Beauty in the Breakdown

Immediately after arriving at the club, Jack and Alex had a girl in each arm. Hannah, seeing this, glared at the girl who was currently throwing herself at Jack and followed Rian and Zack to the bar.

"I need a drink. The strongest thing you've got," Hannah said, trying not to think about punching the girls in Jack's arms. The bartender gave her a look, so she flashed her id and he handed her a glass.

"This will take away all the pain babe," he said in a low voice, undressing her with his eyes.

Hannah ignored him and glanced back to see a blonde rubbing her hands on Jack's chest. She grabbed her vodka and drank greedily. "I think I'm gonna need some more of this," she said, already feeling a little light-headed and happier.

Four drinks later, Hannah didn't have a care in the world and she didn't even notice the number of girls around Jack had multiplied. Well, not really.

"Hey, sweetheart, I know you told me to die when you were drinking your first glass of vodka, but would you like to dance?" asked a cute, twenty-something boy in tight jeans.

"Sure," she slurred, taking his hand and leading him to the dance floor. Jack, who had been staring at her all night, just to make sure she wasn't getting into trouble, or so he told himself blanched when he saw Hannah kissing someone's earlobe. Anger raged through him and he marched up to Hannah, grabbed her and hissed, "What the hell do you think you are doing? You can't just-"

Hannah interrupted him by slurring happily, "Hey Jack-Attack! I'm just dancing with this nice man over here." Jack shook his head in disbelief.

"Hannah, don't go near him. And you," he said, turning to the man who had been running his hands all over Hannah, "Don't touch her. At all."

"Jack, you're not my brother. Don't tell me what to do," Hannah said, frowning. With that, she led the boy away, leaving Jack glaring after them.

With a sudden burst of desperation inspiration, Jack went up to Alex. "Dude, some guy is all over Hannah."

Jack watched hopefully as a look of rage crossed over Alex's face and he stalked off, forgetting the numerous girls he had been talking too. Receiving dirty looks from the said girls, Jack hurried after Alex, only to find him punching the guy Hannah was with. Jack, against his better judgment, pulled Alex off of the guy and grabbed Hannah's wrist.

"How many drinks have you had?" Jack asked Hannah when Alex strolled back over to the girls he was talking to. Hannah just giggled and held up five fingers.

"Only this much, but I don't take alcohol very well. Thank god I won't remember this in the morning, because if I did, I would probably kill the nice man I was dancing with," she hiccuped.

Jack smiled at her. "I think that that would be an excellent idea." Seeing her sway, he sighed. "Let's go home." Hannah nodded obediently and Jack led her out of the club.

Seeing her stumble, Jack picked her up and cradled her against his chest. She snuggled closer to him and his heart fluttered. "I'm just making sure you don't hurt yourself on the walk back to the bus," he said loudly, mostly to remind himself that he was not carrying her for any other reason.

'She is just my friend's sister. She is just my friend's sister. She is just my friend's sister. She is just my friend's sister.' He told himself that over and over, but stopped when she looped her arms around his neck and laid her head in the crook of his neck. Her vanilla scent drifted up to him and he thought, 'Oh hell. I'm never gonna recover from this girl. I'm absolutely in love with her. '