At last, something happens that could be integral to the plot? Is there a plot, even? All that and more in this chapter! But first...a Jay segment!
*Karasuma*Firestorm*

R for language.

Disclaimer: no one mentioned belongs to me, I guarantee it.

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Jay looked around the room. It was filled with some fine-ass bitches. None of them were necessarily up to Justice's caliber --fuck, they were gonna get married someday, right?-- but they were fine all the same.

He wondered where Silent Bob was. Lunchbox was his muscle, right? So the tubby bitch should've been here by his side protecting him from all these punk duck fucks wandering around drunker than hell. Jay had enough common sense to keep the weed out of sight, at least for a little while, while it was still light out, but he couldn't keep his fucking mouth shut for more than a minute or two at a time.

He'd seen all sorts of weird shit tonight. Holden McNeil had gotten all tipsy and shit and had to be led off by Bethany and Finger Cuffs. Jay wondered what that was all about; he hadn't seen any other dealers around. Unless Bethany was rockin' the ganj, but she had been so fucking uptight when he'd been smoking in Holden's place that it seemed really fucking unlikely.

Then he'd thought he'd seen Tons of Fun and the brother wandering off into the corner that Holden and the bitches had gone into, but when he'd gotten closer, it was just the fucking potzer sitting alone and looking all miserable and shit. Jay hadn't wanted to deal with that shit, so he'd walked away.

Lunchbox was still nowhere to be seen, as Jay made his rounds. Lots of fine ass pussy roaming around, some of them checking out the Jay, but he didn't think Justice would like it if he took one of them home. Silent Bob would, though. But he couldn't find that tubby motherfucker fucking anywhere!

Hmm, Bethany and Finger Cuffs were talking now. Jay wondered what that was all about, the bitches had nothing in common except Holden fucking McNeil. Wait. Maybe they were gonna get in a three way! That was something Jay could get into. If you got rid of Holden. He didn't want that whiny chucklehead getting *anywhere* near his shit.

Banky Edwards and some black dude were off in some weird gay huddle. Jay smirked. He *knew* that motherfucker loved the cock! It was gonna be so hard for him to talk to the fuck now, knowing that Banky would be eyeing his package and wondering when he'd get in Jay's ass. *Fuck*, man, never! He didn't do that shit!

Just then, he thought he saw Lunchbox moving past a group of hot chicks. Jay ran off after him.

~~~~~

"Hey, stranger."

Holden looked up. It was Bethany, and she was smiling.

"Hey," he said softly, and immediately glanced around for Alyssa.

"She's off somewhere. Don't worry about it." She exhaled sharply. "Want to dance?"

Holden looked at her for a long time. She didn't really look anything like Alyssa, he mused. She was taller, for one thing, and brunette. And they were the same age (he figured), but Bethany looked older. In a good way; like she'd had all of this experience --not necessarily the same kind of experience he'd loathed and envied in Alyssa-- and was a better person from it, older, wiser. And she had a great smile. Really great.

He stood up, and took the hand she extended to him. "Yeah, sure."

They stepped onto the floor, and though they went unnoticed by those around them, Holden still felt as if every eye was on him and Bethany. Like Banky, Alyssa, Hooper, Rufus, even Jay and Silent Bob were all lurking in the crowd, each watching them make a spectacle of themselves.

Holden stepped close to her, and bent down to whisper in her ear. "Do you realize that all of our friends here tonight are probably watching us now?"

"Yeah," she said. "I feel like I'm on a television show or something. Like we're Luke and Laura. Ross and Rachel. Dawson and Joey."

He smiled at her. "Holden and Bethany."

Bethany smiled back. "Look, I don't know if anyone's been talking to *you* about it--"

"Believe me, they have," he interjected.

"--but everyone is pretty much telling *me* that I like you and want you and am afraid to admit to myself."

"And are you?"

"Maybe I am. I don't know. I *do* like you, Holden. I don't really know exactly the depth of my feelings for you, if there even is any depth to them. All I know is that I'm glad that we could become friends, and I'm glad that you agreed to dance with me."

Holden's face twisted into a grin. "You know something? Me too."

And without drum roll or fanfare, or without even so much as a warning, he kissed her.