Jeff Winger lumbers into his apartment, leaning heavily against his cheap pine door, and is greeted by silence. The silence is an eerie quiet that is in direct contrast to his experience earlier that the night at the Ballroom. The thumping music still rings in his ears, and the stale smell of cigarettes and alcohol lingers in his nostrils. He closes the door with a loud thud, and the sound echoes throughout the sparsely furnished apartment. Jeff manages to swing his large frame onto the living room couch, the only real piece of furniture left in the living room. His makeshift end table is comprised of two crates that were hastily nailed together, and the coffee table he once owned is gone (Jeff blames Chang and his love for saws for the table's disappearance). He leans back heavily on the couch and lets out a groan. His head is still slightly foggy from the scotch he'd consumed that night, yet the words printed on the letter he'd received today are still etched clearly in his mind.

To Jeffery Winger,

The Winger, James, and Thomas families sincerely invite you to our extended family reunion on July 26th and 27th 2014. We are hoping every member of our three clans can join us in celebrating our large and happy family. Each member of the family is welcome to bring one guest from outside the family. Please RSVP by July 15th and let us know if you will be bringing a guest!

That letter in itself was enough to make Jeff reach for his shittiest bottle of scotch, with the intent of getting as drunk as possible, but the call from Jeff's mother made him want to drink himself into a coma.

"Jeffery Winger, I have news for you." She had said as soon Jeff had answered the phone. He had tried to act nonchalant, but his mother's tone of voice concerned him. Was she sick? Had something happened to her?

"Jeff, your father called today."

Maybe it was the way she had said it so abruptly that had frozen Jeff. It certainly wasn't the fact that his father – the man who had abandoned him and his mom so many years ago – had called the main person in his life that Jeff wouldn't want him to have contact with.

"Jeffery?" She had said, concern seeping into her voice. "Jeff, are you still there?"

He nodded and then remembered that his mother couldn't see him.

"Yeah mom, I'm still here."

"Jeff, your father wanted to invite you to some sort of family reunion. He said that he wanted his 'successful' son to be there. I'm sure he just wants to show you off, but Jeffery dear, don't let the opportunity to meet the rest of your family slip away because your father is the biggest tool in the world."

Jeff had begun to pace across his room at this point in the conversation, tugging at his hair with his free hand. His mother wanted him to go to the stupid family reunion? Was she crazy? It wasn't like he didn't already have a lot to deal with. He had been slowly processing how he felt about Annie Edison, the one girl in the world that he couldn't stand losing. This reunion would just cause more unnecessary stress for him, plus it would take a precious weekend of his fairly short summer away from him.

"Mom, I don't know…"

"Jeffery, his family didn't even know about you until after he left. Give them a chance, they aren't the terrible people you think they are."

"Fine, I'll think about it. Is that all you needed to talk to me about?"

"Yes Jeffery," She had said with a sigh, "that's all we needed to talk about."

"Well I better get going then."

"Okay Jeffery, love you."

"Love you too mom, I'll talk to you later." Jeff had hit the end call button almost immediately, and had then proceeded to chuck his precious blackberry across the room. It had hit the wall and then bounced harmlessly onto his bed. Jeff had sighed and walked up to the bed and grabbed his cell phone, jacket, and car keys. He had then walked out the door, jumped in his car, and raced to the Ballroom with the sole purpose of getting trashed so he wouldn't have to think about the reunion again.