You Give Love a Bad Name

I laughed nervously, my throat feeling dry, and my eyes wide awake. "You're joking right?"

Valerie's smirk faltered a bit, her gray eyes losing some of their shine. "What do you mean?"

"Valerie, surely you don't think that I'm going to assist you with screwing over my best friend. The screwing part? Literally," I replied, some anger that I was feeling seeping into my voice.

"But you promised!" Valerie narrowed her eyes. "Besides, it's not like Frank would mind. It'll be fun. For both of us. And don't even try to tell me that he never had a one-night stand before."

"Look," I sighed and tried to make my expression look somewhat relaxed, "I'm sorry, but I can't help you there. If this means that I'll be breaking my promise, then I am. You can still try and to it, but just without my help. Frank is a big boy now, he can make his own decisions."

Valerie laughed and started to get off my bed. "Sheesh, fine, fine, no help from you. If I didn't know you any better, I would say that the reason you're being so uptight about the whole thing is 'cause your feelings aren't exactly, uh, platonic about Frankie."

Well, Valerie, I thought glumly ten minutes later, trying to block out the sound of my cousin's even-paced breathing, I guess you don't know me at all.

"LEEENNNNAAAA!"

Thanksgiving, a time when you and your family sit down to a nice, home-cooked meal and share positive emotions and kind words, while eating like it's the last dinner you'll have in a long, long time.

Thanksgiving, not a time for almost one hundred relatives, mostly drunk, to be squished into your house for a family reunion, all of them laughing, talking, screaming, and being extremely loud in general.

I turned my head at the sound of my name, trying to mask a look of pure horror on my face.

He found me.

I had no place to run.

This was the end.

"Leeennnaaaaaa!" Uncle Todd’s drunken screech carried through the mass of people who were supposedly related to me, his large hands pushing everyone out of the way as soon as he spotted my face in the crowd.

"Hey, Uncle Todd," I forged a smile, looking for an escape plan.

"Lena, my dear," he swept me up in a tight hug, crushing me half to death and filling my nose with the smell of alcohol. "How is my favorite niece doing today?"

I looked around the livingroom, each space packed with at least one person. "Not too shabby."

"Good, good to hear that," Uncle Todd stumbled for a second, but caught his footing just in time. "Have you seen Valerie? I want her to get to know her family during this reunion." He thumped me on the back good-naturally. "Her Rush roots."

I cringed and forced a light laugh. "Nope, haven't seen her. But I'll make sure to tell her that when I do. I, uh, I have to go somewhere now, Uncle Todd. Nice taking to ya."

But he was already talking to some tall man with dark-brown eyes, who I thought was my second cousin or something.

Sighing with relief, I allowed my eyes to scan the room. Over on the right end, close to the TV, Gerard was scaring our littlest kin with his plastic fangs. I decided to pay the cheery bunch a visit.

"Hey, whatcha doing?" I asked as soon as I stood behind my oldest brother, him being oblivious to my presence. "Halloween was last month, dude."

Gerard jumped and whirled around to face me, some of the fake blood dripping on his chin, making me laugh.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" he growled, adjusting his fangs. "Keeping up my image, that's what."

"Well," I looked past him and at the small group of little kids. "If your image is of a big asshole, you're doing a very good job. Joey looks like he's about to cry."

Gerard turned his head to look at our mother's cousin's daughter's son, who was four years old. "Psh, he know's I'm not a real Vampire." He bared his teeth at Joey. "Right, champ?"

Joey blinked, his big, brown eyes wide and shocked, and then he started to bawl his heart out.

"Gerard you as -, uh, butt," I hissed, running up to Joey and swooping him up into my arms. "I thought Mom told you to cut that crap out."

Instead of being the mature eighteen year old that he should have been, Gerard wrinkled his nose and took his glass of V8, walking away and muttering under is breath. I could have swore I heard him mimicking me in a high-pitched voice.

"Shhhh," I grabbed a Kleenex from the nearby coffee table and began to wipe Joey's cheeks. "Hey, don't cry. Gerard was just joking around. Let's go find your Mommy, yeah?"

Joey nodded, his sobs becoming quieter and quieter, and stuck his thumb in his mouth, beginning to suck on it with concentration.

Deciding to see if Trisha, his mother, was in the kitchen, I began to walk towards my destination with swift steps, Joey in my arms.

After about five minutes of getting stopped for a hug, or just trying to get past the relatives in general, I was in the kitchen, marveling at how messy it was. Salads, turkey, mashed potatoes, and anything imaginable were scattered across the counters, left over from the huge, buffet-style dinner we had earlier on.

"Lena!"

I turned around to see my Grandma standing next to the fridge, looking somewhat desperate, her hands full with cans of whipped cream. "Yeah?"

"Can you run an errand for me? We're almost out of pumpkin pie, and I was wondering if you could go down to the store and get some."

I nodded, looking at Joey. "Sure. Can you find Joey's Mom? He had, uh, somewhat of a...scare."

Grandma raised her eyebrows, but took Joey from me never less, instructing me how on many pies I should get at the store.