[Rory,Jo,Kelin] Shake It Off

[Ethan John Fox]

Ethan curled his fingers around Rory’s as she intertwined her own around his, smiling as he used them to pull her closer as she sang along to the song. Because damnit, Coldplay was awesome. Sometimes. They’d grown on him a little lately and for no real reason as to why. He brought her closer to him, smiling as he placed his forehead against hers before placing another kiss against her lips. “Come on,” he said, taking her hand as he led her toward the dance floor. Since the music was something you could actually dance to now, it made sense to him to actually just dance. Most of everyone else was. Ethan placed his hands on her hips as the music started to quicken and lift her into the air to spin her around slowly before bringing her back down to his chest where he wrapped his left arm around her lower back as he moved to the music. He could spin her around right now, twirl her around on the floor the same way he had in that record store. Except he didn’t want to, not right now. He wanted to hold on to her, appreciate the time that he got to spend here before he had to head out to Australia. Besides he wasn’t one to talk about his feelings, but he could still express a lot of it through dancing. Claire talked about some of that nonsense all the time. But right now, he thought it might be true, that you could feel someones heart and emotions coming directly out of their movements.

[Kelin Dean O'Reilly]

Maybe Kelin was being greedy, but if he was being greedy he was going to be  as greedy as the universe would allow for the moment.  Right now he felt that small window of time where she was letting her walls down and if he didn't take advantage of it, he might not be able to make any kind of move any time soon.  He just wanted her to know how he felt.  Jo told him that she would never really be able to promise more than one night, and he understood.  But just because she couldn't promise more than tonight, didn't mean he couldn't have more than tonight.  "I know," he said, the space between them closing without notice, his hand pulling her chin gently up to meet him as he leaned down to kiss her softly, almost timidly, unsure of how she would react.  But the longer he kissed her, the deeper he fell into it before pulling away, not wanting to gett oo caught up, and give her the chance to pull the breaks.  Though he hoped she wouldn't.  

[JoHanna K Roberts]

Ever have one of those moments where you thought you were going one direction but then life decided to be the jackass of a rollercoaster that spun you around and suddenly you dropped fifty feet? Cause the moment Kelin placed his hand under her chin to tilt her head up, she felt her heart drop right out of her body and onto the dance floor. She stood there, motionless, because what control did she have over her body when her own heart couldn’t even do its job? It couldn’t feel real, and she wasn’t going to let it feel real for herself. But he was standing here, and the same cologne that lingered in her apartment from his absence filled the space between them as time literally stood still. And there he was, pulling away just as quickly as he had deepened the kiss. And wasn’t that what she was most afraid? The pull away? The “sorry, but I don’t think we are going to work’. The late night blowing off of a date. The calls that got ignored. The feelings that got swept away under the couch. The pull away, that’s what she was afraid of with him. The same pull away that he had just demonstrated. Without giving herself time to think, Jo’s hand turned rigid, striking Kelin across the cheek quickly and roughly. She could feel the burn in her fingers, tingling its way up into her palm. She stood there, trying to control her breaths as she borderline glared at him. Doing something like that, then pulling away. Letting her know what it was like to kiss him, putting her in this new prison and cage of emotions that she couldn’t escape from. He’d placed her in this new inescapable state, where there was no way to get out without getting your feelings hurt. Except now it just depended on how long she let him stay in her life, how much pain she let him inflict. But as she stood there, with her fingers tingling, she realized that her lips were, too. And it began to occur to her that she couldn’t remember the last time a kiss had done that. Immediately she brought her hands back up into the side of his hair and closed the distance between them once more as she kissed him again, while pulling him closer to her, a bit confused at her own actions. But if it was going to hurt, it might as well be worth it.

[Aurora Jane Bates]

Rory followed Ethan to the dance floor, holding his hand tightly through the crowd, taking her by surprised when he lifted her up couldn't wipe the smile from her face.  As he let her back down, she let her arms wrap around his neck, her forehead pressed against his, internally laughing inside at the fact that her feet weren't even touching the ground and how they had joked about their heights the day they met.  But apparently she was tall enough for this ride (haha).  For right now it was perfect just hanging on to him, hanging on to tonight and what they had while they had it and it felt like maybe she was holding on for dear life, just enough not to lose him and all of this that came with it.  Out of the corner of her eye Rory glanced at Jo and then looked over at her and Kelin, squealing inwardly as Kelin kissed her best friend, smiling even when Ethan noticed too, but then physically cringed when Jo hit him.  Yes, that was harsh.  And Rory may very well be the only person who really understood.  He'd just opened up an entirely new world, had just made it into a thing where before it was just whatever and Jo could just brush it off.  Jo couldn't brush it off anymore, she was forced to acknowledge it and do something about it.  But just as quickly as she was hitting him, Jo had grabbed Kelin again and kissed him herself, Rory glancing at Ethan and shrugged a little.  Maybe that was how she was going to handle it.  It wasn't easy for Jo, letting those walls down.  It made Rory think about how easily she had let her own walls down. It was like going from an undefeated fortress to a straw hut, and she'd just let Ethan in. It had been so easy because... things were just easy with him.  It was exciting and terrifying.  Rory could only hope that at some point Ethan would realize how much of her heart he had and take care of it.  

[Ethan John Fox]

As a guy in his early twenties, there wasn’t much more fun you could have than being surrounded by all of your friends, with good music and great alcohol. And of course, the company of a pretty great girl. He’d gotten a pretty good start on drinking, and he wasn’t sure if all of his friends intended on catching up with him. Jake seemed to be feeling alright. He looked up away from Rory, just for a moment in time to catch the fact that Claire and Shane were not on each others faces like it was a teenage prom, or the end of the world. Which was weird, cause they were at a party. That was weird, usually it felt like you had to give your credit card information to some 1-900 number just to be around them. But he started to follow where they were looking, which was at him, and then across the dance floor. He looked down at Rory who was looking in ther same direction as Claire and followed suit. Oh, Kelin manned up. Though, that was a terrible way of phrasing it. Kelin had just waited because apparently Jo had a tendency to “scurry”. He’d heard Rory mentioning random stuff to him at their apartment. He smiled slightly, well good for him. Everyone deserved a chance to be happy. But just like that, he was being slapped. Ethan scrunched his nose. “Ouch,…why?” he questioned as he watched them. But then an even more bewildered expression crossed his face as Jo kissed him again. Okay, what was happening? “ Why…. Why?” he questioned as he looked down at Rory, shaking his head with a quiet laugh. “You live with a crazy person. This concerns me, just so you know… what I’m leaving you with. She’s so nice to you… and then…crazy…to everyone else..” he said, shaking his head again.