Janis woke up slowly, wanting to savor the time in the bed as long as possible. Except she felt like someone was watching her so there was no chance at her falling back asleep no matter how hard she tried. She opened one eye and was greeted with the blurry silhouette of Cady, she let out a squeak.
"I wasn't watching you sleep, I swear! Well, okay, I was, but not for like a really long or creepy time!" Cady sprung up into a seated position, "I only woke up like a few minutes ago really and like I rolled over and you looked so content and happy and you were really pretty and-"
Janis interrupted her rambling with a laugh, "It's fine, Caddy. Let's just get dressed and go. Hopefully I won't need to put air in my bike's tires."
Cady perked up, "You have a bike here too?"
She slid off the bed, digging through the top drawers for an outfit, "Not like a motorcycle bike. It's just an old bicycle with pegs on the back wheels. You don't mind riding pegs do you?"
"Pegs?"
Oh. Of course she didn't know what pegs were.
"They're like...little cylinders on the wheels? They're made for stunts in motocross and dirt biking and stuff but people use them to give friends rides and stuff. Like in grade school usually but it's not like we can't do that just because we're in our twenties."
Janis grabbed a pair of shorts she had painted on the back pockets of and a led zepplin shirt, Cady was still just sitting on the bed, watching her, "I'm gonna go change in the bathroom so I can do my makeup afterwards. Be sure the lock the door when I leave while you change, we don't know who might try to just walk in unannounced."
Cady nodded. Once in the bathroom, Janis changed quickly and called Damian before starting on her makeup. He answered in two rings, she could hear the music from the sing-along christmas disney movie in the background.
"What's up, bitch?"
She put him on speaker so she could do her makeup and talk, "Getting ready, I'm taking Caddy to Booth's for breakfast and then we're spending the day in town because last night Huggie came home and I nearly gave him a black eye."
"Oooh, yeah. Caddy texted me last night, is she alright?"
"Yeah, she was reasonably shaken up when it happened though. Pawpaw kicked him out but he's still invited to the christmas dinner and new years party."
"Well, of course. Where else are you going to get dinner and show in the modest town of Petersburg, Georgia?"
"Ha ha, Dam. If the show is my family calling me and Caddy slurs and trying to start fights, I think I can go without. But anyways, how was your first day without us?" Cady walked into the bathroom, she was wearing a black and white flannel and some jeans, she had two jackets folded up in her arms.
"Oh, it's been amazing. I can walk around the house completely naked and no one will yell at me when I burn the cookies," The sarcasm in Damian's voice was painstakingly obvious, "Just kidding. It's horrible. I miss you guys!"
Both Janis and Cady laughed, "I'm sure you'll survive until January."
"That's what you think! You two are gonna come home and I'm going to be a pile of bones on the couch."
Cady handed Janis one of the jackets when she finished her makeup, it was her painted high school jacket again. She slipped on the other jacket herself, it was a white hoodie than Janis recognized as having an elephant on the back, it was from a charity her parents had a hand in.
"I checked the weather, it's probably going to be a little chilly so I figured we should at least bring some jackets," Janis traded places with Cady as she tied the jacket around her waist.
"Oh! Caddy, you packed my shampoo again!"
"I'm sorry! It's just the same color as mine, I can't tell them apart sometimes!"
"They are not the same colors, mine is more of a fuschia, yours is like a magenta," Janis rolled her eyes, "Well, me and Caddy are about to hit the road, we'll talk to you later, Dam. Bye!"
"Have fun on your-" Janis hung up before he could finish, she knows exactly what he was about to say, he was gonna call their trip a breakfast date.
Cady sighed, "Aw, you didn't let him finish."
"I'm sure it's fine, Caddy. I'll meet you in the garage after you finish, I'm gonna check the tires on the bike."
"Where's the garage?"
"It's the door on the other end of the kitchen? Next to the fridge."
Cady gave her a thumbs up and Janis briskly walked across the house to the garage. The house was shockingly quiet, it took her a few minutes to find the old bike, it's red paint beginning to chip off and the seat starting to peel. It was hidden behind something under a giant paint-splattered sheet. She assumed it was probably someone's gift, something her grandfather was building himself. She didn't bother looking, instead focused on the bike.
Both wheels are flat.
She dug around for a few minutes more, thankful when she found a motorized air pump. She really didn't want to have to use a manual one, that would take literally hours. In the next 30 minutes, Janis and Cady were outside of the bright yellow diner. It wasn't incredibly busy, it was 11am after all, but aside from a single young guy with tan skin and black hair, dressed in all black- emo much? He's wearing ripped skinny jeans, a black hoodie, and blue beanie- who was seated at the counter, the diner was filled almost exclusively with older people that Janis was confident would recognize her if she had come in with any of her family. They took a seat at an empty booth, sitting across from each other.
"The chocolate chip pancakes here are the tits. And they also have-"
"Blueberry syrup that's to die for because it's got little chunks of the berries in it." Janis was interrupted by another voice, it was familiar if not a little deeper at least.
Cady was looking at the stranger like she expected them to attack, it was the emo guy from the counter. He dragged a chair over to the end of their booth, not caring about the disruption the scraping noise it made caused. He sat in in backwards and looked at Janis with a sly grin. A septum piercing, an eyebrow scar, steely grey eyes, a crooked nose, and a sad, patchy attempt at facial hair, Janis almost rolled her eyes. He looked like every tryhard, self-proclaimed bad boy ever. Too bad she knew exactly who he was and actually appreciated the impromptu run-in.
"Howdy, JD," Cady looked like someone had kicked a puppy, Janis wished she could get a picture of her face when Janis acknowledged she knew the stranger.
"Greetings and salutations, Janis," He placed a heavy hand on her shoulder, shaking her slightly, "And it's Jason now actually."
She pulled his hat down over his eyes with a laugh, "Oh? Finally decided on a name?"
"You can have a free pass to call me JD, I guess. For old times sake, of course. But yeah, as of July 16th, I am officially Jason Reilly Dean."
"No, c'mon, if you wanna be called Jason, I'm calling you Jason, dude," Janis could see Cady starting to get nervous, she nudged her foot with her own under the table, "This is Cady by the way. My girlfriend. Caddy this is Jason, he's like the only good thing about Petersburg."
She doesn't know why she introduced Cady as her girlfriend, she didn't need to lie to Jason. Cady and Jason shake hands.
"I've known Janis since before her dad called her "Pumpkin"."
Janis gave him a hard shove, "No, you didn't, you ass. We didn't even meet until second grade."
"Well, Cady didn't know that. Also I'd hardly call myself the only good thing here, especially since I don't live around here anymore."
"Finally went to college or just found someone willing to put up with your crap and let you sleep on their couch?," A waitress came and took their orders, Janis and Cady both got the chocolate chip pancakes and a coffee. Jason got a glass of chocolate milk and nothing else.
"Little of both. Went to college for a bit, I was going to Portland State for criminal justice but then I realized that being a cop would kind of like if my dad starting building things instead of destroying them. Now I'm living with my girlfriend and I'm working as a mechanic while she goes to Portland State for criminal justice and law."
"Productive, how long have you been dating this girlfriend of yours?"
"Six years," His face lit up as he fumbled to pull his phone out of his pocket, "We met our freshman year of high school when she moved down here from Ohio! She immediately joined the "popular" kids but we always had classes together."
It was nice seeing him so happy, Janis knew all too well how dark his life was growing up. He showed her a picture on his phone; it was him and six girls all dressed up and sitting in what she could only assume was an incredibly expensive restaurant. Jason pointed at a girl in a blue dress shirt sitting next to him, "That's Veronica. The others are her friends, well...our friends. The red, yellow, and green ones are "The Heathers," as they were called in high school, and the other two are Betty and Martha."
"You're telling me that you all became friends in high school and are still close as can be? Do you have any new friends?" The girl in yellow looked incredibly familiar, she made a mental note to ask about her again later.
"Well, Betty and Martha are Ronnie's friends from Ohio," He began swiping through his phone again, giving her a side-eye, "And are you telling me you have made new friends after high school?"
"Touche, Dean, touche."
The waitress came back with their food and the trio sat in silence while Janis and Cady ate. Until Jason got bored at least and tapping on his glass and phone games stopped entertaining him.
"What are you two doing after this?"
Cady met Janis eyes across the table, she didn't know where they were going or what they were doing and Janis had a feeling she probably didn't want Jason tagging along to whatever it would be. Except Janis didn't really have any plans after this, just that they needed to stay out of the house for a few hours.
"Uh...not really anything...we're just trying to get out of the house," Janis refused to meet Cady's eyes again, "Huggie kind of blew up last night."
Jason made a grossed out noise, sticking his tongue out, he had a tongue piercing, "Huggie's always bad news. And well, I happen to know that our spot by the river is still free game."
