Jennie
I shower, dress and walk through the lobby of the Oberlin Inn in record time. I no longer reek of stale liquor, but I'm pretty sure I still look like ass. A view of my reflection in a mirror behind the registration desk confirms my suspicions.
"Mommy, you look old today," Gabi says as we walk hand in hand around the corner and down the hall. "Like old lady and eye balls."
"Gee, thanks. I love you too," I mumble.
Lisa had got a call to come into work to fill out a form that will add Gabi to her health benefits, so after he picked Gabi up from my dad's and dropped him back off with me, she ran up there and said she would meet us at the inn.
Yeah, that's exactly what I want to do. Walk into the lion's den alone.
I had made a quick call to Sehun and Minnie and asked if I could pick them up on the way for moral support. I've spoken to Lisa's parents a few times on the phone since we moved in together, but this will be the first time they actually see me and meet Gabi. I am beyond nervous about making a good impression. They are the complete opposite from what I'm used to. They never swear, they only drink on special occasions, and I'm pretty sure they've never puked in anyone's lap after a night out bar hopping. I figured since Mr. and Mrs. Manoban already know Sehun and haven't forbid Lisa from hanging out with him yet, I should be okay.
"I still can't believe you don't remember screaming at that old lady in the parking lot. It was priceless!" Sehun whispers from behind me as we walk into the party room and see Lisa and her parents talking to a waiter.
"I'm so glad I downloaded the theme from "Golden Girls" to her phone right after that occurred," Minnie says to Sehun.
"It really was a stroke of brilliance," he replies.
I roll my eyes and try not to think about the events from last night that Sehun and Minnie regaled me with on the ride over. Some things are best left forgotten—or lost in a drunken haze that no one should ever speak of again.
As we walk through the doorway of the room, Lisa turns and we make eye contact. I suddenly don't want to kill the two people behind me. Everything is momentarily forgotten when I look at her.
I can do this. Parents love me.
She excuses herself from the discussion and hurries over to us, scooping Gabi up in her arms and peppering his face with kisses. She reaches out and grabbed my hand to pull me in close and place a soft kiss on my lips.
"Mmmmm. You don't taste like vomit and desperation anymore," she whispers with a smirk as she pulls her face away from mine.
"Remind me to never drunk dial you again for a booty call," I reply with mock irritation.
"Don't worry," she says as she turns and pulls me over to her parents. "If that's your idea of a booty call, I'm never taking another call from you again at two in the morning from the kitchen while you're down the hall in the bedroom. My penis can't handle another rejection like that. Or should I say projection?"
Sehun and Minnie start giggling behind us.
"Alright, get it all out of your system now you guys. We are never, ever speaking of what happened last night again. We all need to pretend like it never happened," I state firmly as Lisa wraps her arm around my waist and hefts Gabi up higher.
"Yeah, about that," Sehun says sheepishly, "you might want to check Facebook when you get a free moment."
My mouth dropped open, and I could do nothing but stare at his back as he pushes us out of the way and drags Minnie up to greet Madelyn and Charles and give them a hug. I barely paid attention as Sehun introduces Minnie to them. Before I know it, all eyes are on me and Gabi.
"Say hello to your grandparents, Gabi," Lisa prompts her.
"Hi, I'm Gabi. When I'm ten I can drink beer and mow the lawn," he states with a smile.
Nothing like a little tension breaker.
"Well, isn't that sweet," Madelyn says in a voice that clearly states it's anything but.
"It's good to finally meet you Jackie," Charles says distractedly as he stares at Minnie's ass when she bends over to pick up her lip gloss that she had dropped.
"Dad, it's Jennie," Lisa reminds him in a low voice, giving me an apologetic look.
As Gabi and I are pulled in for impolite hugs and air kisses, all I can do is try and think about what I may or may not have put on Facebook. The fact that I am pretty sure Lisa's mother hated me on sight and her father is too busy ogling my friend's assets to get my name right doesn't even touch a nerve. If I had put a picture of my boobs on Facebook, I'd throw myself off of a bridge anyway, so their judgments won't matter.
