Room 229, Friday Afternoon

[arsenicmauls]

Gert hadn't been feeling super cheerful the past few days. Even though she was pretty firmly agnostic, and even though she thought Thanksgiving was a stupid, unjust holiday that celebrated horrible crimes and had no business being marketed as some kind of celebration of friendship, the looming approach of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving on her iCal was

Comments

[justbeingbay]

"Knock, knock," Bay said from the doorframe. "So guess who gets to help with a Christian bachelorette party over Thanksgiving?"

She wasn't sure there even was such a thing, but her mom and Daphne both seemed to think that there was. And for some reason, Bay had to go along. But she wasn't complaining too hard; even if the wedding was Toby's worst idea ever -- which Bay kind of thought it was, though the gambling thing was up there -- she was about ready for a couple days at home.

[arsenicmauls]

"Wow," Gert said, reaching for her glasses from the side table so she could properly blink at Bay in mild surprise. "That sounds like one of the least fun things I can possibly imagine, actually. How'd you get roped into that?"

[justbeingbay]

"I am not really sure," Bay said, wandering in and sitting beside Gert on the bed. "So, Nikki's in some kind of fight with her church friends and apparently she literally knows no one else. And, well .... Daphne thinks we should fill in."

She made a face. "I don't even know what people our age do at bachelorette parties."

[arsenicmauls]

Old Lace begrudgingly moved off the bed to make room, giving Bay a mournful look.

"Especially religious people our age," Gert said thoughtfully. "So you can probably rule out strippers, and... she probably doesn't even drink, huh?"

It already didn't sound like much of a bachelorette party at all. Not that Gert was even much of a drinker, but in this case alcohol seemed pretty inextricably tied to the concept.

[justbeingbay]

Bay mouthed 'I'm sorry' to Old Lace and reached to pat her by way of consolation.

"She's definitely the 'I don't need to drink to have a good time' type," Bay confirmed. "Maybe we could go to Starbucks and have them make a crazy Frappuccino flavor. That might be her speed."

[arsenicmauls]

"Or play The Game of Life and hope she doesn't land on the 'get divorced' square, or wind up with any kids in her car before marriage," Gert suggested brightly. "That should be pretty G-rated."

[justbeingbay]

Bay laughed. "I'm pretty sure the whole reason Toby proposed is 'cause she won't sleep with him," she said. "It might be true love -- yay love, yay virginity, or whatever -- but he is not a guy who was rushing to get married at 19."

[arsenicmauls]

"No offense to your brother, but he needs to work on his logical planning skills," Gert concluded. "If there's anything grosser than marriage, it's teenage marriage." Okay, that might have been hyperbole. She could think of at least five things that she approved of less than marriage. "So is it just going to be the three of you?"

[justbeingbay]

Bay didn't entirely agree with Gert, but teenage marriage was way up on her personal list of Incredibly Bad Ideas, so she decided not to argue with the hyperbole.

"I'm not sure," she said, tugging a lock of hair as she thought. "I think Daphne might ask some people from my dad's office or something, since they both intern there."

She scrunched her nose. "... and then I'll be stuck at a teenage Christian bachelorette party with a bunch of political dorks. Whee."

[arsenicmauls]

"Yeah, Toby's gonna owe you a lot." That was all Gert could think of to say to that. "Ugh, that's way up there on the list of possible crappy evenings you can have on a trip home. Maybe you should try to do some tagging while you're in KC, so it's at least not a total wash?"

[justbeingbay]

Bay brightened at that. "Oooh. I could do a whole series about the whole wedding thing. 'True love waits' and a broken heart. Stuff like that."

If her evening sucked, she was going to get art material out of it.

[arsenicmauls]

"A ring puncturing a heart, maybe?" Gert suggested before immediately wrinkling her nose. She shook her head. "Okay, we can see why I'm not the creative one of the two of us. Stick with your ideas."

[justbeingbay]

"You say that like 'true love waits' was some awesome inspiration," Bay pointed out. "I like the ring-kills-heart idea. All of it's in the execution, anyhow."

[arsenicmauls]

"No, I like 'true love waits,'" Gert said thoughtfully. "Because it kind of sounds like what church people tell teenagers, as in 'wait to have sex because true love is pure' and all that, but in this case it's 'wait to get married' and it's spray-painted on buildings. It's a cool juxtaposition. Which probably isn't the right artsy word for it, but you know what I mean."

[justbeingbay]

"No, I think juxtaposition's a good word for it," Bay decided. "I feel like any message gets stronger if you paint it on a building. It's like magnifying it."