modern family | vanessa delgado

The Kiss

"I'm home!" I hear Jay announce while I'm in the kitchen with Mom and Manny. 

Mom is making chuncullo which is chitterlings of a pig, but don't freak out. It's actually pretty tasty, especially when it's fried. Manny and I help her get the food prepared for tonight.

"Mmm, what smells so good?"

"I'm making chunchullo, a traditional Colombian dish, for dinner with the family tonight." Mom answers.

"Chunchollo," Jay tests the word out. "What is that...like, uh, tacos?"

I roll my eyes at how so wrong he is.

"Yes, like tacos." Mom lies.

"No, it isn't," Manny corrects. "It's the small intestine of a pig."

"Oh, geez. Why can't we eat regular food like normal people?" Jay complains.

"If you want you can have a hamburger," I offer. Yeah, I know I'm acting like a smartass, but he's getting on my nerves right now. Which is nothing new. "There's a McDonald's not that far from here."

"Very funny." He gives me a look.

"I told you, Jay," Mom says. "My grandmother, who rests in peace, has been coming to me in my dreams, telling me that I'm losing touch with my roots."

"See, this is awkward, because my dead Uncle Joe told me to have steak tonight." He mocks.

"No, no, no, Jay," She shakes her head. "Have some respect. My grandmother can hear you."

"What do you mean, she can hear us?" Manny asks, freaking out a little.

"Well, in our culture, we believe that the dead are all around us."

"She's right, Manny," Jay says as he takes out a spoon. "She could be right here, her bony fingers reaching out from the grave." He scrapes it lightly on Manny's right shoulder, making him jump. Okay, even I have to admit that is funny. Jay's joke makes me laugh too.

"Yeah, keep it up, Jay," Mom gives him a look. "There's already one dead person in this room. You want to make it two?"

"I'm sorry. I've got a printer to install," He walks away and takes the box off the table to carry. "Oh, Gloria, have your grandmother run me up an iced tea in about ten minutes."

"Yeah, she has a better chance of making that work than you! Why don't you save us the stomping and the swearing and call Phil? He's good at that stuff."

"Better than me? Phil's not better than me at anything, except maybe making that stupid sound with his mouth."

"Ugh, that's beatboxing," I inform him. I remember the very cringy moment at the last dinner where Phil was showing his beatboxing talent to Jay. "He thinks that he can be the next Will Smith at beatboxing, but I beg to differ."

Later, Phil arrives at the house and Luke is along with him. I don't know why Luke is here, but maybe it's because he can hang out with Manny. Meanwhile, I'm laying down on my stomach at my bed, texting my friends and Anna Reed texts me for some reason. I read to see what she has to tell me and I can't believe it. I'm not the only one in the text and it looks like I'm in a group text with Haley in it too.

Anna: OMG! Haley, ur dorky sis was just at my house to see my brother and wanted to kiss him in front of his friends.

Haley: WHAT?! No way! You've got to be kidding me!

Me: Are you sure it's Alex? Doesn't sound like something she'll do.

Anna: Yeah, it was her because Jeremy talks about her. He was really weirded out.

Haley: I have to go talk to her! Ugh! Little siblings are such a pain! You didn't tell anybody did you?

Anna: Of course I told everybody! It's hilarious!