"Maybe later, Jason. I think I'm gonna show Caddy around some first."
He didn't look convinced in the least bit, Janis was really starting to hate all of her friends giving her that look, "Okay, You know my number, hasn't changed in the last decade unlike yours."
"Until we next meet," He stood up and spun the chair around in one smooth movement, pulling his wallet out, of course he had a wallet chain, and setting down a crisp 20 dollar bill on the table.
Once he was out the door, Cady leaned in to talk quietly, "Is he always like that?"
Janis couldn't stop herself from laughing, nodding as she shook, "Yes. Yeah, Jason has literally never not been that. He's a lot happier than he used to be though, he's probably getting help now. I'm sure we can thank his girlfriend for that somehow."
Cady pushed around the last few bites of her pancakes with her fork, she looked like she was debating saying something, "You know that yellow girl in the picture he showed us was one of my exes. Heather, the cheerleader?"
Ah, that's why she recognized her.
"We don't have to hang out with him if you don't want to," The waitress came by to take the dishes and give them their check, "There's just...nothing to do around here really."
"Oh no! It's fine, don't worry about it! It's just like really weird that he knows her, yunno?"
"Yeah, small world," After paying, they left the diner, Janis opting they walk to the nearby park instead of trailing the bike behind them everywhere.
There were a few families in the park, walking their dogs or having picnics. A few joggers and cyclists speeding past the two of them on the trails. They got a few weird looks, whether that was duh to Janis' clothes and makeup or because they were holding hands was up for debate, but more than a few times did she catch a suburban mom giving them the evil eye or some older guys saying something under their breath. The longer she spent in the town, the more she hated it, and they still had two weeks before they could go home again.
Janis decided to focus on something else before she made herself sick. Instead she pulled out her phone to text Jason.
petersburg cryptid: yo, Jason! it's me, Janis
petersburg cryptid: dude our names match, we could be siblings
tall dark & broody: Dont
petersburg cryptid: fun is dead and you killed it
petersburg cryptid: anyways me and Caddy'll be at the river in a few hours we're walking in the park atm
petersburg cryptid: probably gonna take her to the wildlife museum afterwards
tall dark & broody: ok
tall dark & broody: Ill bring sum Snax
petersburg cryptid: please don't tell me you still type like it's 2008
tall dark & broody: rawr XD so random!!!!11!!1!1
tall dark & broody: ok I changed my mind I Wish I didnt send tht
tall dark & broody: dont hold my Cursed Tragic Backstory against me
petersburg cryptid: I'll make no such promises
Jason didn't respond. Knowing him, he was just preoccupied throwing rocks at something. Janis dragged Cady over to a soft patch of grass under a fairly large oak tree, pulling out her sketchbook as they sat down. Cady let out a sigh as she laid back in the grass, a serene smile playing out on her lips.
"I know it's only been two days and we hit some real big rocks already, this is nice," She caught Cady staring up at her over the top of her sketchbook, "The diner was nice, Craig and Rose were nice, Jason...I don't really know how I feel about him yet actually but I trust you. I'm really glad you brought me here..."
Janis only hummed in response, too focused on her drawing. She was drawing Cady, laying in the grass, hair pooled around her, a smile so big her nose and eyes crinkled. Looking at Cady gave her a warm feeling in her chest and right now Janis wasn't about to ruin one of the few good things to come of this trip by ignoring it or covering it up.
"I'm glad you asked to come. Otherwise I'd be stuck with the human gargoyle as my only company."
Cady raised an eyebrow, "Human gargoyle?"
"Jason. He's got this gargoyle tattoo on his back and he, well, he used to do this thing where he'd kind of just...squat instead of sit? And I'm sure he still probably sits almost exclusively on counters or tables or the arms of chairs and couches?" Cady probably didn't really care that much, she just needed to explain who she was referring to, not the reasoning behind it.
"I can see it."
The sat in silence for a few hours, Janis drawing and Cady taking a nap and making daisy chains that fell apart the second she tried to put any of them on. They made their way back to the diner to get the bike before departing and riding to the woods at the outskirts of the town. Janis hopped off the bike to guide it down the overgrown path into the trees. Cady sat backwards in the seat, feet resting on the back pegs, so she could face Janis while they made the trek to the river. Soon enough Janis heard the rushing of water and the sounds of someone shooting aluminum cans. They found themselves in a small clearing next to the river, Jason's hoodie was discarded on a log alongside a plastic bag that she assumed was the snacks.
