[Rory,Jo,Kelin] Shake It Off

[Ethan John Fox]

Ethan’s eyes were bloodshot like he hadn’t slept in days. But it wasn’t the lack of sleep, it was the amount of booze in his system. Even now he stood with his arm up against the counter to hold himself up, as he was turned to face Shane while in conversation, bottle of beer in his free hand. The smile that was on his face had been plastered there since about nine drinks ago and right now he was just enjoying being around his friends. Ending his engagement hadn’t been something he had seen garnering much attention, and quite honestly he wasn’t saying a damn thing about it to the press, but it seemed like a lot of his friends had been shocked, or atleast perhaps concerned, because they had still come out to drink tonight with him. Which for some people meant finding babysitters, like his best brother in law ever. Ethan lift his hand up, scratching the edge of his scruff as he talked to Shane about how he had to head to Australia to work on a movie for a couple of months, and that it would be nice to be home just for a little bit before returning.

It was getting crowded and honestly he didn’t even know who was here anymore, but he knew who wasn’t yet. He scanned around the room, licking his lips before he focused back on Shane. “ I’m gonna go look at music,” he said, before offering a quick smile and downed his beer before grabbing another one and made his way. Ethan walked onto the stage, where Tyson had been singing an acoustic set. “ Excuse me mate.” he said, picking the microphone up from the little stand where Tyson was. “ Hey everyone.. thanks for coming out. This is weird.” he said, looking over his shoulder at Tyson with an expression of ‘excuse me, but I’m standing here, please move’. “ I’m a little pissed right now,” he said, referring to his drinking. “ But since we have so many musical people in here. I wanted a chance to sing a song for you all. And I can’t think of a better one right now for my life… than that of Blake Parker..Oh oh OH.. I am so sorry.Renner is here. Renner, we know she’s a Renner. Shake it off mate… get it, huh?” he said before laughing. He looked at Tyson’s band, waiting for them to start the music. “Blake, darling, why don’t you help me out?” he said trying to raise the stand so that it was taller so he didn’t have to keep leaning down.


Outfit

[JoHanna K Roberts]

Jo opened her mouth, letting it slack as she looked around the building she had just entered. Shane Madden,Claire Madden, Meredith Jergens, Dan Hudson, Dani Cooper, Jake Russo, the Bannon sisters, Riley Collins,Scarlet Harris, Ryan O’Neil, Madeline O’Neil, Joel Foster, the Madison sisters, Declan O’Reilly,Cody Cavanaugh, Tyson Ritter, and Logan and Blake Renner…. All in one place. And all apparently friends with Ethan. Plus, there were more but she had just lost track. “ Holy motherload,” she said, not even mentally realizing that she was taking her jacket off. But there was this blonde guy, talking to a small brunette and they seemed very into eachother. From the eavesdropping it sounded like his name was Tyler. She blinked, staring in his direction before he looked over. “….. I like what you do with your face.” she said, staring at him blankly for a moment before she realized how awkward that was. “ Okay, bye.” she said with a nod, moving down the bar to get herself something to drink.

Jo stood on her toes, trying to spot Rory or Kelin. I mean whatever, he probably wasn’t going to show up. But she figured Rory was. It wasn’t often that your boyfriend had an impromptu break up party that you were actually invited to. She scrunched her nose, not being able to find them before she turned her attention to the bar. “ Can I get a Jack Daniels honey on the rocks? Thank you,” she said before she heard Ethans’ voice talking into the microphone, causing her to turn and look toward him. Yeah he was trashed. ‘Oh my god,’ she said, as it slowly registered that he was going to sing. “ Oh my god,” she said again, quickly registering that Blake Renner had made her way toward the stage with her hand cutely placed on the opposite side of her ever so small baby bump. Who the hell just asked celebrities to come sing on stage with them? “ Oh my god.” Jo said, looking around as she realized she was the only one freaking out about this. She cleared her throat, leaning against the bar as she tried to give an apathetic look while the music played and waited for her friends.