Under normal circumstances, I own who I am. I like to have fun and go crazy, occasionally, and when that happens, it usually involves alcohol. I don't drink and drive and I don't spend my money on hookers and crack. I don't waste my paycheck every week filling up entire shopping carts with bottles of Jack like Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas, and sometimes my shenanigans are broadcast on Facebook either by my own stupidity or by the stupidity of my friends. Typically, this is only slightly embarrassing, and we would all have a good laugh over it for months to come. However, in a moment of insanity a few days ago, I had decided to friend-request Lisa's mother and a few other members of her family on Facebook. I really should be supervised anytime I go near social media. There should be an actual human being whose only job is to sit next to me and say things like, "Do NOT post that," and "You should seriously consider removing your tag off of that picture," or "No, dick does not rhyme with delicious, and you are not good at poetry when you're drunk, contrary to what you've been told," and "That comment sounds a lot better in your head than it will under her picture. And that's not how you spell cock sucking whore anyway".
After we conclude a few minutes of small talk, Madelyn and Charles whisk Gabi away and begin spoiling him by letting him order anything he wants on the menu, even if it's five different desserts. I turn to glare at Sehun as Lisa moves behind me and wraps her arms around my waist.
"Why the hell do I need to check Facebook?" I practically screech at her. "What did you let me do?"
"Well, the word 'vagina' may have been used in several posts last night," Sehun informs me seriously. "As well as a few words even I've never heard before."
I can feel Lisa's rumble of laughter as her chest presses up against my back.
"Oh this should be good," she says absently as she rests her chin on my head.
I shake my head in denial, completely horrified at the fact that I drunk Facebooked last night.
How can she be so calm? God only knows what I did that her mother might have seen.
"No wonder your mother isn't very impressed by me," I state.
"Nah, don't take that personally. Madelyn Manoban was born with a stick up her ass," Sehun reassures me.
"It's true, she was," Lisa agreed. "And they love you so stop it."
A few minutes later, Doyeon, Jim, and my father arrive and after introducing themselves to Lisa's parents, they make their way over to our little group.
"So, I'm guessing since you're still alive Lisa's mom either hasn't read her Facebook page yet or she has a really good sense of humor," Doyeon says with a laugh.
Oh my God. That's it! I'm putting an ad out for new friends.
"I should have been nowhere even remotely near Facebook in that condition. What is wrong with you people?!" I yell in a loud whisper so Lisa's parents won't hear my hysterical breakdown from their table over by the kitchen where they are currently showing Gabi what each utensil is for and how to place the napkin in his lap.
Oh Jesus. They have manners. They have manners and they're all proper and know which fork to use, and I took a dump on their Facebook page last night.
"You guys let her near the internet when you went out? Jim should especially know better. How many times has she lifted your cell phone and hacked your Facebook page to tell everyone you like to eat baked beans off of hookers?" My dad asks with a chuckle.
"I wouldn't laugh if I were you, George. I remember when she changed your status to say, 'Can anyone tell me what it means when your penis has a blue discharge that smells like egg salad?'" Jim reminds him.
"So who let the dip shit near a phone?" my dad questions.
Can you feel the love? Can you? It feels almost like having my toenails ripped out.
"Well, at first we thought we should take her Blackberry away for her own safety and for that of those around her. But when she posted, "Spitters are quitters" on every one of Lisa's cousin's pictures in her photo album, at that point it was just too funny to put a stop to." Sehun laughs.
Oh fuck me.
I vaguely remember while Lisa was up at the bar buying a bottle of wine at the fourth winery, I told everyone the story about how her cousin Katie gave some guy a blow job in college and gagged on his spunk. The very same story she had just told me a few days ago when she accepted my friend request and swore me to secrecy. Yes, I realize this is very personal information to be sharing with an almost-stranger, but we bonded quickly over Facebook email, what can I say? I may have suggested that if I told anyone her deep, dark secret she could shave my head.
Double fuck.
"I really don't want to hear the story about my cousin that goes along with that, do I?" Lisa asks as I crane my neck around to see the grimace on her face.
"Probably not," I mutter as I look back at Doyeon.
"Give me your phone. Now," I state with my hand out to her.
Of course, today of all days my phone's battery is dead and I've left the fucking thing at home.
Doyeon pulls her iPhone out of her purse and slaps it into my open palm. I yanked it to me faster than a fat kid with a piece of cake and quickly click on the Facebook icon and log into my account.
"Holy fucking shit," I whisper as the little globe symbol at the top of the screen tells me I have sixty-five new notifications.
Doyeon moves over next to me and glances over my shoulder.
"Oh don't worry. Most of those were you replying to your own posts using my account. You were really cracking yourself up last night."