He was shooting a line of empty cans across the river with a small black pistol. Janis silently relaxed when she saw the orange tip of the gun, it was just an airsoft gun.
"Took y'all long enough, I'm almost out of cans," He looked to them as Janis set the bike against a tree, he took a shot and knocked an orange can off the rock it was set up on.
"No one said you had to wait here for three hours."
"Where else am I gonna wait? My dad's junkyard?" He laughed.
Cady took a seat on the log with Jason's jacket, wasting no time to dig in the plastic bag for food, "What food did you bring?"
"Turkey sandwiches mostly, no mayo," He tossed the pistol to Janis, who barely caught it, and walked over to Cady, "Your girlfriend's the hardest person in the world to make food for."
"Oh my god, I'm not that picky, dude."
"No ham, no peanut butter, no jam, no tomatoes, whole wheat bread only, no mustard...need I continue?"
Janis rolled her eyes, she set the fake gun down next to her friends, "Don't make me shoot you."
Cady struggled to laugh around a bite of her sandwich making Janis laugh as well, Jason just grinned, "You don't have the guts, Sarkisian. But enough about that, I want to know more about Cady. She's clearly important enough to be brought to this lovely town for the holidays, and yet not once I have heard of you before today."
Janis fought off the urge to bite her nails, she didn't like his tone. He was expecting something specific out of this and Janis didn't know what.
"Well, actually I met Janis our junior year of high school. You see, my parents are zoologists and I was homeschooled and grew up in Kenya, but eventually we ran out of funding and had to come back to the states and I ended up going to Northshore and...it actually gets really confusing, but by the end I staged a coup d'etat and had my best friends, Janis and Damian, back," Cady said it all in one breath.
"A coup d'etat, huh?"
Janis scoffed, "Barely, Caddy I love you but you literally became the new Regina George for a while there."
Jason made a face, sticking his tongue out again, "Regina? Really? Janis, I know you have questionable tastes, but wasn't one Regina enough for you?"
"She wasn't like that at first!" She shoved him off the log, "And she came crawling back eventually."
"Oh, please, only because I couldn't stand seeing you mope around like it was the end of the world," Cady leaned her head on Janis' shoulder.
"Ew, cut it out, guys. You're gonna tarnish my perfect dental record," Jason feigned disgust, Janis rolled her eyes again, "Ignoring that blatant lie, let it be known that Caddy only joined the Plastics in the beginning to spy on them for me. It was all very dramatic."
"Oh, you think your high school life was dramatic? Get on my level, my girlfriend's girlfriends-"
"Hold up, wait a second, girlfriends? As in plural?"
Jason just waved her off, "Yeah, yeah, that's not the point. They reported me to the cops and I almost got locked up twice."
"Jesus christ, Jason! What the hell?!"
"I'll admit, I made some jokes that were in poor taste, they thought I was plotting to kill them and blow up the school. But we cool now." Janis could not believe how casual he was being about it, "You're just "cool" now? Just like that?"
"Well, Heather and Heather kind of went their own ways after graduation, they still keep in touch but they aren't like still seeing Ronnie or Heather, and Heather, well, she-"
Cady spoke up, cutting him off, "They all have the same names?"
"Oh! Right, yeah, you kind of just get used to it after a while. So Mac and Duke went their own ways, and Chandler is still around and still completely loaded and like me and her are kind of a thing now, I guess, but we haven't really talked about it yet so," He shrugged and stood up, eyeing the river, "Anyone up for some skinny dipping?"
Janis didn't even need to look at Cady to know the face she was making, Janis stood up, "No, skinny dipping. It's like 50 degrees anyways, dude, it's too cold for that crap."
Jason was already pulling his shirt off over his head, "Never stopped us before!"
She sighed but started shimmying out of her shorts anyways, "Okay, but I meant it when I said no skinny dipping! Underwear stays on, Jason. And I'm only doing this to show you that I'm still the hot one."
"Keep dreaming," He threw his shirt in her face and began to flex, he was still as painstakingly lanky as he was last time she saw him, though he did seem to finally be gaining some weight, "You were never the hot one."
Janis ignored him as she took her shirt off and handed her discarded clothes to Cady. Who was now definitely blushing and averting her gaze to the forest floor, Janis smirked, an idea coming to mind.
"Why don't we ask Cady who's hotter?"