Outfit

[Aurora Jane Bates]

Rory looked around people trying to find Jo, because it really was unfortunate that they'd somehow been separated the moment thy walked through the door. Actually she wasn't surprised, security was keeping out muggles and apparently since Rory and Jo were on the list, no one bothered to card her which Rory found funny. Maybe famous people really did have different rules. All Rory knew was there were a LOT of celebrities in here, she was pretty sure she just walked past Dani Cooper in her pursuit to find Jo. Rory knew I order to find her friend, she needed to think her. If Rory was Jo, where would she go in this situation? Probably given the slightly overwhelming nature of it all, Jo would have gone to get a drink. Okay. To the bar she went, walking through people in slight awe at the sheer number of them.

Once at the bar she glance around for Jo, the bartender asked Rory what she wanted, "uhhh, just a rum and coke," she responded, hearing Ethan over the crowd. She could see him on stage, about to sing a song, asking Blake Renner to join him. That was just... Something else. Rory grabbed her drink finally sporting Jo, pushing over to her, "Jo! " Rory let out a breath, looking at Jo like, holy shit man. "This is nuts," she said close to Jo's ear, taking a drink, "Is Kelin coming too?" Rory looked back over at the stage, sighing inwardly. Ethan was trashed. But he had just broke off his engagement so she supposed that deserved a night of drinking. Rory was secretly thrilled, though just how much of a secret it was, probably wouldn't be for long.

[Kelin Dean O'Reilly]

Kelin stood in the back, having just arrived by himself and had gotten himself a drink right off the bat. His ex wife was acting like a twit, as if the divorce wasn't at all the product of her own infedelity. Just when Kelin thought they were beyond everything and being civil for Finn she would go and spaz out about something like his bedtime or Kelin spoiling him. At this point hindsight was 20/20. He was truly glad to be free of that marriage. Kelin took a sip of his drink, thinking how she wasn't the woman he married. Ethan had suggested that perhaps Kelin was judging him just a little, and maybe he should, but Kelin also knew that when the relationship wasn't what you wanted anymore, it was best to rip off the band aid. Sure, someone would get hurt. In his case, Kelin, but his ex wife was probably hurting in her own self implicated ways too. But Kelin was far better off, far happier. He could see that Ethan was too, even if tonight it was just the alcohol talking.

Kelin could see where Declan was some ways away at a table with Rosie and the O'Neils, but he also knew, while some others here tonight might not, what the catalyst had been to this entire evening. Sure Ethan's close group knew a little of what had been going on, but to most Kelin supposed it just appeared as if Ethan had been unhappy all along and had just finally had enough. Which wasn't untrue, he had been unhappy, Ethan had said so himself. He just hadn't had a reason to leave otherwise. Then Rory entered the picture and was apparently all the reason needed. As Kelin thought about the whole situation, from start to now, he knew Rory was probably around here somewhere... Which meant that Jo probably was too. And that was just perfect because that's just the girl Kelin wanted to see. But it wasn't easy because the pair of them, even together, were both impossible to spot in a crowd, even worse when they were separated.

So Kelin waited a while. Ethan sang a song with that genius songwriter Blake Renner, and it was entertaining to say the least. Kelin decided to head over in Declan's direction, hoping maybe to spot Jo along the way.

[Ethan John Fox]

Ethan wrapped his arms around Blake as she came onto the stage and did his best to try and sing in a falsetto voice, much to the pained expression on Blake's face. " At least that's what people say!" he screamed into his microphone, loving that lyric more than any of it. Because wasn't that the truth of his situation? He never saw the benefit of talking to the press or paparazzi, so he was just left to let people think what they wanted, say what they wanted, get the whole story wrong. He stood beside Blake, trying to do the same white girl twerking movement he'd seen in her video, pre baby bump. Clearly Logan liked the white girl twerk. Ethan came to the edge of the stage, reaching down to grab Shane's arm to pull him up so that they could dance together like the most drunken, starbucks caffeinated, white girl dancing style moves he could think of.

