It was pretty clear that shit was about to hit the fan. Everyone could feel the tension from the moment they stepped into the house. John had warned you beforehand that two of his friends, Cayden and Gus (i know this is random but these were the first names that came to my mind so please pretend) , were on the outs at the moment and things were bound to blow up soon. However, no one expected it to go down at the Friendsgiving party that Cayden and his girlfriend planned for everyone just before the holidays. Cayden and his girlfriend... who used to be Gus's girlfriend... or at least that's how he told it.
The party was going pretty well. You and John cooked queso dip the night before to bring. It was cooked in a crockpot so there wasn't much work being put in, but John was still proud of your "first official meal prepared together."
After walking in, you and John soon separated to greet people and you headed towards the kitchen to set down the crockpot. You had already met most of his friends, so it was easy to start mingling with the girls that you saw in the kitchen. You weren't far into your conversations when you received a text from John simply saying "pay attention." There was yelling coming from the living room, mostly guys saying "Okay, calm down," or "Back up." You all headed down there from the kitchen to see what was going on and were met with Gus and Cayden about to throw down in the middle of the living room. You found John across the room and sat on the couch near where he was standing. He leaned down to you and rolls his eyes towards his friends.
"Pssh, what I tell ya?"
You laughed back, "Yeah but I thought we'd at least have 30 solid minutes before it went to hell."
John shook his head and whispered, "Not with these guys."
Everyone was just crowded around the living room area listening to the drama unfold. It was clear that both Cayden and Gus had been drinking already, and Gus held a beer in his hand as he continued to argue back and forth with his friend. Because they were both intoxicated, none of the conversations really made any sense. However, it didn't take much to figure out the source of the problem, seeing as the girl they were arguing over was in the corner crying her eyes out. Once Gus stepped closer to Cayden and set his beer on the coffee table, all of the other guys got up and started moving towards them.
"Okay, you should go get in the car," John leaned over the couch arm and tried to hand his car keys to you.
You slightly swatted his hand away before replying "Nah, I'm good," never taking your eyes off of the boys. Here's the thing: when you were in the kitchen earlier, you received some tea on the situation that revealed maybe Gus wasn't exaggerating as much as everyone thought he was. Apparently, the main reason Cayden's girlfriend offered to host the Friendsgiving this year was to try and make everyone like her despite her past with Gus. And Gus was not holding back. He was exposing the homegirl repeatedly, confirming most of what you were told in the kitchen.
You probably shouldn't have dismissed John like that, but you couldn't help yourself every now and then because deep down you kind of enjoyed when he got angry with you. The dominant persona that he took on was something so natural and passionate and always enchanted you as much as it startled you.
"Babe," you could hear John continuing to get your attention but you were too invested in what was going on. His tone that started off as gentle was now getting more aggressive as he had to keep repeating himself. Usually, you would let John protect you in a situation like this. However, no one else was making any moves to leave the apartment at any time soon, so why should you have to be the only one to miss the fight?
In retrospect, John was probably only trying to prevent you from getting hurt in the impending cross-fire between the two guys because you both knew that he would rain down hellfire and shut the whole party down if any of those drunk clowns touched you even if by accident. You knew that he was protective but he was just going to have to get over himself today.