This is doing nothing to make me feel better. I go to Katie's page and clicked on one of the two photo albums she had in there. I quickly scan through the pictures and don't find any offending comments. Maybe I had deleted them.
Right, and maybe fairies will start shitting money on my front lawn.
"Wrong photo album," Sehun states as he also comes around behind me so he can peer over my other shoulder. "The photo album you want is the one titled, 'Missionary Trip to Jerusalem.' And yes, I totally just said 'missionary' without laughing."
I am going straight to hell.
At this point, Lisa moves her head to the side, right next to mine, so she too can look down at the phone.
I click on the correct album and sure enough, under every single photo from her trip to Jerusalem with people from her CHURCH GROUP, I have posted the words, "Spitters are quitters."
"Oooh, oooh, wait! This is my favorite part!" Sehun says excitedly as he snatches the phone out of my hand and navigates to the last picture in the album.
He finds what he was looking for and barks out a laugh before handing the phone back to me. I grab it out of his hand roughly and shoot him a dirty look for his excitement at my epic fail.
Not only does it say "Spitters are quitters" under the last photo in the album, but below that stellar use of the English language I have written, "Jesus is my homeboy."
"Your cousin is never going to forgive me," I said with a sigh.
"Eh, she's a bitch anyway. Someone needed to put her in her place." Lisa laughs as she tightens her hold on me.
I reach my arm out to hand the phone back to Doyeon and notice a funny look on her face.
"What?" I ask with trepidation, my arm just hanging there since she hadn't reached out to take the phone from me.
"Oh fuck, there's more?" I question her as my shoulders drooped.
"You might want to take a gander at the conversation we had on Lisa's mom's page," she says, not even bothering to contain the laughter at this point.
I'm sure my eyes are the size of dinner plates as I just stand there staring at her.
"Oh my God! I forgot about that! I read it again this morning and almost pissed myself!" Sehun chuckles. "Not on any furniture," he says to me in total seriousness.
I regretfully bring the phone back to me and pull Madelyn Manoban' Facebook page up.
At exactly 12:28 a.m. I had posted the following on Madelyn's page:
"You are a gigantic, stinkotic, vaginastic, clitoral, liptistic whore dizzle."
Three minutes later Doyeon responds with: "Dude, was this meant for me? You just posted this on Lisa's mom's page. Ha! You dumb ass!"
I stare at the rest of the conversation, ON LISA'S MOM'S PAGE, and I want to vomit. Her MOM'S page, people! I don't think you understand the level of suck we're at right now.
Jennie Kim: You are a furry nut sack on the giant dick of my life.
Doyeon Kim: You are the taco to my furry heart.
Jennie Kim: Where is your Dumbo-earred vagina? I can hear it flapping from here. Are you trying to fly back to me?
Doyeon Kim: My vagina is way nicer than anything you own you drizzly, weighted down orca of a woman.
Jennie Kim: Your vagina is like a burning clown car…this flaming taco with hundreds of screaming people trying get the fuck out of it.
Doyeon Kim: Dumb shit whore.
Jennie Kim: Dick weed.
By the time I got to the bottom of the thread, Lisa has stepped away from me and is practically convulsing with laughter.
Lisa's parents choose that moment to walk Gabi back over to us, and I am praying to God, Allah, Buddha, and Ryan Seacrest that she had not logged into her Facebook account yet today so I can get in there and delete everything.
Sehun and Jim are now huddled together behind me quoting those posts back and forth to each other in loud whispers and laughing like hyenas.
"Jennie, you have raised quite the charming young man," Madelyn says with a kind smile. "Gabi is just so precious, and Lisa's father and I just want to thank you for taking such good care of our grandson"
Fuck, why does she have to be so nice? She's like a sweet, Disney princess and I'm Girls Gone Wild on crack.
"Right, Charles?"
When he doesn't answer her immediately, she elbows him in the side and he jerks his head back around, no doubt from checking out the waitress.
"Oh, yes. Absolutely, Candy. Wonderful job."
Now it's Candy? Do I look like a fucking stripper?
"Thank you, that means a lot to me," I tell her, pasting on a smile.
"You're looking a little tired today, Jennie. Did my daughter keep you out late last night?" she asks.
Lisa tries to cover up a snort from behind me, and my elbow meets her stomach, much in the same way her mother's just had with her father.