Ethan looked out into the crowd, seeing Kelin move. While they hadn't always been great friends, he was someone that was becoming a part of Ethans life that not everyone got to see. " WAIT, someone play flogging molly," he said waiting for the music to change. " Everyone stop moving. Freeze. Rory, Jo... raise your hands. Kelin, search for hands, that's a good boy. I'm coming. I'm coming, hang on." he said, screaming some gibberish into the microphone to go along with the Flogging Molly music before he hopped off the stage, falling to the floor in the process before he jumped up quickly. "I'm good!" he called out, making his way over to where he had seen Rory and Jo standing at the bar and wrapped his arms around the girls quickly. " AAaahhhh" he said, squeezing them tightly. "Can we get four irish car bombs? Thank you," he said before he looked back at the group of them, smiling broadly as he rubbed his hand lazily against his chest. " You guys are here to drink, right?!" he said, looking over at Rory as he gave a slow, drunken smile in her direction.

[JoHanna K Roberts]

"Who cares? Look around you," Jo said in response to Rory asking if Kelin was coming. She couldn't help but keep her eyebrows lifted in a surprise expression as she watched the drunken mess on stage that was Ethan. "He's like when you give a gremlin water..." she said, unable to take her eyes away. But as Shane was pulled on stage, her eyes widened. Hot. She looked over her shoulder to see if she could spot that blonde kid again. He looked like he made some inappropriate decisions. But it seemed like Ethan had caught their attention, yelling at them to raise their hands. Jo made a facial expression equivalent to ' go screw yourself' before elbowing Rory in the side to make her be the one to raise her hand. "Wait what?" she questioned, realizing that he was trying to direct Kelin over to them. " He's here?" she asked, straightening up before she looked down to make sure her dress looked over. Which is when she froze. "Shit AJ, I look like a leprechaun pornstar.. come discover me pot of gold...Why did you not tell me that I look crazy!?" she asked, smacking Rory on the arm with her clutch.

Jo pushed her hair from her face as the boys came in their direction, smiling tightly as they approached. "So a drunk australian and an irish guy walk into a bar," she teased jokingly before clearing her throat. "Yeah alcohol sounds perfect," she said, avoiding looking at Kelin at first. It had been a bit strange since he stayed the night while she was 'sick', and spent the day touring bakeries around New York the next day. She didn't know how she felt about it yet, because Rory didn't tell her how she felt about it yet. But he was standing here, and he was handsome, and she was pretty sure he smelled like whatever the sexiest man in the world smelled like. "Rory liked your musical performance," Jo said, giving a smile in Ethans direction, smiling again at the excited expression he gave to her comment. Jo narrowed her eyebrows as she listened to Flogging Molly and gave a shake of her head to Kelin. " Do the Irish never dance? This is terrible music to try and dance to,"

[Aurora Jane Bates]

Rory shook her head at the state of drunkenness that Ethan had accomplished, unconsciously sinking farther back when Ethan yelled at her and Jo to put their hands up.  Rory didn't really like everyone staring at them but reluctantly raised her hand anyways because she knew that if she did, Kelin would come over and then they'd have an ally.  That was good.  Kelin greeted them both as Ethan disappeared off the stage, seemingly having fallen off.  The rest of them had a lot of catching up to do.  Ethan came over and gave them both hugs, "Hey," she said, watching as he ordered shots.  He asked if they were there to drink, "You are, so we are," she joked.  He smiled at her and he was really drunk and she knew that but her heart still jumped into her stomach, damn him.  Rory took her glass they had passed out, holding it up so they could all cheers to... Ethan being single she supposed.  "Cheers," she added cheerfully, smiling at him briefly and then tipped her glass back.  It seemed like no one was staring anymore.  In a room full of celebrities, it was just a room full of people to everyone else.  Rory set her glass down on the bar, bumping Ethan gently, "Hey," she smiled, before noticing two more people approach.  Rory knew who they were.  Shane Madden was grinning at Ethan, "What an amazing performance, it was just SO moving," he laughed, motioning to the bartender, "Hey, yeah, can I get another one of these?  Thanks."  he put his arm around Claire, motioning to Rory and Jo, "I don't think we've met these friends, I'm Shane, that's Claire." he added, taking his new drink off the bar.  Rory froze for a half a second and then recovered, "I'm Rory... that's Jo," she said glancing at Jo who was positively staring at Shane Madden.  "Ethan I might have to go up and sing something, but only if you promise to grace us with more of your dance moves."

