When Janis woke up, the first thing she felt was a weight on top of her. He first assumption was Cady, but that was shot down almost immediately upon remembering last night's debacle. There's no way Cady wasn't still mad at her. The other sign it wasn't Cady was the soft thumping.
Rose.
"Good morning, Rose," She did not want to open her eyes, so she didn't and just fumbled blindly in front of her until her hands met his soft fur, "I hope you got a bath before coming in here."
She opened her eyes and looked around, aside from the irish setter in her lap, she was completely alone in the bedroom. She wondered where Cady could be, until she heard the other girl laugh from down the hall. She ushered Rose off her lap, he wandered over to the door and sat down, waiting for her. When she got up she took a moment to stretch and check the time, 1pm, before grabbing her phone from her bag. Twelve messages and four missed calls, all from Damian.
disaster gay: HOW
disaster gay: DARE
disaster gay: YOU
disaster gay: I THOGUHT U SAID ITWAS CADDYS IDEA???
disaster gay: JANIS WHATT HE FUCK
disaster gay: I CANT BELIEVE UVE DONE THIS
disaster gay: ok i kno ur ignoring me bitch
disaster gay: fuccing pick up u mess im not going to yell at you im sorry if ur worried i will
disaster gay: ok fine u dont HAVE to talk abt it rn
disaster gay: but i still want u to call or txt when u can
disaster gay: i kno how u are & i kno ur going to try to bottle it all up & im not going to let u hurt urself like that sweetheart
disaster gay: lov u bitch
Janis smiled, she would never not love Damian, he was such a good friend. To her and Cady. She would talk to him about it...eventually, just not right now, maybe later? Right now she just wanted to ignore it as much as she could.
She stuffed the phone into her pocket and walked out the room with Rose tailing behind her into the hall. Janis noticed the hall door was shut, probably since she was still asleep. As she got closer to the door, the voices got louder, she recognized two new voices alongside Cady and Craig's, Phil and Tanner, there was also a third new voice that she didn't recognize. She waited behind the door, listening.
"So like...what are you?" The sentence tied Janis' stomach in knots, leave it up to Phillip to ask something like that, "Like are you a lesbo like Janis or-"
"You can just say lesbian, and no. I've dated guys too, I'm bi."
She heard someone high five, she assumed it was Phil and Tanner. Tanner spoke up, "So like does that mean you'd be down for like a threesome."
"Tanner!"
"What? It's just a question!"
Janis definitely vomited in her mouth a little. Craig and Tanner bickered for a moment more until Cady interrupted them, "First of all, I'm literally in a relationship so like absolutely not. Second of all, ew. And third of all, ew."
She had her handle on the doorknob, about to walk in and stop her cousins from making the conversation even worse, except she hesitated when Tanner spoke up again.
He scoffed, "Whatever, you're dating Janis. You're in no place to call me gross, like what do you even see in her? There's so many like hot lesbians and you picked her."
A loud smack rang out and then silence.
"What is wrong with you?" Cady's voice had a calm anger in it, she must've slapped him, "Janis is an amazing and beautiful and talented woman and it literally shouldn't matter if you think she's hot or not because she's your cousin first of all so like, ew again, and -"
Janis entered the living room, all eyes fell on her and Rose quickly maneuvered through her legs to run up to Phil and Tanner.
"Oh! Janis! Uh-"
"Tanner, if you so much as ever imply you want to say crap like that again, to anyone, I will personally come to your college dorm and castrate you," She didn't break eye contact once.
"Okay..." Tanner's voice was quiet, "I'm gonna go help pawpaw in the garage..."
He got up and hurried out of the house. Janis took this time to look around the room. Cady was standing in front of the couch, where Phil was seated and Tanner had been sitting. Across the room she spotted her Uncle Craig and an unfamiliar man sitting at the fireplace. He looked like he was dressed more for a "casual friday" at a corporate office rather than the last sunday before christmas. Craig noticed her staring at them and smiled, "Janis, this is Nate. He's my...best man."
There was a hesitance in his voice that Janis couldn't quite place, "Hey."
"Hey," He gave a small wave after fixing his glasses, he used the palms of his hands on the sides and Janis had to stop herself from laughing at the sight, "We brought some christmas movies."
"I figured we could have a movie marathon before everything really goes to shit on Wednesday," Craig was excitedly patting his lap as he spoke.
"What about my dad?"