Jason was sitting on the ground, trying to yank his jeans off his legs, "Because she's your girlfriend? Besides look at her, she's red as a tomato! She's probably thinking about you running her into the mattress."
Cady let out a squeak and Janis gasped, "JD!"
He cackled as he finally pulled his legs free of the pants, "Chillax! I'm just joking!"
A beat.
"Everyone knows you're the bottom here," Jason gave her no time to respond as he booked it to the river.
"You're going to eat those words, Jason Dean!"
She took off after it, catching up quickly and jumping on his back, making them both topple into the river. She could hear Cady laughing from the treeline, the noise distraction enough for Jason to get out from under her and splash her in the face. Thank god for small miracles, she was wearing waterproof eyeliner today.
Cady never joined them in the water, but she lent her jacket to Janis to dry her hair with once they came back to dry land. Janis and Cady walked with JD to his truck, the sun beginning to set. Janis expected to see the same old beat-up white car his dad used to drive, instead they were greeted with the sight of a shiny and new blue pickup truck. The shock and awe wore off when she saw the clothes and boxes packed into the backseat.
"Nice ride, where'd you steal it?"
"Nowhere, Heather bought it. Technically it's Veronica's but she didn't need it for the break, well, that and Heather loves showing off her money and Petersburg is the prime location for that. Oh and do you guys need a ride?"
"Yes!" Cady was quick to agree and Janis and Jason put the bike into the back of the truck.
"So there's no room in the back, so Cady'll have to sit in your lap."
There's always a catch.
The ride wasn't nearly as awkward as she expected. Jason and Cady talked amongst themselves, Cady sharing stories of her time in Africa and Jason talking about the trips Heather Chandler has taken him and his girlfriend on. Janis was content to just sit back and get some semblance of rest before they got back to the house. Jason tapped her on the shoulder, "Hey, Jan, hey."
"What?"
"Your gramps still doing the bonfire for christmas eve?"
"Probably, why?"
He shrugged, "Dunno, if y'all're gonna be there I'll probably come."
"Okay? Dude, you always show up, why're you being weird about this?"
"I just..." Jason stopped for a moment, clearly thinking hard, "I want to talk to you about something, and I can't text it. Like it has to stay between you and me and...I'd rather do it in person."
Janis eyed him, "Okay, man. I'll trust your weird ominous answer."
They pulled up to the house and Janis' stomach dropped again. A familiar red car was sitting in the driveway.
"Uh oh, looks like Leslie's home." Janis didn't see the humor in Jason's tone.
Putting the bike up in the garage, they could hear the laughter and loud talking coming from in the house. Looks like Janis' original plan to sneak past them all wasn't going to work. She paused, her hand on the door into the house, Cady holding her other hand in a tight grip. She was really starting to regret bringing her. Dealing with it herself was bad enough, now she's dragged her friend into it. She turned around to face Cady who was looking up at her with concern.
"Stay here."
"What?"
Janis pulled her hand from Cady's hand, "Trust me. Just...wait here for a moment, okay?"
The redhead obviously was reluctant, but she nodded and let Janis go. Janis quietly opened the door and entered the kitchen, closing the door behind her. It was empty, everyone was in the living room then. She was halfway across the room when someone came around the corner, a young girl with long black hair. She couldn't be more than 13 or 14.
"Vivian? Are you alright?"
Oh, of course, it's Vivian.
The little girl ran up to her, hugging Janis tight around the waist, "I thought you weren't gonna come back again."
Janis was afraid to do anything, she didn't want to incur her aunt's wrath. She settled for awkwardly patting Viv on the head. Another call out to Vivian that was left ignored and Janis could hear the clicking steps as her aunt Leslie made her way into the kitchen. There was an abrupt stop in the clicking, Janis looked up to see her aunt glaring at her, arms crossed over the frilly red shirt she was wearing. She used to think her aunt was so harsh because she pulled the ponytail she wore, without fail, everyday too tight.
"Vivian, what did I tell you about hugging people without asking first?" A lie, of course.
"Nothing." Vivian had clearly caught on at some point since Janis was last here.
"Vivian. Go get your things, we were leaving anyways."
The little girl trudged away, back out of the kitchen, her mother stepped up to Janis, making enough obviously angry eye contact that even Janis was uncomfortable. There was a loud thud at the garage door before either of them got a word in. They both turned around in time for Cady to open the door and Rose come bumbling in, leaping and jumping on Janis excitedly.
Saved by the dog.