I'm pretty sure her mom doesn't want me to tell her my late night involved sex in public, back door begging, sperm demanding, wine drinking debauchery. Although with my luck, those things could be somewhere on Facebook and she'll find out soon enough.
Someone calls Madelyn's name and while she looks away, I pull Doyeon's phone out from behind my back and furiously pull Facebook back up so I can begin the deletion process. Before I can even get to Madelyn's page, the phone is seized from me.
"Ah-ah-ah! This is a no cell phone zone! And we have a surprise for both of you," Madelyn exclaims with a huge smile as she drops Doyeon's phone in the front pocket of her dress pants and I try not to whimper. "I'll be right back with your surprise."
She quickly turns and walks away from us, her heels clicking on the wood floor as she exits the party room.
"She's probably going to get her gun. At least she's giving you a head start," my dad whispers.
Lisa's father stays with our group and attempts to start up a conversation with my dad while I try to figure out a way to sneak my hand into Madelyn's pants pocket when she comes back without her thinking I'm trying to get to second base.
My dad looks blankly at Charles while he yammers on and on about the stock market and their last vacation to France. The first time he had smacked my dad on the arm trying to be all buddy-buddy with him, I feared for Charles', life. My dad looks down at the spot where Charles' hand connected and then back up at him before walking away without another word. Charles doesn't seem phased by it since Doyeon bends over the table to set her purse down right then and he has something else to occupy his mind.
Sehun and Jim are in a deep discussion about having another bachelor party, this time with strippers, when Doyeon suddenly latches tightly onto my arm and jerks me towards her.
"Oh my God! Who is that?" she whispers in horror as Lisa and I turn to see who she is pointing at.
"That's my grandmother," Lisa replied with a huge smile as we watch her mom escort an older version of herself into the room. "This must be our surprise. I had no idea she was going to be in town."
At that moment, Sehun turns around and spits out the mouthful of water he was drinking. Something about the woman is a little familiar, but I have never met Lisa's grandmother. He talks about her all the time and I know that Lisa's mother does whatever she asks. Thank God she doesn't do Facebook, at least I don't have that to worry about. She'd tell Madelyn to put a hit out on me.
By now, Sehun is bent over at the waist with his hands on his knees choking on the water he managed to swallow, and I'm wondering what the fuck his problem is. Minnie smacks him on the back and is making weird head gestures at me and Lisa's grandmother like she has some sort of neck tick.
What the hell is going on with everyone?
I'm clearly looking at him with annoyance and put my hands up in the air in a "what the fuck?" gesture. He opens his mouth but before hr can say anything, Doyeon grabs onto my arm with both hands now and is trying to drag me away from everyone. She's alternating between giggles and repeatedly whispering, "Oh sweet Jesus." I'm starting to wonder if everyone around me has been roofied.
I yank my arm out of her clutches and turn around, coming face-to-face with Lisa's grandmother. I put a big smile on my face and began to introduce myself when she cuts me off.
"You," is all she says as she looks me up and down.
The look in her eyes and the tilt of her head as she scrutinizes me suddenly forces a memory from last night to surface from the depths of my subconscious.
"She's going to take our cab. Are you kidding me with this shit?" Sehun yells indignantly. "I've been standing here trying to hail a cab for like three years and this skank just waltzes in and takes the one that stopped for us."
"Dude, we came in a limo bus. It's parked over there," Jim tells him.
"I don't care if we came here on a magic carpet. That was OUR cab!" I pipe up indignantly.
I stumble over to the back door of the taxi that is still open while the old woman gets situated and stick my head in.
"You're a dick. Go fuck your face," I yell drunkenly before I'm yanked back out by my friends so my head doesn't get mangled by the shutting of the door.
"Dude, you just say that to a seventy-year-old woman!" Sehun yells while patting me on the back.
And here that seventy-year-old woman stands with a cocky smile on her face when she sees that I have made the connection to who she is.
The entire room is silent as they watch the exchange between us. I look horrified and Lisa's grandmother looks like she's going to throw her little arthritic fists of fury in the air and beat my ass.
There will never ever be another moment in my entire life that is more embarrassing than this one right here. Mark my words.
Madelyn interrupts the stare-down Grandma is giving me, and I suddenly wish there was a hole in the floor that would swallow me up when I see Doyeon's cell phone in her hand.
"What does 'gigantic, stinkotic, vaginastic, clitoral, liptistic whore dizzle' mean?"
