Trying To Help

Mindy continued to wrap lights around the banister of the stairway while Brian pretended to help from behind, more embracing her than anything else. The young Asian kept a smile on her face and played along, rocking her body either way ever so slightly, visibly teasing Brian. Eventually, however, the irritation of having the teen pressed against her with a hard on started to grate on her. Leaning back she planted a series of light kisses on Brian's neck and cheek, "Kenny is gone...can you please fuck off?" Mindy whispered out into his ear,

Brian let out a small chuckle and returned the kisses on her neck, "Rachel is watching and I can already tell she's got something up her ass about us, you need to play along if we still want this to work,"

Mindy internally cringed but let out a loud content sigh, giving her body a nuzzle back, "Fine but I'm sick of having your dick rammed in my back already," She hissed out before turning and giving him a playful shove, "I know better then to let you keep doing that, we have work to do, come back later," She giggled while Brian let out a small sigh of disappointment, it sounding more genuine then Mindy expected, "Don't pout,"

"Fine...can you blame a guy?" Brian leaned in and planted a final kiss on Mindy's lips, which the girl had to nearly **** herself to return before Brian finally turned away and headed back down the stairs, moving into the den as well.

Mindy let out a relieved exhale and got back to working on her lights, nearing the bottom of the stairs now. "Only one night...just one night, you can do this," She whispered under her breath, trying to calm her disgust and growing anger for once again having to pretend to be happy with Brian for everyone else.

"Still not a big fan of parties, huh?" Rachel suddenly asked causing Mindy to slightly jump and turn, seeing the older blonde girl at the base of the stairs, "Brian has a habit of only doing what he likes,"

Mindy let out a breathy laugh, and wasted no time in following the out Rachel had just given her, "It's not so much the party as it's how many people are coming. I wouldn't have cared if it was like, ten more people, but Brian is inviting half the school or something," She replied with a weak smile, "But it's alright, this might be good for me at the end of the night, it's my first big party after all,"

"Seems like you've had a lot of firsts this week," Rachel crossed her arms glancing into the den to make sure Brian was away from the conversation, "Mindy, what are you doing with my brother? How did he slide his way into getting with you?"

Mindy dryly swallowed, apparently Brian was right and Rachel was already suspicious, "It was a mutual thing, Rachel, I promise," Mindy assured, "We got to the lodge and...I can't really explain it but we started hitting it off. Kenny and Anna were spending so much time together so I ended up talking to Brian more than usual. One thing led to another and...again, I don't know, it just happened," She finished with a sheepish smile,

"And by one thing led to another, he convinced you that he was the guy that could help you get what you want, right? That he had some secret knowledge into people and he could make you happy if you just went along with him?" Mindy's eyes slightly widened and silently stared back, "Mindy, whatever he told you, he lied. Brian doesn't fucking care about helping anyone but himself. He's always been that way, and I don't want to see you get hurt,"

Mindy couldn't have agreed with a statement more, but the one part of that Rachel got wrong was Brian not being able to get her what she wanted. His plan was low, mean, and damn near creepy, but damn him, it was going to work so she could get Kenny. Mindy wasn't going to let Rachel stop that, she was too far into now, she needed to see it to the end, "He cares about me Rachel, I know it. So I appreciate whatever you're trying to do, really, but please stop. I don't want you putting doubts in my head that aren't there," Mindy curtly replied while turning back to her work,

"Mindy, I..." Rachel started to say only for the girl to pivot more, keeping her back to Rachel. The blonde let out a low sigh, disappointed that she both failed to make Mindy see reason and also hurt the girls feelings, "I'm sorry. If you end up needing to talk to someone, I'll be here," Rachel apologized and stepped away from the girl, knowing that if she wanted to help her more, she'd need to bide some time and ease her into a conversation later. Walking towards the rest of the group, Rachel could only hope Scott was having better luck with Kenny.

Scott and Kenny had hiked their way back down to the tram station and got on board, beginning their decent back down to the bottom of Kaster Mountain. The pair settled down into their seats and Scott could feel the tension lingering off Kenny. The teen wasn't saying a word, instead blankly choosing to stare down at his shopping list, clearly not reading it either. Whatever was eating him was serious, and even if Rachel was wrong about Brian being the cause, Scott genuinely wanted to help. So with a clear of his throat and lean forward, he attempted to get the teen talking, "So, seems like a lot has changed in the few years I've seen you, huh?"

"Huh?" Kenny snapped out of his trance, "Oh, no, actually not too much to be honest," He replied with a breathy laugh, "Still spending most my time with JJ and Mindy, but I still make it over to see Avery once in a while. Other than that though, my life has pretty much stayed the same since I started high school,"

"That's not completely true, you're dating that girl now," Scott said with an easy smile causing Kenny to tilt his head, "You know the blonde one?"

