White Houses

August 30, 2005

I came back out of my room a few hours later after I took a nap. I found everyone except Danny gathered around the circular table we have in the kitchen. Jared and Isabelle were playing some type of card game while Jenny looked half-dead over her bowl of cereal. I looked around, waiting for the creep to spring up out of nowhere. I sat down across from everyone. Jared was the first to notice me.

"Good morning, you slept in pretty late," Jared greeted me. "You wanna join us?" Isabelle looked at me with sympathetic eyes, almost urging me to explain to everyone what had happened the night before.

"I don't think I'm awake enough yet, maybe later," I explained. Isabelle's glance turned harder, but I just shurgged it off. I didn't have to tell anyone what happened. I didn't even remember what happened, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

"Jared, do you know if we have any whiskey left from last night?" Jenny asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee. She still looked like a complete zombie, but I knew after a few sips of the caffinated crap she'd be back to her quirky, silly self.

"You're gonna put whisky in your coffee?" Isabelle asked, skeptical of Jenny's midmorning choices.

"No, I'm gonna drink it after my coffee," she explained. "Kind of like dessert."

"Jenny, it's ten o'clock in the morning!" Isabelle practically screeched.

"So? Daydrinking's a sport," Jenny justified.

"In the bottom cabinet," Jared told her.

"Jared!" Isabelle scolded.

"What? I'm not gonna stop her from making poor decisions," Jared explained. "She's 22, she shouldn't need a babysitter anymore."

I couldn't help it anymore. I burst out laughing. Everyone turned to look at me.

"What's so funny?" Jenny asked with a slight attitude.

"You guys! You're all fighting over what Jenny should and shouldn't be doing at 10:00am. If she wants to suck down some whiskey, let her. Like Jared said, she's old enough that she should be able to make her own decisions, even if they are questionable," I explained, trying to supress my laughter enough to sound serious.

"Thank you Vanessa, I always knew you were the rational one," Jenny thanked me. My head immediately whipped around to Isabelle, as we all knew that sentence of gratitude had actually been a dig at her.

"I think I'm done here. Have fun ruining your damn body, Jenny," she announced quietly as she pushed her seat out from the table. She went quietly to our room, and closed the door with a soft click.

"Lightweight," Jenny muttered under her breath.