The Desired Effect

Party Time

New Years Eve - Las Vegas, Nevada

After a quick nap that afternoon, the girls were getting ready to party. They had their new clothes on and they were dressed to kill.  10 minutes before they set off for Chris' place they made sure they had some bomb photos to show off their efforts. They had a few gins already by now and so they were in the mood to let loose completely by time they made it.

They were greeted by the smell of burgers cooking and an overly excited and tipsy Chris.
"Hey Chris, this is Jaz, Jaz this is Chris" Poppy introduced the pair quickly.
"Nice to meet you Jaz" Chris beamed, holding his hand out for Jaz to shake.
"Likewise Chris" she responded, smiling sweetly.
"Come on round, everyone's basically here" he waved the girls to follow him out into a spacious yard. There were dribs and drabs of people scattered all around. Half were familiar to Poppy, the other half less so. "I'll introduce you to some people" Chris added, walking them up to the first cluster of chatty friends. "Aaron, Nicole, this is Poppy and Jaz" Chris introduced the sets of friends, "these two are my neighbors" he wagged his head in their direction, "and I work with Poppy, she's a lil production wizard" Chris chuckled, pointing at Poppy who gave an awkward single hand wave, "and Jaz is her friend from New York, she's over for New Years" Chris smiled at everyone making them all welcome. "Girls, can I get you beers?" He quickly asked, realizing his rookie error. The girls nodded keenly prompting Chris to rush off.
"Where abouts are you both from?" The somewhat young man named Aaron asked the girls.
"I'm actually from Leeds in England" Poppy spoke up first, her British accent clearly catching the couple by surprise.
"Oh wow, I was not expecting that" Aaron chuckled with his partner.
"And I'm Manhattan born and raised" Jaz added, breaking the ice gently.
"Oh nice, are you both in the music scene?" Nicole pondered.
"I'm actually a student at Stanford, um the nerdy type" Jaz giggled, "what do you two do?" Just the Chris returned with two chilled beers for the girls.
"I'm a teacher and Aaron's an electrician" Nicole responded, having now fully broken the ice.

A short while later, the conversation was cut short as the food was ready. Everyone steadily made their way over and helped themselves to the fresh BBQ food and replenished their drinks.
"Hey you" Jordan sidled up to Poppy as they added various bits and pieces of food to their plates.
"Hello stranger" Poppy replied keeping her focus on not dropping the food.
"How are you doing? How'd your chance with that girl go by the way?" She pondered, finishing at the table to look at Jordan.
"Oh, alright, we got talking but then we realized she's a friend of a friend and she just seemed a bit shallow" he sighed.
"Oh sorry mate" Poppy bit her lip, "dodged a bullet then" she chuckled, an attempt to lighten the atmosphere.
"Definitely" he smiled, turning his focus to her and Jaz, "how's Brandon?" He asked innocently.
"He's good I think" Poppy did her best to act oblivious, even ignoring the blatant stare from Jaz who was stood quietly beside her.
"Is there?" Jordan began, " Am I? Is there something y'know, going on, you and Brandon?" He stammered painfully. Poppy nearly spat her food straight out.
"What? No?!" She protested, taking a swallow of beer to calm her nerves down.
"Oh ok, you just seemed to be getting quite close that's all" Jordan explained innocently, noticing the discomfort in Poppy's eyes.
"We just got to know each other well that's all, he's like my big brother, you all are really" Poppy beamed, trying to shift the focus of conversation. All the while Jaz watched the exchange, entertained by the juicy gossip of it all.
"Aw Pops" Jordan pulled Poppy into a single armed hug, "that means me and your friend can be your wingmen tonight then" he joked, winking playfully at both girls.
"We'll see" Poppy laughed, taking another comforting sip of beer.
"It sounds like we all need all the wingmen we can get" Jaz added, finally feeling safe from putting her foot in it.
"That sounds fair to be honest" Jordan laughed, before all three simultaneously took another sip of their beers.

