Forced to Marry My Brother's Best Friend

Chapter 6

Jenni didn't know who Shawn thought he was. First he crashed her birthday after saying he wasn't coming, then he showed up with her high school bully and took her side. Then he had the absolute audacity to walk back in here and tell her to stop dancing with the hunk behind her. Screw that, and screw him. She was here to have a good night and she wasn't going to let him get to her. She was finally starting to feel as though she had to let go of this ridiculous crush she had on him once and for all. The thought of that made her feel a weird pain in her chest so she decided not to deal with those emotions tonight. She reached out for Bianca and pulled her over to her. "Let's go get a couple of shots."

"Why don't you stay here with Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome and I'll go get all of us shots and bring them back."

"I'm not going to let you go all by yourself. What kind of friend would that make me?!"

"Jen, what kind of friend would I be to pull you away from that hunk? You need a distraction from that asshole, and the guy behind you looks like he can give you that very thing. So go back to shakin' what your mama gave you and I'll be back in a minute." Jenni laughed as Bianca took off weaving through the crowd. And then she turned around to her dancing partner, who had slowed down a bit on the dancing while she was talking with Bianca.

"She just went to get us all shots," she said in his ear.

"Oh she doesn't have to do that, I could have gone and grabbed us a round." He told her as he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer to him once again. "But at least this way I don't have to leave you unattended for one of these vultures to swoop in on." Her alcohol riddled brain found that statement endearing so she moved a little closer to him.

"I guess it's a good thing she went then. I'd hate to have to chase all these guys off waiting for you to get back."

He grabbed the back of her head and took her mouth in a searing kiss which she all too readily returned. She didn't feel sparks explode like she did when she was near Shawn, but she had to stop thinking about him like that. Why in the world couldn't she stop thinking about him? Especially when she was making out with another man. It took her a minute to realize that she wasn't really kissing this guy back anymore, but he didn't seem to notice as he continued to kiss her with more than enough enthusiasm for the both of them.

Shit this wasn't right. She either had to stop thinking about Shawn and fully commit to this make-out session or she had to stop making out with this guy and just go back to dancing with Bianca. Thankfully, Bianca came back a few seconds later with shots so she untangled herself from him and moved closer to her to take the shot she was holding out. All three of them shot their glasses back and then Jenni turned around to tell the guy she had been dancing with that she was going to keep dancing with Bianca.

"Are you serious?" he asked her.

"Um, yes? I had a really good time dancing with you but I'm here with my friend and I don't want to ditch her." Bianca opened her mouth to say something, probably that she didn't care if Jenni ditched her to dance with the guy, so she sent her a quick shake of her head telling her to not say anything.

"Wow, you're a b***h you know that" he said, grabbing her arm and pulling her back to him, "you think you can just tease me like that and then walk away? No, we're going to keep dancing and then, if you're lucky, I'll take you home with me. If you keep acting like a b***h we'll just go outside for a quick f**k before I leave."

Jenni tried to pull her hand out of his grip, "Excuse me, but who do you think you are? I'm not going anywhere with you and we certainly won't be sleeping together." She yelled, still trying to get away from him to no avail.

"Hey buddy let her go so we can dance okay?" Bianca said stepping closer and trying to diffuse the situation.

"Back off, you're not a part of this conversation" he growled out at her.

Just as Jenni was starting to get worried he wouldn't let go and would try to drag her outside she was suddenly pulled away from him and into a hard chest. She looked up to see Shawn standing beside her, and to her complete surprise, James was standing on his other side by Bianca asking if she was okay.

"You better back the f**k up" Shawn told him in an icy tone that had even her shivering.

"You know what, you're not worth this s**t you..." he stopped talking as he caught site of James' face. "Oh my God" he laughed out, "definitely not worth getting into it with someone who has a beast to protect her. Dude, you should really get out of her before you scare off all the women."

Oh no he f*****g didn't Jenni thought but before she could tear herself out of Shawn's arms to shut that asshole up Bianca rushed in front of her and slapped him right across the face. "What makes you think you can talk about him like that you piece of s**t. You try to force this woman to dance with you and practically threaten to sexually assault her and then think you can talk about him like that. Get the f**k out of here, if I see you again I will do a lot more than slap you in your stupid ugly ass face." He looked at her in horror, all 5 feet 4 inches of her and ran away. He must have seen something on her face telling him not to mess with her.

When Jenni turned to look at James worried about how he would react to what that douche bag had said she saw him looking right at Bianca with a bit of admiration in his eyes. But then he noticed that other people were looking at him and he turned away to go back to the shadows of the club. Bianca started to go after him with a pained look on her face before she turned back to Jenni, "Hey are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Go check on James. And thank you, for what you said and did, he needs the reminder sometimes that he's not a monster just because of a few burns."

"You never have to thank me for that babe. I'll go check on him then we can all get out of here."

Jenni turned around to tell Shawn he could let her go but he just gave her an icy stare. "Looks like it's a good thing I didn't f**k off like you wanted me to huh?"

"I didn't tell you to f**k off."

"You all but did, Jennifer."

She scoffed at him, she hated it when he called her Jennifer like that, it made it sound like he was talking to an errant child. "I was perfectly fine, Bianca and I were handling it," she lied. She had been starting to feel a little scared he wasn't going to let her go but she wouldn't tell him that.

"Yeah sure, whatever you want to tell yourself. I'm going to bring you back up to your brother and then I'm going to go home. Maybe its best you all do the same as well."

"Ugh fine" she told him. She only agreed because she was also feeling like she wanted to leave after that altercation anyway. On the way up to the VIP room Bianca ran past her with tears in her eyes. "Bianca" she yelled after her. She stopped long enough to tell her she was fine and was leaving but would call her later. Jenni tried to run after her but Shawn continued to propel her up the stairs towards her brother.

"What did you say to Bianca?" She demanded of James.

"I didn't say anything to her."

"Then why did she just run by us crying?"

"She's oversensitive. Let it go. What's going on? Are you going back down to dance or what?"

She sighed, "no, we're going home, come on. I'm done with this trainwreck of a night. I just want to curl up in my bed and get a couple of hours of sleep before I have to go to work."

He stood up and put his arm around her, pulling her away from Shawn. "Alright baby sis, let's get going," he said as he kissed the top of her head. Sometimes he really reminded her of the James he was before the accident. She would let go of the thing with Bianca for now, but she wasn't going to sit around and let him hurt her.

She turned to Shawn as they were leaving, "I guess I'll see you Saturday, but um, is Phoebe going to be there?" She asked, her voice barely a whisper. She really didn't want her there, her birthday had already been ruined. She didn't want her birthday celebration with his family to be ruined as well.

He gave her a blank stare and pursed his lips. "Jenni I'm sorry about what you went through and this probably deserves a longer conversation as this is neither the time nor the place. I had intended to bring her with me, but as it's only a few days away and I don't think that's enough time to talk this out and head towards the road of forgiveness I won't bring her along. When you get agitated, it upsets my mother and that's the last thing I want."

She huffed, of course he wasn't worried about her feelings. Only that his mother would be upset, although she had to agree she would never want to do anything to upset Grace.

"But Jenni, you will have to get used to her. Eventually, she will start coming to family gatherings and events, holidays, birthdays, everything. You are going to have to make peace with her because she's going to be in my life, permanently, if I have anything to say about it."

Shit, he wanted to marry Phoebe. That's what he was saying right? He was going to marry her. She felt like someone was sliding an ice pick into her chest. She held back tears as she turned into James side. "Let's go." She told him, and they turned around and walked away. At least she would have one last birthday celebration with the family before the she-devil started coming around.