Mᴏʀᴇ Tʜᴀɴ Jᴜsᴛ Fʀɪᴇɴᴅs

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟♧︎︎︎𝐹𝑖𝑣𝑒

They arrived at the party around 7:30, and the house was pretty packed. Kids giggling and running around could be seen as the three entered the threshold, Janette already cursing under her breath for being here, and reminded herself why she was here in the first place.

Odette quickly ran towards her friends, wishing the birthday boy and Shawn saw how she got flustered as the boy kissed her cheek. He felt a weird tingle in his chest at the interaction and wanted to pull them apart immediately.

"Calm down, big bro." Janette whispered from next to him, a small smirk playing on her lips. "They're just kids. It's nothing serious."

Shawn relaxed a bit but decided to keep his eyes on them for the rest of the party.

There were only kids around, and the birthday boy's parents were serving snacks to the kids and mingling with other parents, but there wasn't anyone their age so the couple of best friends found a corner to munch on some chips.

"Janette?" Both of them turned around at the voice and Janette's brows rose a little at the new comer.

"Jonathan." She greeted, "What are you doing here?" She inquired, sipping from a glass of orange juice. Shawn shifted next to her.

Jonathan chuckled, "What a small world. I'm Owen's cousin," Pointing to the birthday boy.

Janette made an 'oh' face, hoping to smoothly avoid further interaction but Jonathan seemed to have not taken the hint as he continued to talk.

"I'm really glad I found you here. It's so boring in a kid's party." He laughed, raking his eyes once over the red head.

Shawn noticed how his eyes were sparkling as he gazed at Janette, how he often ran his hand through his hair and subtly flickered his gaze down to the girl's lips, his chest burned and unknowingly, he had his fists balled tightly. He did not like how Jonathan was staring at his best friend!

"Damy, you okay?" Janette softly asked him, touching his arm and the burn in his chest eased in the slightest. "Do you want juice? Water?"

Smiling, Shawn shook his head. "I'm good."

"Uh- hey, Shawn." Jonathan finally acknowledged his presence, a subtle hint of annoyance in his tone.

"Hey." Shawn replied, he knew Jonathan from college but never knew the extent of his crush on Janette, but now everything seemed much deeper than he thought previously.

"So, Janette. How's life? You barely ever meet any of us in college. Why's that? We should hang out some time. Maybe grab coffee or something."

"I'm busy." Janette cut his rumbling off, a simple and firm answer to clearly indicate that she wasn't interested. But Jonathan wasn't about to let go of this chance that easily, and he was getting on Shawn's nerves.

"Damy!" Odette came running to them, tugging at her brother's arm. Shawn leaned down to her level to hear what she had to say as she whispered something in his ear.

Shawn chuckled, "Jane, I'll take Odette to the washroom and meet you back here."

"Okay."

Shawn glanced at Jonathan's face once more, displeased and reluctant, he left with his sister.

Afterwards, everyone gathered around the cake and Shawn was on the other side so he couldn't be close to Janette. But he spotted her with Jonathan, and some other girl from their college. They were talking and he hated how Janette's stiff expression from earlier seemed to have softened a bit.