"He's with Leslie and Viv for the day, they needed someone to do the heavy lifting of their shopping trips," Janis moved to sit on the couch and Cady sat back down beside her, Janis pretended not to notice the obvious space left between them.
"What, couldn't Jared help them with that crap? Why'd dad have to go?"
Craig let out a dry, sarcastic laugh, "Because they divorced. Again. He was "too focused" on his job and not paying enough attention to her or whatever. I give it like another month maybe."
Of course, it was only the third time she'd been divorced, "Where does she get the money for all these weddings and divorces?"
"She doesn't, the men she marries have it," Craig had began fiddling with the dated VCR next to the TV, putting one of the many movies from the stack in, "But enough of that, let's watch motherfuckin Frosty the Snowman."
They watched a few movies, Cady and Craig did most of the talking about made most of the jokes. Nate seemed content just to watch in silence and sit next to her uncle, although Janis won't lie, she definitely caught him staring at her uncle with a soft look in his eyes more than once. She wondered if Craig knew his best man was probably into him. Halfway through the second movie, her grandmother came in, taking a seat in the rocking chair and promptly not acknowledging anyone in the room. But through most of the movies, she couldn't find it in herself to focus. All she could think about is how Cady was sitting so far away from her and never looking at her. It was like when she first dethroned Regina in high school, she acted like she was only friends with her out of some sort of community service or something. Eventually her dad and Leslie came back except Leslie didn't so much as get out of her car, her dad told Phil that he had to leave with his mom and that was the most interaction they had.
"Heyo, do you still want me to get the airbed out of the attic, Cady?"
Oh, right. Cady asked him to get the air mattress so she didn't have to share with Janis anymore.
Cady perked up, "Yes, please! I love Janis but sometimes sharing a bed with her is so hard."
She laughed and Janis had to admit it was pretty believable but she knew better, it was fake. Her dad walked to the hallway, Cady following him. She could hear the ladder creaking as her dad climbed it. Craig shot her a worried look from across the room, she shrugged it off. To avoid his inevitable questioning, she pulled her phone out, might as well talk to Damian. It was getting late anyways.
maleficent's wife: hey
disaster gay: the beast finally awaketh
maleficent's wife: actually I woke up at 1
disaster gay: oh
disaster gay: r u ok?
maleficent's wife: she's been ignoring me since I woke up
disaster gay: do u blame her?
maleficent's wife: no,,,
maleficent's wife: but that doesn't make me feel any better!!!
disaster gay:
maleficent's wife: ha ha you're soooooo funny
disaster gay: thx bb i try <3
disaster gay: but also what the HELL were u thinking?????? what made u think for a second tht leading caddy on would be ok!!!!!!!!
maleficent's wife: I didn't mean to, Dam!!!!!
maleficent's wife: I stg it was an accident!!!
maleficent's wife: you Know I wouldn't intentionally hurt her like this :(
maleficent's wife: when we were packing for the trip I said smth about like wishing i had like a girlfriend to bring on the trip just to start shit with my family honestly and she offered to go with and I kind of just assumed like we were gonna fake it
disaster gay: FGHDJGFJHSD
disaster gay: JANIS
disaster gay: SHE LITERALLY OFFERED TO BE UR GF
disaster gay: U ASKED FOR A GF AND SHE VOLUNTEERED
disaster gay: WHAT IS WRONG WITH U
disaster gay: GOD U R SO DUMB SOMETIMES
Thinking about it now, Janis had to agree. She still thinks the entire conversation she had with Cady was a very roundabout and vague way of asking her out, but everything afterwards probably should have been obvious. Hell, she had even acknowledged that it would have made more sense if they were dating at one point and then ignored it. But regardless, Janis didn't like Cady like that, she was flattered but just didn't share the same feelings. Nope, that train left the station a long time ago.
...Probably at least...
Okay, so maybe she wouldn't be completely opposed to the idea of dating Cady, but that's for later. Now she needed to fix their friendship from crashing and burning, then she can deal with any fuzzy feelings about her friend. Damian didn't need to know that part.
disaster gay: hun u still alive over there?
maleficent's wife: yeah, just trying to think of how I'm going to fix this
disaster gay: u just gotta wait it out rn
disaster gay: caddy will come to u when shes ready
maleficent's wife: I know I just miss her
disaster gay: wow gay
maleficent's wife: shut the hell your mouth
Eventually her dad came back in as well as her grandfather and Tanner. When Tanner walked in, Janis stood up and promptly left the room. Making a beeline to the hallway and into her room. Cady was sitting on the airbed, her laptop open and earbuds in. She barely acknowledged Janis' entry. They sat in silence for a while, Cady clacking away on her laptop and Janis just texting Damian and exchanging memes with him. It helped her feel normal, they hadn't talked a lot since she left. She was stunned when it was Cady who ended the silence, loudly closing her laptop and twisting around to face Janis on the bed.