Leslie made a small noise of disgust, Rose was tracking dirt in and slobbering all over her clothes. Cady didn't look even a little bit sorry.
"Hello! I'm Cady," Cady closed the distance between herself and Janis' aunt, reaching her hand out, "Janis' girlfriend. You must be Leslie, I've heard so much about you."
Janis almost let out a chuckle, Leslie was not okay with the turn of events here. She didn't even respond before turning around and walking to the front door, "Brandon, tell dad me and Vivian had to leave early to pick up Phil from the airport. And don't forget, Tanner's going to be arriving tomorrow."
Vivian ran up to her mom at the door, dragging a bag behind her. They must've been planning on staying here beforehand. The two of them left without another word. Rose, bored of Janis and Cady for not paying him enough attention, ran into the living room to beg her dad for dinner scraps. Janis faced Cady, she couldn't hide her smile, "That was so fucking badass."
"I barely did anything, all I did was let Rose in and say hi," Cady was getting bashful.
"Are you kidding? She didn't even say anything, she just left!" Janis grabbed Cady's hands and started dancing around the kitchen, "Ding dong! The witch is dead!"
Cady burst into laughter, they were interrupted by Janis' dad walking in, "Hey! I understand y'all's excitement, but maybe keep it down some?"
"Sorry, dad." Janis smiled sheepishly and her dad walked back out.
She looked back down at Cady in front of her, beaming up at her. Cady grabbed her face and pulled Janis down into a kiss, parting before Janis even considered kissing back. No one was even in the room with them anymore, why the hell did Cady just kiss her?
"Why'd you do that?" Janis gave a lopsided grin, she hoped that'd be enough for Cady to understand she wasn't at least mad.
She looked confused, "What do you mean "why did I do that"? You're my girlfriend!"
"But no one else is in here? You don't need to like pretend to be into me or anything?"
Cady's face fell and she dropped Janis' hands, "Why would I pretend to?"
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
"Because I thought we weren't actually dating. I thought we were just pretending to be dating to teach my family a lesson," Janis' own voice was raising, even just a little.
"Oh my god. I'm so fucking stupid," Cady took a few steps back, "You were using me!"
She was raising her voice and tears were welling up in her eyes and Janis was really starting to regret even saying anything. She could have just let it slide, never questioned it. Except that wouldn't have stopped this from happening, it would have just pushed it back, made it worse.
"Caddy, wait," Janis tried grabbing Cady's hand only for her to recoil her arm back before Janis even touched it.
"No, it's fine. It's fine, whatever. It's not like I can leave or anything," She sounded more annoyed than hurt now, "Whatever, we'll just keep pretending and then...I don't know we can figure it out when we fucking get home."
The way she said "pretending" stung.
Cady let out a scoff, "I can't believe I was so stupid, okay, whatever, I'm going shower."
She stormed out and left Janis to her own devices in the kitchen. Her dad came in, slow and quietly.
"You okay, Pumpkin?"
"I really screwed that over..." She turned around and hugged her dad, he combed a hand through her hair, "I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, yeah, you fucked up. But give it some time for the dust to settle, apologize, I think you two will be fine."
When Cady got out of the shower, Janis went in and took a lot longer than she wanted. She ended up just watching the water go down the drain for a while. By the time she got out, Cady was sitting on the bed watching more nature videos.
"Your dad said we have to share the bed again tonight. He can't get the air mattress out of the attic until tomorrow when your grandparents are awake."
Janis nodded, "Right. The bed's big enough anyways..."
They sat in silence, Cady watching the videos on her ipad by herself and Janis sketching. At one point her phone started blowing up, she didn't check it before she chucked it into her bag across the room. It was probably just Damian chewing her out for lying to Cady. Eventually Cady went to sleep, her back to Janis again. She tried to follow suit but her insomnia kept her up again. Next Janis knew it, she found herself in the kitchen at 1am, digging through the fridge for something to drink or eat or something.
She spotted a familiar silver can with a blue and red logo on it. Beer. Pabst beer. Bad idea but when has she had a single good idea on this entire trip. She broke it open and drank it on her way back to her room. It was disgusting and part of her knew Cady would still be worried that she was drinking again despite being upset with her. She couldn't really be bothered to care though, it's not like she was going to drink more than the one. She finished it off and dropped the can into the trash. She hesitated for a long moment, temptation to go back and grab another, she shook it off and walked back to her room, climbing back into the bed. Sleep was still unobtainable, this was going to be a really long night.