You Complete Me [Jemily]

Cabin in the Woods

November 29, 2018
Thanksgiving was really chaotic this year. My mom wanted me to go to some event with her in DC on the day of, but I insisted on accompanying JJ and Henry to Rossi's house. Mother threw a fit and it was honestly just really bothering me even though she's always been this way— it's her plans or no plans. To take the edge off, JJ planned a short little getaway for us. The two of us. We drove up to upstate New York for a few days to a cute little wooded area secluded from urban and suburban ruckus. JJ was already in love with the cabin she booked, and she's been begging me to get us a timeshare somewhere ever since we got here. Every five minutes or so, she'd run up to me and show me another little thing she discovered about the cabin. Case in point...

"Babe, babe! Look!" JJ shuffled over to where I was resting on the couch and dropped something in my lap as she bounced up and down.

Confused, I picked up a small wooden coaster, "Yeah? What am I looking at? It's a coaster..."

She snatched it from me and squealed, "But look how there's little bears carved into it! It's so cute! I love this place!"

"JJ, for the tenth time you booked us an Airbnb. If we bought a cabin it wouldn't have all this stuff in it— the owners of this cabin did that."

She whined and straddled my lap, "Stop ruining this for meeee! I want a cute little cabinnnn!"

I mocked her whining, "But that cabin would be emptyyyyy!"

"But we'd have fun decorating it! Or at least I would... You'd just plop yourself on the couch like you're doing right now."

I pointed out the window, "It's raining outside, what do you expect me to do?"

"We should do something fun inside!"

I wiggled my eyebrows up and down, "Oh?"

She hit me over the head, "Not sex. Stop being a teenager."

"Ow! What then?" She hopped off of me and slid into the kitchen. Neither of us had gotten dressed today because it was so rotten outside. JJ was still wearing one of my t-shirts and her pajama shorts, and I had on a tank top with some sweatpants. She made us each wear a pair of matching fuzzy socks. They had little polar bears on them which, according to her, were somehow related to the holiday season. I slowly stood up and trudged into the kitchen behind JJ.

She opened a cabinet and eagerly took out two mugs, "We're starting with hot chocolate. Get the marshmallows."

"You're way too excited about all this cabin crap, I'm starting to get a little concerned."

She sternly pointed a teaspoon at me, "Get the fucking marshmallows."

I put my hands up, "Yes ma'am." I obeyed her command and snatched the bag of marshmallows out of the cupboard. She made two cups of hot chocolate with the Keurig and cheerfully dolled them up with marshmallows and candy cane crumbles. In the meantime, I dug through a nearby closest to find a board game for us, per JJ's request. I called to her, "Babe? Is Monopoly good?"

She yelled back, "Uhhh... What else is there?"

"Life, Parcheesi, Battleship—" I knew she'd interrupt me there, because Battleship was always her favorite when we had game night at home.

"Oooh get Battleship!" I chuckled and grabbed it, walking back to where she was.

I said as I passed her, "I should've known."

She giggled, "Am I that predictable?"

"Yes." I set the game down on the coffee table in the living room and then stepped a couple feet away to light a fire in the fireplace. Once it was done, I crashed back onto the couch and let out a relaxed sigh. Then JJ came in from the kitchen, holding two mugs in her hand and balancing a container of cookies in the nook of her arm.

She chirped as she sat down next to me, "See isn't this nice? Fireplace, hot chocolate, board game, cookies," she crossed her legs and beamed up at me to continue, "and you." She booped my nose before taking a sip of her sweet treat, humming happily as the warmth slid down her throat.

I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and used the other to sip my own drink, "I suppose it's a nice way to escape."

She swallowed what was in her mouth and remarked, "There you go with the escaping again," she motioned up to my brain, "Everything okay up there?"

I shrugged, "Yeah. But you know how my mom is."

"I know. But she's not the boss of you anymore, you're the boss of yourself. You can make your own decisions and you should be proud of them."

"It's just hard when she's not proud, ya know? I don't know... I don't know why I always feel like I need her validation."

"Because you're a people-pleaser. I'm the same way. I do what I can to make other people happy, but, Emily, you can't forget about yourself."

"It's easy to forget about me when there are so many other things I have to think about each day."

She set her empty mug down, "Well don't think now. Now's a time to relax and unwind and... just breathe. We're in a cabin in the middle of nowhere and no one can bother us. Isn't that a comforting thought?"

I smiled and chuckled, "Yeah it is actually... Ready to get your ass beat in Battleship?"

She laughed and cracked her knuckles, "Oh it's on!" After several rounds, it ended being my ass that got beat. In fact, I didn't win a single game. We played for roughly 2 hours and I had nothing to show for it. Our entire jar of cookies was depleted and at some point we moved onto Cheetos. Once she was done cleaning everything up and reorganizing the supposedly "cluttered" storage closet, JJ sauntered back over to the couch and straddled my lap. She wrapped her arms around my neck as I placed my hands on her hips. She teased, "So I think I deserve a little prize for all my winnings, don't you?"

"That depends. What did you have in mind?"

She bit her lip and tilted her head, "Why don't you come upstairs with me and find out?"