Janice’s Pre-Wedding Party

Rhett Brinkley

In the mail, last April, I received an invitation to an informal pre-wedding party for Janice Grayson and Scott Padgett. The party was to be held in the backyard of Nelson and Melinda Lott’s recently purchased home. I read the invitation about ten times and then saved it with a stack of bills that were due soon.

I was late paying my April bills, which means I probably didn’t look at the invitation again. I received a call on the Saturday of the party from my friend Matthew Frugal.

“What’s going on Matt?” I said.

“Eli, are you going to this party, man?”

“Party?”

“Janice’s wedding thing.”

“Damn it.”

“Man, Brittany’s going to be there and I told her I’d go, but we’re playing tonight so I can’t really stay long. If you want to go, let’s go together. I just really don’t feel like going up there by myself.”

“Good idea. