Georgia Peach

Chapter 10

  The next five days was the most stressful five days of Janis' life.

Okay, wait, so maybe that's a little dramatic. But having to hide the fact that her uncle's gay and that his secret fiancee is actually another man from her grandparents is a lot harder than she thought it'd be.

Nate's around the house a lot in the week. Helping pack up christmas decorations and just hanging around for lunch or dinner, Janis thinks it's a miracle her grandparents don't know he's the one marrying Craig. They do seem to like him though. That's something at least. She gets to know him better as well, especially as one of the few people who know.

He's got a doctorate in psychology and works as an addictions counselor in Los Angeles. He's known Craig for twenty years. They dated two other times before the past seven years. He's charming, funny, and he's managed to completely woo Linda and Hugh within the week.

In the same time, there was an obvious ridge in her family.

No one wanted to talk about what happened at the bonfire. Her grandparents avoided the topic of her uncle like the plague, going so far as to just ignore the glaring details that: 1.) he could have killed Jason, in fact he said as much to imply he would 2.) they raised Huggie, they had a hand in who he is. And they didn't want to take any responsibility apparently. Not that she can really blame them, but for people who have called her and Craig "immature" so many times, she'd kind of hoped they'd at least be mature enough to admit they had a hand in this.

Craig had tried to bring it up and ask about Jason's recovery or what's going to happen to Huggie all week. And every single time without fail, her grandparents just ignored him. They'd leave the room if they had no topics to change it to.

Which speaking of, Jason was released from the hospital yesterday, Craig invited him and Heather to the wedding but Heather apparently already had booked a flight back to Washington. And speaking of Huggie, he's...well Janis isn't 100% sure where he is actually, but she thinks he's like in jail or something waiting for a court date? They posted his bail and she saw enough zeroes to know that there was no way her family had enough or was going to get enough money for it.

Even with Leslie's gold-digger status.

Maybe she was closer to Huggie than her dad or Craig, but Janis thinks that even Leslie is smart enough to know he doesn't deserve bail for this. And if she doesn't? Then she's probably just afraid of him now, or afraid of her other two brothers that definitely would have a few choice words to tell her.

But regardless of anything, the bonfire hardly threw a wrench into the wedding plans. Huggie was already uninvited since his first night back according to Craig. And...Leslie and Vivian was nowhere to be found. Which sucked because Vivian was supposed to be the flower girl. Tanner and Phil were present, which was a surprise. Janis found herself running around helping people get ready and make sure everything was set up. Part of her wondered idly how different this would be if she was at a wedding with someone on her mom's side. Her mom died when she was like twelve, but...small things like this made her think sometimes...

The most she knew about her mom's family was that they were jewish, and they cut off contact with her mom at some point before she was born. Her dad claims not to know why, but she's pretty sure he's hiding something.

But regardless, it was a small thing she kept finding her brain looping back around to in between running around the building. She knows it'll be different for herself. She doesn't know how, but somehow.

Not that she's thought about it or anything. Not like she's wondered about how her own wedding might go one day.

She was too distracted by her thoughts and she managed to run straight into someone. She doesn't know who but they are dressed in red so...they're someone on Craig's side. Maybe they were lost? Or maybe she's lost because she was just completely zoned out for god knows how long.