2 hours later - 10:13pm
The party was well and truly in full swing. Everyone had chatted with one another and thanks to a huge beer pong tournament going on, everyone was bonding well. The music was playing nicely in the background, but the hum of friendly chatter and laughter filled the yard.

Currently, up on the beer pong table was Poppy and Jordan vs Chris and Jaz. It was proving to be a tense and close game, with everyone watching, the pressure was on. Particularly as the game drew to an end when both teams only had one cup left to win. After many failed attempts, Poppy made an effort to focus herself and to it paid off. The ball landed straight into the last cup, prompting Jordan to yell out and turn to Poppy, picking her up in a moment of pure excitement. The spectators cheered and clapped as Jordan ran around to Poppy.

Meanwhile, Chris had accidentally called Brandon. He had meant to leave him a text message but his drunken haze betrayed him.
"Oh shit!" He cursed, clenching his fists.
"What's wrong? Who you calling?" Jaz asked, realizing her new friend was frustrated.
"Brandon, I didn't mean to" He exhaled, holding the phone to his ear. Jaz tried to stifle her laughter but failed, she held her hand to her mouth to hide her gaping smile. "What?" Chris' tension eased a little, realizing how drunk he was and how daft the situation must have looked.
"She's fancies him y'know!" Jaz blurted just as Chris realized that Brandon had picked up.
"Hey man" Chris greeted his friend, pulling a highly surprised and worried look. Jaz's smile also dropped when she realized that Brandon May have heard her last comment. Chris tried to explain to Brandon but instead the pair got chatting.
"Poor Poppy! Put her down before you drop her Jordan!" Yelled Aaron, as the drunken antics continued in the garden.
"Sorry mate, it's chaos here, I'm gonna have to go" Chris remarked, when he noticed people trying to dance near the fire pit. Poppy ran over in Chris and Jaz's direction, finally free from Jordan's clutch.
"Come on Chris your missing the party!" Poppy called out finally reaching him, "oh shit you're on the phone, Soz" she suddenly realized, her voice wobbly thanks to the alcohol. Chris cringed realizing the underlying truth.
"See you soon mate, sorry again" Chris hastily finished up the call and pocketed his phone. " that was Brandon" he remarked, a sense of seriousness to his tone. Poppy's face dropped instantly. "Don't worry, I know there's something's going on" he added solemnly, "but don't worry, I'm not getting involved, I'm here as a brother to you both so do whatever you want and I'm here for you both" Chris held his hands up  as he explained. Poppy couldn't find the words to express her gratitude so hugged him tightly instead.

Tuesday 3rd January - Las Vegas, Nevada

The following days passed by quickly and soon enough the gang were back on the grind at the studio. Not a word had been exchanged between Brandon and Poppy since Christmas Day evening and Poppy was fine with that. As far as she was concerned, he had made his bed and so she was letting him lie in it. Brandon on the other hand was all over the place. He didn't know what to worry about first and the little, nagging voice in the back of his head was back. As always, he responded by throwing himself into his work.

9am sharp Brandon pulled up at the studio and strode right on in, Starbucks in hand, he was in work mode. He got himself comfortable at his desk in the office and began to sift through his emails. No more than 5 minutes later he was joined by the rest of the crew. Greeting them warmly and sharing his brief plans for the day, they all swarmed around him ready for some sort of briefing.

"I hope you're all well rested" Brandon began, so we made some real good progress before Christmas, we're over halfway now so I would say by the end of the month, we should have the album ready for release" he explained, a hopeful expression stretching across his face. Then, the hard work began again within an hour it was like they had never been gone. Poppy had her best poker face on whereas Brandon was back to being his tense, edgy self, the way he was before Poppy arrived at the studio 2 months ago. He kicked himself for handling the situation so badly and resented how happy and care-free she seemed especially around the guys. In fact he was jealous, he just didn't want to admit it.