What You Affect

Mindy broke her way through the crowd at the den and with light jog headed down to the rec-room. Her concern about Kenny being alone with Quinn for so long was rapidly starting to grow thanks to Brian's comment, and the last thing she was going to be able to take would be Kenny moving on from Anna right into another girls arms. Entering the room she looked to the pool table and found it empty, a half finished game left behind on the board. Her eyes narrowed, "No fucking way," She hissed under her breath, instantly thinking the worst,

Just then an exclaiming slur of words filled the room, "Mindy! Hi! Hi, Mindy!" Mindy raised an eye brow of confusion and looked over her should finding both Quinn and Juliet sitting on the couch to her left. The redhead was lightly patting Juliet's back and shaking her head in minor disappointment,

"Quinn? Julie?" Mindy asked as she approached the two girls, "What, uh, what's going on?"

"Someone wasn't being very responsible," Quinn replied as she gently continued to pat her drunk friend's back,

"It's Claire's fault...it was always one more drink, one more drink...ugh," Juliet groaned as she let her body fall to the side, curling up on the couch, "Mindy...stay away from Brian,"

"Oh boy," Quinn sighed as she looked up at Mindy apologetically, "Fair warning, apparently when she drinks she loses even more of her filter,"

"It's fine," Mindy waved off, "So where'd Ken --" She attempted to ask only for Juliet to loudly continue her thoughts,

"Brian is shit! Do you even know how many girls in the cheer squad he has done? Like five! Five girls and every time he broke their hearts, he's a huge fucking asshole!" Juliet furiously yelled, "Leave him! Don't be with an asshole!"

Mindy let out a sigh, rolling her eyes, "I'm not with him, Julie, we're...spending time together," She retorted before looking back to Quinn, "Now, where did Ken --"

"Not good enough! You're still giving him everything he wants! Mindy, drop him! I'm telling you he's not worth it! Date someone good, someone like JJ, or Kenny if he's single, any one else!"

"I'm not dating Brian!" Mindy finally shouted back, "I'm not going to date, Brian, I have no intentions of dating Brian. He was a fling! A one time thing! I don't like him, okay?!" Mindy yelled, taking both girls by surprise, "Now, please, where is Kenny?"

Quinn awkwardly cleared her throat while Juliet's glossy eyes gawked up at Mindy, "He was going to look for Anna last I knew," Quinn answered, "Not sure where he is now, but the den might be a good place to look,"

"Thanks," Mindy muttered, immediately turning around and walking out of the room, not very concerned what Juliet or Quinn thought of her now.

It took some time, twenty or so minutes, scouring every room she came to on the first floor of the lodge, trying to spot her friend. It wasn't until she entered the kitchen, that was now mostly cleared out, that she just so happened to run directly into Kenny. The teen entered from the farside door the same moment that Mindy moved in from the hallway, "There you are!" Mindy exclaimed with a giant smile, having started to worry that maybe Kenny found Anna and the two were already back in their own world somewhere,

"Oh, hey, Mindy," Kenny replied without much of a second look, instead scanning the rest of the room before frowning, "Damn it! What the hell?!" The teen exclaimed in frustration, walking over to the island in the center and plopping down on one of the stools.

Mindy tilted her head and slowly took a few steps towards her friend whose face was now pressed in his hands, "What's going on, Ken? Are you okay?"

"Not really," Kenny replied with a sharp exhale. Looking up at Mindy, she could see the mixture of tiredness, frustration, and fear in his brown eyes, "I've been looking for Anna forever now, and I can't find her. I checked everywhere, even upstairs and outside, and still, nothing. It's like she's hiding from me,"

"Well, why do you need Anna? I thought you two were talking to other people tonight, seeing your other friends," Mindy reminded him only for Kenny to scoff,

"We only did that because we had an argument and needed some breathing room," He muttered back, "But now I know all that did was make things worse. All I want to do now is talk to her so I can fix it,"

Mindy's brow raised, oddly instead of feeling happy that Kenny and Anna were fighting and her plan advancing steadily, she only felt concern. Kenny was upset, and that's all that was flowing in her mind right now, "What did you two have a fight about?"

"Something stupid," Kenny grumbled with a shake of his head, "It's something we needed to talk about not argue over. That could have happened if we just took a second to relax and then met back up, but no, I was too chicken shit to do that,"

"Don't put that all on yourself, she could have come and found you this entire time and she didn't either. You're not the only one making mistakes in all this, she is too," Mindy argued as she finished close the gap between them, "Look, you're pissed, let's go take a few to calm down, get a drink, and then we can tackle everything together,"

"No, I'm done wasting time on this, Mindy," Kenny rebuffed, "I need to find my girlfriend," He sternly said while starting to stand up,

Mindy felt a ping of disappointment, and once again it oddly wasn't from her failure to get time with Kenny, it was because he was so clearly effected by what was happening. She had a hand in this frustration and that...sucked, "Wait, just wait," Mindy urged as she held up her two hands, "You two...could just be playing hide and seek right now, you move out of one room and maybe she comes in right after. So you stay here and let me go look, if I find Anna I'll send her here," Kenny silently thought it over but it was clear it wasn't exactly his favorite idea, "Think about it, it'll give you more time to think about what you want to say and calm down. You can't talk to her half-cocked like this again,"

Kenny sighed, "Yeah...yeah you're right," The teen gently sat back down on his stool, "I'm sorry Mindy, I know I'm being weird right now, I'm just really fucking stressed out about this whole thing,"

"I understand, Ken, Anna's your --" The Asian said before letting out a small stutter, hating the term she was about to use, "Your girlfriend," She **** out, "I'd be more concerned if you didn't care so deeply," Kenny nodded back with a small thankful smile that faded off in mere seconds, "I'll be back, just give me some time, you'll find her eventually," She assured the teen as she turned and left the room, now asking herself an important question. Does she genuinely try to help Kenny find Anna to relieve his burden, or...or does she play along with whatever Brian was planning and just pretend to look around for awhile?

As Mindy contemplated this question, Kenny pulled out his phone and flicked around to his contacts. Why he knew it was a long shot, considering it being a loud party and Anna of course still possibly being mad at him, but he gave the blonde a call. He pressed the phone to his ear and waited, letting it ring and ring until he was sent to voicemail. His eyes drooped and he quickly redialed, pleading for Anna to answer, but once again, there was no response. "Fuck..." Kenny sighed, dropping his phone and letting his hanging head rest in his hand, "She must really fucking hate me right now..."