to keep what me and Bry do on the down-low. See ya, Ken," Mindy cooly finished with a wave and with a near glide in her step made her way to the stairs and headed downstairs, completely reinvigorated in her plan with Brian. Even if he was a complete bastard, he was right, if she just waited a little bit longer, Kenny would be hers and everything...everything would work out in the end.

Kenny, all the while, wasn't sure what to make of his conversation with Mindy. His intent to comfort and reassure her only ended up making him feel concerned. He wanted Mindy to be happy and from what he saw Brian seemed to have been filling that ticket, but now she tells him that it's entirely a physical thing? The teen gave his head a small shake, knowing that he, unfortunately, couldn't do anything, her relationships were her own to have. He just hoped that she wouldn't eventually get lost and turn into something similar to what Brian used to be, only using people for their bodies. Pushing the thoughts from his head, Kenny kept on, heading towards his bedroom to go and get Anna for dinner.