"Yeah, but how did you know that?" Kenny asked,

Scott let out a small chuckle, "The last thing you did before leaving was go and tell her. You two shared a few kisses. And not for nothing, but when I guy gets so clammed up around Rachel, it's usually because they don't want their girlfriend see them talking to her. I'm betting it's a little extra in your case, considering she took you to prom a few months back, right?" The older teen explained before giving Kenny an expectant look,

"You're...good, at that," Kenny breathed back with a smile, "You really walked in and figured all that out in a few minutes?"

"Didn't know anything for sure until you confirmed it but I had a pretty good hunch," Scott shrugged, "But with that in mind, I do have one more theory, if I could toss it to you?" Kenny nervously gulped and nodded, "Something is eating you, and if I had to guess, it'd be about you and your girlfriend..."

"Anna," Kenny completed before lifting a hand and rubbing his eyes, "Yeah...you're right on that too...was it so obvious?"

"That you had something serious on your mind? Yeah. That it was about your girlfriend, no, that part was a guess. Though, most guys your age, that's the only thing that could make you look so bent," Scott scooted himself a little closer to Kenny, "Feel like talking about it? We got a decently long trip down,"

Kenny lowered his hand, looking back at Scott skeptically for a few moments. Talking to Brian about Anna is what got him in this mess of nerves and uncertainty, he was almost afraid of what talking to Scott might cause him. Still, this issue was really starting to weigh on him, the long he was keeping it inside, the more his own mind was making it worse and worse. Getting it out would at least relieve that pressure, "It's...it's honestly nothing, it's not even a real problem when I think about it," Kenny meekly began,

"It is, if you're worried about it," Scott calmly encouraged the teen to continue,

Kenny ran a hand through his hair and let out a profound exhale, "So...uh, so it's pretty much this. Brian is hosting this party tonight, right?" Scott nodded, "It's huge and he's inviting everyone he can, and that just so happens to include Anna's ex-boyfriend from Dartwin, Eric,"

"Hey, an ex-boyfriend is an ex-boyfriend for a reason," Scott pointed out,

"I'd agree if they broke up for a real reason, but they didn't. Eric moved to Dartwin earlier this year and they only broke up because long distance wasn't going to work. Anna was fucking crushed to lose him, and I mean so crushed she only just started to get over him. She was in love with this guy and now...now he's coming back into her life," Kenny sighed with a shake of his head, "I don't know how I feel about it, and Brian even said if he was in my shoes he'd be nervous,"

Scott raised a brow, Brian's advice was certainly something he'd never say to a worried friend, "Okay, well, first I can understand the concern but you gotta keep in mind, this is just a party, Kenny," Scott easily began, "This Eric guy, once it's all said and done, he has to go back home to Dartwin and Anna goes back to Greenwall. Their relationship is still severed, their main reason for separating is not fixed by seeing each other one more time. Second, and way more important, Anna is dating you now for a reason. Just because she see's an ex doesn't sudden remove all the feelings she has for you. Anna picked you, she cares about you, and you can't forget that,"

"I know, I know, but it still...makes me nervous," Kenny lowly replied, "I feel so shitty for having any doubt in her but knowing that she's going to be around someone that she loved, and somewhere inside still probably does scares the shit out of me. Brian said if it was him, he'd tell her not to interact with Eric at the party at all, prove that she cares about me,"

Scott frowned, "I wouldn't suggest that," He instantly replied, "Having a conversation with her, explaining your feelings and getting all of this out into the open is fine. Hell, she might be having some concerns over it herself, and it could make her feel better too but try not to let any jealousy or insecurity run that conversation,"

"So you do think I should talk to her about it though? It doesn't seem like some mini problem I'm blowing out of proportion?" Kenny asked,

"Kenny, being open and honest with each other is the most important part of any relationship. It doesn't matter if the issue doesn't make sense, if its bothing you, you need to talk about it. Letting issues fester, even the small ones, causes them to become bigger and worse later. So, hell yeah, I think you should talk to her. Use this time we're out to think about how you want to say it, and then do it once we get back,"

"Was kinda my plan," Kenny said as he began to calm, a relaxed smile returning to his face, "Which, based off this list, means I've got about twelve hours to work with," Scott let out a loud laugh and reached over taking the list to look over. Kenny in turn shut his eyes for a minute, he was still going to be nervous when talking to Anna about Eric but he was grateful Scott came with him and they talked, it definitely helped ease his nerves more then he thought it would.