[Ethan John Fox]

Ethan couldn’t help but smile at Rory, keeping her gaze for a little bit longer than he should. He lowered his hand to her lower back, holding onto it loosely in a ,… hey this is mine, but not really.. super casual kind of way. He rubbed his hand against her back before leaning his head back to take a shot. His smile grew even wider as his brother in law and sister made their way towards their little group. “Hey mate!” he called out, gladly engulfing Shane into a hug. He went to hug Claire but she was looking at Jo and Rory with an amused grin on her face. Which caused him to look at Jo and Rory. Rory had taken the honor of introducing themselves, but Jo was just… staring. “ You’re fucking Shane Madden.. How the fuck awesome is your life? Will you sign something?” Jo questioned before she started looking around for something, anything to have him sign. “ Hey don’t worry about that here, Shane can get you some All Time Low merch.” he said surely before looking in Shane’s direction. “ You know.. I… I feel lke dancing tonight. I wanna party like it’s my civil right,” he said, clapping Shane on the arm. “ Babe, I”ll be right back,” he said, leaning down to give Rory a quick kiss before he motioned to Kelin to keep an eye on the girls before pulling Shane to the side to talk to him for a quick moment.

[Kelin Dean O'Reilly]

Kelin threw back his drink, thinking that lately the only times he'd really been drinking were with these group of kids.  It wasn't so bad.  In fact he actually found himself wanting to hang out.  It was refreshing after married life to have a group of friends that just hung out and stuff.  While everyone was introduced to Shane and Claire, Kelin appreciated the music choices Ethan had left them with.  Jo was a little starstruck at Shane Madden, which was funny because she certainly wasn't with Kelin.  Ethan had dragged Shane away and it was like... Claire was staring at Rory like, who the fuck ARE you, Rory was staring at Jo like, what in the actual fuck just happened, seeing as Ethan wasn't being shy with the PDA in front of all his friends, Jo was staring after Shane Madden like a unicorn had just shit rainbows on her and Kelin decided he was surrounded by too much estrogen.  "Jo," he mused, glancing at her, "You look beautiful, by the way."  He smiled in her direction, "Think I could bother you to come dance with me?  I mean, come on it's Flogging Molly..." he added, knowing she would understand that it was pretty much a given.  He could see Rosie had dragged Declan out to dance, naturally.  

[JoHanna K Roberts]

As Shane walked away, Jo felt her heart be sad as he walked away with Ethan. “I love you,” she called out quietly, turning to look at Claire. “Eh, he’s alright.” she offered before taking a quick drink from her cup. “ So who are you, what’s your deal? You and my brother been making out long?” Claire questioned. It was surprising though, because the questions didn’t seem rude, just blunt. Cause Claire was smiling as she said it, folding her arm around herself as she looked in Rory’s direction. Jo went to say something to Rory but then found herself being distracted by Kelin talking. “ Huh?” she questioned at first, because the more she got to know him, the more attractive he was. And not because he spoke in a pretty Irish accent. Because he was a really great dad, and he seemed like an amazing person the more she spent time with him. Which is why she couldn’t spend time with him. “I”ll dance near you but not with you,” she said, holding her clutch out to Rory. “ I can’t help you,” she said, gesturing to the Claire situation. “Apparently I have to shimmy my way to a pot of gold or something. Flogging Molly is on and I look like the fucking leprechaun flag. “ she said, starting to walk away, giving Kelin a strange look as she walked, “ Well come on,” she said in almost agitation as she made her way to the dance floor.

