"Now come on Eli," said Michael, as they were walking home. "You have to tell me all about your trip! I want to know everything. How were the girls? The beaches must have been full of them. Man, please tell me you hooked up with as many as you could. You can't turn out like another Jacob, who went to New York and spent most of the time hanging around in our Aunt's house! Man, when I'm your age, there's no way I'm going to be spending a night without a girl, trust me. Even Genesis was telling me it's not right for a guy not enjoy his youth with as many women as he can get! Yeah, she said that at Sofia's house last week, when me and Kevin were over there. I'd never get to see Genesis if it weren't for Sofia. So listen to this, you know what we did at the party? Genesis got the idea to dress up Kevin in women's clothes. Yeah, Sofia even had a wig in her closet, from an old Halloween costume. We put him totally as a girl, and nobody knew about it, except me and Genesis. And Kevin. And Sofia, since we were using her clothes. And then we showed him off to everybody and said he was are cousin, Kitty, and everyone believed he was a girl! It was hilarious. Okay, granted most of them were pretty drunk…not that I was. I don't drink, of course…"
In this way, Michael kept talking all the way home, and once they arrived, forgot he had heard nothing about Eli's trip, and lay down on the couch to watch television.
Mr. and Mrs. Bennett were delighted to see Eli back, but disappointed that he hadn't come see them before going out with his brothers, especially since they had prepared a special lunch.
This ended up transforming into a half-eaten, cold (but still special!) dinner. Everyone was trying to get caught up with Eli, except Michael, who was trying to get James caught up with what he'd done last night.
"You should have gone out with us," he told them. "You might actually have had fun for once in your life."
"I would not dare," said James, "to denounce such entertainment as you engage in. Undoubtedly, they are agreeable to the preponderance of masculine intellects. But I acknowledge they hold no allure to me. I should interminably prefer to study."
Michael, of course, did not need the meaning of any of these words explained to him. He wasn't paying attention. He was slyly mentioning to his parents the trip his friends were taking, and how much he wished he could go along with them.
When dinner was finished, Michael begged his older brothers to go along with him to Square One mall. He threw in the offer of getting to see Genesis, hoping this would entice Eli. He assured him he was too tired from travelling to go out again. He also did not want to ever have to look at Genesis again. For all of her talk of constantly moving around, she had certainly stuck around the Greater Toronto Area much longer than he liked. He looked forward to when she would leave.