"Are you drinking again?"
Well, that's a little blunt.
"No? Why're you asking?"
She didn't seem like she believed her, "Because I know you got up in the middle of the night last night. And I noticed one of those beer cans in the fridge went missing."
Oh.
"It was just the one, it's fine."
"Jan..." Cady looked worried, Janis hated it.
She snapped, "I said it's fine."
Cady didn't say anything and Janis didn't look to see her reaction. They didn't talk again for the rest of the night, both going to bed on their own time without so much as a "goodnight." Monday came and went, Janis thought it felt much the same as Sunday had. Weird, tense, awkward, uncomfortable, Cady ignored her mostly and Janis drank a few more beers. That earned her a nervous look from Cady more than once when she walked in on her crushing one of the empty cans. Then it was Tuesday, the last day before christmas eve and the bonfire. Cady had told her good morning, but that's about the most she did. Her grandmother had asked her to help in the garden, pruning and weeding mostly apparently.
She really had no clue what she was doing, she was given some pruning shears and let loose into the garden except her grandmother had to keep coming over and correcting her or doing it for her or watching over her shoulder. Not much had changed since she was a little kid and she would get tricked into weeding the vegetable garden to wear herself out.
"So I noticed you and your...friend are having a bit of a hard time?"
Janis was never going to ignorantly believe her grandmother actually wanted her help gardening again, "She's just stressed out and overwhelmed, Mawmaw."
It wasn't a complete lie, Cady always struggled with crowds and new people, university really did a number on her after graduation, "Caddy has a hard time around so many strangers. She's trying not to burn out before the bonfire."
"I may be old, Janis, but I'm not stupid. I don't think she's having a problem with everyone else, so much as she is with you."
She threw the shears on the floor and sat in the dirt, it's not like she was getting anywhere anyways, "Is there a point to this or...?"
"I just think that maybe you wouldn't be having this problem if you dated a man. I know you've never really seen much in any boys your age but...maybe you just haven't found the right one."
"Well, not to disappoint you, but I'm never going to find "the right one." He doesn't exist," Janis let out a sigh, "And I'm plenty happy with Cady right now. I just fucked up the other day."
She couldn't decipher any emotions in her grandmother's face, "If you're not going to listen to me or even help out here, then get out of here. I don't have anything more to say."
Afterwards was uneventful until christmas eve the next day. Janis was surprised to see Cady wasn't ignoring her at all that day. It was almost like Saturday night never happened, aside from the underlying tension that came with having not yet talked it out at least. Most of the day was spent helping prepare for the bonfire. Craig had woken them up to go to the store to buy supplies for s'mores. Janis pretended that Cady held her hand because she wanted to, not because they had an image to upkeep. When they got back, they were forced to assist in build the bonfire, which used to be Janis' favorite part.
Now, she kind of hated it. The rough bark on some of the limbs and logs they grabbed hurt her hands, leaving a variety of small cuts and scrapes. It was easier when they just let her gather twigs for kindling instead of help carry the important pieces.
Janis and Tanner were carrying a hefty log out of the trees towards the backyard. Thankfully this would likely be the last one they needed, meaning she wouldn't have to spend any more time with Tanner once they got this one into the bonfire. Disappointingly, Tanner cleared his throat, obviously wanting to say something, "So...about the other day..."
"Tanner, I swear to god I will-"
Tanner dropped his side of the log, nearly pulling Janis and her end down as well, "No, no, no! I just wanted to say I'm sorry!"
There was a beat of silence.
"Like okay I don't really understand what I did, but obviously it wasn't okay and like I know how my mom is about everything with you and I just wanted to make sure you didn't think I agreed with that," Tanner picked back up the log, "I mean, I don't think this is like "right" or whatever but it at least looks like this Caddy girl is making you happy and honestly I thought you forgot what being happy was after middle school."
"Only me and Damian can call her Caddy," She didn't say anything else as they resumed their trek until they finally were out of the trees. She could see Cady helping her dad and Phil set up the bonfire in the middle of the clearing.
"And she does make me happy, but don't think this makes up for what you said to her Sunday."