[Aurora Jane Bates]

Rory watched Ethan walk away, not a bad view after all, before glancing at Jo, like what in the actual fuck?  She knew Ethan and herself were dating, that was the proper word for it.  He wasn't her boyfriend, but they went on dates and made out and stuff so that meant they were dating right?  She wasn't sure how he was going to act around his friends tonight, given the fact that they had all just found out he'd broken off his engagement but no one knew about Rory.  One could even say she sort of was the reason he broke off his engagement.  Not for her, specifically, but because he obviously wanted to see other people and hanging out with Rory had put that in motion.  She just wasn't expecting him to call her babe, but that may also be the alcohol talking.  Rory looked over at Claire who was grinning at her, asking how long Rory had been making out with her brother for.  Rory let out a smile, "... Three weeks, ish," she mused, thinking that when she said it out loud it really didn't seem like much.  She hadn't even known him a month.  Jo had deserted her to go become the shamrock queen, which left Rory alone with Ethan's sister who luckily didn't seem at all judgmental.  Though that wasn't surprising seeing as a majority of the people in Ethan's life were happy about the broken engagement.  Rory sat down at a bar stool, motioning for Claire to sit beside her, asking the bartender to bring them each another drink.  "Ethan came into the record store where I work, we just hit it off," she recalled, thanking the bartender and took a sip of her new drink.  "He wooed me with his amazing dance skills," she joked, shaking her head.  "You dance though, don't you?" Rory asked, crossing one leg over the other.  At least she and Claire had dance in common, even if Rory had never trained seriously in ballet the way Claire did.  

[Ethan John Fox]

Ethan cracked his fingers as he stood a god fifteen feet away, talking to Shane at the bar. “Little under a month I guess.” he said in response to Shane asking how long Rory had ‘been in his life’. Whatever that meant. Shane could decipher for himself and he knew that Shane wouldn’t really push for answers anyway because when was Ethan one to ever really talk about his feelings or what was going on in his head. “ She’s pretty cool. Her roommate is a little weird, but.. I think that’s a qualification for roommates. Kelin seems alright with it.” he said, ordering himself and Shane a couple of shots. “I don’t know, just see where it goes. I sort of feel… free to just do whatever I want to, I guess. I mean we’ve talked about it. As much as I really talk about things. She knows I’m leaving for Australia to work on a film soon, so…” he said before offering a shrug of his shoulder. “Claire mentioned getting ‘white girl wasted’ earlier because the kids had a babysitter. Which I’m guessing is your mom and dad,” he said with a laugh before picking up their drinks so that they could go talk to their girls. “ Hey,” he approached hearing Claire talk about her dancing career, and how Shane had influenced her a lot, and how he had even helped her open her own company that she was a principal in. “This family loves dancing,” he said before narrowing his eyebrows. “That rotten bastard did not keep an eye on you guys at all,” he said, looking around for Kelin. Ethan sat down, wrapping his arm around Rory’s waist as he set his drink on the table. “I think your husband is gonna shake it for me. Like a country girl. Birds and the bees… daddys tractor…something.” Ethan rattled off drunkenly before he rest his cheek against Rory’s arm.

[Kelin Dean O'Reilly]

Kelin followed Jo to the dance floor, grinning because she hadn't said no, and that was something.  She may not have been thrilled, but she hadn't said no.  And every time she didn't say no, it was just adding to the flame that fueled whatever relationship Kelin was after.  Jo had said she would dance near him but Kelin saw that drink she was wielding and you know what?   It wasn't as if Kelin and Jo had just met, they had known of each other for quite some time now.  And yeah she used to be just one of the interns but she had always been one of the interns that seemed normal and chill.  And now Kelin considered her someone that he actually planned his days around.  Making sure they could hang out, finding out her work schedule.  He'd taken her out a few times, unknown to Jo of course, but they had been like dates pretty much.  And watching the way Ethan was so direct with Rory made Kelin understand that you couldn't keep putting off love.  Both of them had been in a situation that wasn't exactly perfect and so Ethan had moved on to something else, Kelin could do the same.  he was just so drawn to Jo.  She was so... captivating in a lot of ways.  She liked to pretend she didn't give a fuck and pushed him away and then she would pull him back in timidly, enough for him to understand it wasn't going to be easy, but it was going to be worth it.  Kelin glanced at her before taking her hands in his, smiling down at her, "Jo, dance with me," he said looking into her eyes.  Somewhere in there she wanted to.  Kelin moved along with her, easing her into the idea that dancing with him wasn't so bad after all.  He just wanted to be close to her for once, where she just... let herself feel what she felt.  Let her walls down.  "One night," he said quietly, "Just the one, dance with me."

