Storming Back To Kenny's

"Fucking bitch!" Mindy screamed toward the Tavern as the pair reached the sidewalk.

She flashed two middle fingers and jutted them forward and stumbled backward; thankfully Kenny swiftly caught her before all her balance was lost, "Whoa, easy! Come on, we're going, it's okay."

"No it's not!" Mindy spun back, his arms curling in and hugging against her body as she sped forward, keeping two steps ahead of Kenny, "She's a fucking piece of shit. She has no fucking right to say that shit to me -- No fucking right!"

"I one hundred and ten percent agree with you, Mindy. Kennedy is a soul sucker. She's peaked already, it's all going to be downhill for here from this day forward, don't let her try and drag you down too."

Mindy turned her head, eyes flaring but also wet around the edges, "This is why I didn't want to fucking come here, Kenny!" She looked away as she saw Kenny's face fill with guilt, "I...I knew she'd see me and I fucking knew she'd have to come over and -- and say something. She always does..."

"I --" Kenny was at a loss, Kennedy had insulted him before sure, she did that to nearly everyone outside of her clique, but she did seem to have a certain level of distain for Mindy in particular. Always targeting, he had, poorly, hoped that at least tonight she'd let the high school drama of the past finally go. "I'm sorry, Mindy, I never should have tried to **** you into coming..."

Mindy's jumped to her cheeks and she wiped them in a flash before tucking her arm back around her chest, "It's...it's not your fault. You don't have to --" Her words started to lace with her own sense of guilt for putting this back on her friend.

"You want to go home? I'll walk you home," Kenny sincerely interjected, "You don't have to stay out."

The gesture, as genuinely sweet as she knew Kenny meant it felt all the more like a gut punch in that moment, "No...no I don't want to go home." She glanced back, slowing slightly, "I...I want to stay with you. I want to have the good night we were thinking about before we ended up there. I don't want to go and hide in my room like always..." The drink in blood made her emotions swell, "Kenny..."

Kenny's brow jumped as he watched her lower lip tremble, "Hey! Hey, hey, no, I'm sorry! I'm not sending you home -- I was only offering!" He pulled an arm around Mindy and immediately her head rested against her shoulder as they kept walking, "If you want to stay with me tonight, you're staying. We still can watch the movie. I can still get my ass kicked in some games. And we can still have a good night. I promise."

"Yeah?"

"Of course."

The pair continued down the snow dusted pathway from the tavern until they reached the silence of the suburbs, two blocks in they took and right and headed up the sidewalk to Kenny's silent home. With Juliet still at Snowdrop and his parents intentionally spending the weekend away with some friends, they at least had the space to themselves. Heading in, Kenny flicked on the light and kicked off his boots, "So we thinking a movie first?"

"Yeah..." Mindy softly nodded as she struggled briefly to get her own boots off, "Can you turn the heat on?"

"No problem." Kenny jogged into the living room and turned the dial on the wall, letting their mock fireplace heater light up, "That'll work." Mindy lingered at the edge of the living room, her arms still tightly pressed against her, hugging herself like a shield. "Mindy...come on, it's me." He made his way over to her, gently resting his hands on her shoulders, "Whatever Kennedy said to you, she's wrong. Actually scratch that, she's not only wrong, but she's stupid. -- Screw it! The **Bitch** is fucking stupid. She doesn't know a fucking thing."

Mindy's lips weakly curled at his words but in the same moment they fell, her eyes remained downcast as Kennedy's words continued to swirl in her head, pairing with some many of her older insults over the years, "Am I...am I really ugly, Kenny?"

"What?! No! No fucking way! Why would you ever think that, you're not ugly!"

"That's what she always says, she always says I'm -- I'm some ugly freak. It's why I never have a boyfriend. It's why I..." She glanced down to her simple hoodie and jeans, "*Dress like a guy* Or whatever..."

"Mindy, you can't let her get to you like that, you're not a freak. You're not ugly. And just because you don't want to dress up like Barbie's dreamhouse threw up in your wardrobe, that doesn't mean shit. You have a style, you don't want to dress up like a cheerleader, who gives a shit? I don't! And you know what, neither will the guy you end up with! And that will happen, Mindy, I swear to god," He lowered his head down so he could look up into her eyes, "You're a diamond for any guy, hear me? And whoever is lucky enough to land you and is going to be a happy bastard, I know it."

Mindy sniffed and wiped her eyes again with her sleeve, "But...was she right?" She finally lifted her head.

"I thought I made myself pretty clear about just how clearly wrong she was about everything Kennedy said."

"No," She nervously chewed against the inside of her bottom lip. The question build from her gut, her heart pounded harder, and at it's peak, when she would so normally back away from it, the liquid courage helped her over that final speed bump, "Was she right that the reason you'd never...do anything with me, is because you don't think I'm attractive?"

Kenny's lips parted to reply, but before the words left his mind had finally caught up to the question and it flat lined. He found himself simply staring back at Mindy, a dump, blank stare resting on his face. "That's -- Wait, she -- I'm not --"

"Oh god, fuck..." Mindy began to shrink before him, "Why did I ask that?" She turned her body, her hands cupped over her now burning cheeks, "I'm sorry...oh god, I know I shouldn't have asked you that!"

"N-No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to -- I just wasn't ready to hear -- Or I mean, I didn't expect to hear --"

Mindy's hands fell from her face, "Please stop, don't keep...stumbling like this. It's okay. I'm not trying to put this one you like that. I think the drinks just made me -- Oh my god." She pressed her head forward, burying it into his chest, "I'm sorry!"

"Stop apologizing!" Kenny swallowed hard, taking another few moments to search his now rapidly firing thoughts before gently pushing her head away from his chest, "I...think of you like someone past a friend, like a family but not really family. Just the person in my life that I got to choose to be so important to me, you know?" Mindy chewed on her inner cheek as he continued, "And I think about so many years of you being that person for me, I guess that normal stuff like...that, just kinda fell away, you know? It wasn't intentional, just not something my mind went to."

"So you don't then...because you can't feel that way, right?"

Kenny blinked rapidly a few times, "I...guess I don't know that answer because I never thought about it in the first place. Between you and me, you know?" Mindy face dropped a facade holding understanding but genuine hurt filling her eyes, "But." She felt pins a needles on her skin, "I'm not lying when I say you're not ugly, Mindy. You are beautiful. You always have been."

"You mean that?" Kenny nervously curled his lips into a smile and nodded back. Mindy fidgeted in place, her fingers digging into her palms, her lips rolling in as she bit down on them, "So...if I wasn't...the girl you know that I am. If I was just...someone you met tonight. At a party. What would that Kenny do?"