33. Sometimes, You Just Need to Dance
thirty-three
Liz
“There’s no way we are going to be able to eat all this,” Michelle says, eyeing all of the snacks that we have laid out on the coffee table in our parents’ living room.
Jo grabs a paper plate and starts filling it. “Challenge accepted.”
“That wasn’t a challenge,” Michelle begins but quickly realizes who it is that she’s talking to. Jo is always up for a good challenge and has never backed down from a bet in her life. Being the youngest of five, she always had to be pretty scrappy. Out of all of us, she was always the smallest in stature, but the biggest Pitbull.
I remember when she was no more than six or seven years old, and she tried to fight someone who was being mean to Ronnie. If Dylan wouldn’t have carried her back to the house, kicking and screaming, she would have tried to brawl with two people double her age…and her size.
Michelle looks at Jo, “How on Earth do you eat so much and still stay thin as a board?”
With a mouth full of popcorn, she replies, “I’m young. And I haven’t birthed a human out of me yet.”
Michelle nods. “Oh, right.”
Dylan jumps in to ask, “How is Eve doing in school? Any better?”
Confused, I ask, “She’s still not doing well in school? That girl is smart as a whip. She should be acing everything.”
“I agree,” Michelle says. “I don’t think it has anything to do with her not understanding the material. I think she’s sick with a little thing called boy fever.”
“Ohhhh,” I reply, drawing the word out. ”That”s right. You mentioned a boy in her Spanish class. I think we have all gotten sick with that ailment…besides Dylan. Hell, Ronnie is still fighting a bad case of boy fever.”
Ronnie raises her hand. “Guilty.”
“Speaking of which, how is your Latin lover doing?” I ask her.
She rolls her eyes. “Meh. I’m about over it. It was fun while I was working, but he asked if he could come home with me. Absolutely fucking not. What a weirdo, right?”
Dylan laughs. “He’s a weirdo for wanting something more than just sex?”
“Uh, yeah. I’m giving him relations without the ship part attached to the end. Isn’t that what men usually want?”
“Not all men,” he defends.
“Oh, don’t act like you haven’t been dipping your willy into the online dating pool and having your fair share of no-strings-attached fun,” Ronnie snaps.
“Do I enjoy going home with women and having some fun? Yes. It’s not my fault that it never goes any further.”
Ronnie pops a cheese puff into her mouth. “Maybe you’re not any good at it, and that’s why it doesn’t go any further.”
“Hey!” He points his finger at her. “I grew up with four sisters who constantly talked about womanly things. I know what I’m doing in that department.”
Desperate to change the subject, he turns his attention toward me. “Lizzie, how are things going with Jack?”
“Uhh. Things are good,” I reply, a little caught off-guard. “He asked me if I wanted to go to Miami with him soon.”
“Miami?” Jo asks. “Why Miami?”
Not wanting to give away secrets that aren’t mine, I answer, “That’s where he’s from. It’s his mom’s birthday, and he wants to go surprise her. Thought maybe I would like to go sit on a beach for a couple of days.”
“That sounds lovely,” Michelle says.
“Yeah, should be fun.”
Jo asks, “What’s the deal? I thought Jack hated you.”
“We kind of hated each other, but I think both of us just had bad first impressions of the other.”
She says, “I’m glad you got on his good side. Literally, that man gets along with everyone.”
“Unlike me who barely gets along with anyone in town anymore.”
Michelle asks, “Have you talked to anyone much since you’ve been back?”
I shake my head. “Well, if you count my little drunken scene at the bar where I insulted almost everyone in town, then, yes. But if not, I guess the only people I converse with are people connected to the inn.”
“You should get out more,” Jo says.
“Eh, I think I’m good on that,” I reply.
I choose not to say anything about the inn. Tonight is supposed to be fun, and I don’t want to be the one to bring the party down.
“We need booze,” Ronnie says before standing up and rushing to the kitchen. “What are we in the mood for? Shots?”
“No!” We all cry out in unison.
“Pussies.”
She returns a couple of minutes later with some wine and five assorted cups—none of which are actual wine glasses.
Jo takes a sip of hers and says, “Man, drinking here is kind of weird.”
“You never drank when Mom and Dad weren’t home?” Ronnie asks. “I used to do it all the time. At least this time, I won’t have to refill the vodka bottles with water.”
“Or the whiskey with iced tea,” I add with a laugh.
Jo looks at us with wide eyes. “And I thought I was the hooligan of the family. I’d just go smoke weed under the bleachers.”
Michelle looks around, “Is anyone else kind of worried that Mom has this place bugged and is listening to everything we say?”
Ronnie stands up and walks over to the stereo system. “Oh, calm down, Martha Mc-Do-No-Wrong.”
“What? I had a baby in high school. I’m pretty sure I’m the family disappointment.” Michelle takes a few large gulps of her wine.
Ronnie grins. “True. But since then, I don’t think you’ve done so much as drive above the speed limit. I’m pretty sure your slate has been wiped clean.”
Michelle just rolls her eyes and takes another drink while Ronnie searches through all of my parents’ old CDs to try to find something for us to listen to.
Jo asks, “Why not just play something from your phone?”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Ronnie replies as she finds a CD to slip into the player.
Moments later, Backstreet Boys start playing through the speakers causing Jo to give a loud groan.
“Man, you guys are so old.”
Ronnie points at her. “Respect your elders!”
She starts dancing around the room, making her way over to each one of us and grabbing our hands and pulling until we join her.
When Dylan joins in, Jo looks at him. “You’re a massive disappointment, do you know that?”
While he dances like…well, I’m not sure what he’s dancing like, he says, “Just go with it, Jo! Do you know how much of this I had to hear growing up with these three?”
Ronnie stops in front of Jo, holding out her hands.
“Not a chance,” Jo replies, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Oh, come on!” Ronnie insists.
“Nope.”
“You leave me no choice.” Ronnie climbs onto the couch and starts dancing all around Jo, making sure she will have no peace until she decides to dance.
Finally, Jo caves and stands up, doing nothing more than swaying her hips back and forth.
Ronnie pinches her cheeks. “There you go!”
As we have an impromptu dance party in the middle of our childhood living room, I can’t help but feel happy. I wasn’t excited about this whole sleepover thing, but for the first time in forever, my relationship with my siblings is starting to feel like it used to.
At our last family dinner, it felt forced. It felt like they were damn near strangers to me, but now? I remember the awesome bond that we all shared. Growing up, we always had each other’s backs. And I know that now, we still do. Even though we all have our own lives and our own stories, we have a bond that can’t be broken—no matter how much I almost fucked that all up.
I genuinely missed all of them.
I was always too busy back in LA to realize just how much.
Ronnie’s crazy dance seems to cause her to pull something. “Oh, shit, my back.”
Dylan jokes, “Maybe you should stay off of it.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that, Dyl. I prefer it doggy.”
Dylan’s face contorts. “Veronica! You have to stop saying things like that around me.”
“Never!” Ronnie laughs. “It’s too much fun.”
“I’m going to need something stronger than wine.” Dylan sighs while walking into the kitchen.
The four of us girls start laughing so hard we double over.
And for the first time since maybe I’ve gotten back, I’m really happy to be home.