[JoHanna K Roberts]

Jo looked over her shoulder a few times as she walked away from Rory and into the dancing crowd. She looked okay, she didn’t look like she was on fire or begging for help. Claire and Rory were both small, they were probably both scrappy though. It could be an interesting fight if it led to one. But Ireland had taken her hands and was asking her to dance with him. “Are you deaf? I said I would,” she said, but he was already pulling her toward him, and it seemed like this slow, meticulous, bringing a cow to slaughter kind of pace. And just as the nervous need to run,escape, flee, take any and all prisoners down with her. But he had asked multiple times now, and she just couldn’t demolish his manhood like that. Jo softened her features, tilting her head down slightly to shake off any jitters before taking in a deep breath. ” Okay,” she relented, speaking softly as she finally stepped closer to him on her own. The change in music had been one she wasn’t anticipating, apparently not everyone was feeling the irish music. And she could hear a disappointed Declan in the background, but right now, she was stuck in this one night, this one dance that she had just promised to Kelin with her eyes locked on his. It was funny how often she avoided looking into his eyes. People often said that they were windows to your soul, and how terrifying it was to think that someone could see something about yourself that you didn’t want them to. Jo brought her arm up, placing it gently so tha it cupped around Kelin’s neck as she tried to ignore the fact that she could feel her heart in her throat. It was probably because Chris Martin was just a phenomenal singer. Or because she had a couple of drinks and shots already. But like, wasn’t he getting greedy? She already gave him a day at the bakeries, and they’d spent time watching walking dead together, he’d eaten more than one meal prepared by her, he’d even bought her a couple of pumpkin spice lattes. Jo looked down for a moment, realizing that she had let him know more about herself already than she wanted to. “ I can’t ever really promise more than one,” she said, swallowing back her own thoughts before looking up at him again.

[Aurora Jane Bates]

Rory had to force the smile from encompassing her entire face.  It was one thing to get attention from Ethan in general but a whole other thing to get that around other people.  It was nice because it didn't feel like they had to hide anything which initially had been what made Rory uneasy in the first place.  But now it didn't feel like just an off limits thing.  Rory didn't feel that underlying line they weren't supposed to cross.  They could just sit here close to each other, leaning into him enough to say they were a thing, and that was enough.  Rory laughed about Shane dancing, as he came over, kissing Claire on the cheek from behind and swept her away to go dance or do whatever it was they did.  For the first time since a few weeks ago Rory felt free to let her hair down and not worry that anyone here was going to take a photo or talk to a tabloid.  She didn't feel guilty when she leaned over to kiss him softly and then hopped off her bar stool, telling herself that tonight was tonight and Australia was later.  She hadn't put much thought into him leaving for Australia and knew it wouldn't feel real until he was gone.  She'd fallen way too fast, but it was so fast that she didn't even have time to second guess it.  Somewhere deep down where she had stuffed her common sense she knew that it was gonna suck when he left; they'd been somewhat inseparable the past few weeks, but as always with Ethan, she was forced to live in the right now and worry about the future when it happened.  She smiled at the way she could tell he liked this damn song, and damnit, she liked this song too.  Rory took both his hands, lacing her fingers through his, smiling, "I think I saw youuuuuu," she sang playfully, laughing.  The alcohol was hitting her hard, and she smiled at him.  She shook her head, what could she say?  You came out of nowhere?  She had never felt this... enamored.  Her mother would tell her to be careful, and tell her what she was feeling was just that normal stuff at the beginning of a relationship, like the lust part.  Not to mistake it for the real thing.  It just felt really real at the moment.  But the good thing was, sometimes they had this unspoken thing.  Sometimes he looked at her and she could tell he didn't want to explain himself but she knew what he meant, and sometimes she knew all she had to do was look at him and smile and if there were ever a time where the eyes being a window to the soul were true, it was with Rory.  The way she looked at people was far too honest to mistake.  So now as their friends danced and people drank and sang and all the chaos went on a round them, Rory stopped and smiled at him, and maybe he would know that she felt something deeper, and she would probably miss him when he was away.  More so than she should. It just felt soon to say anything.  But there was a chance he might maybe understand.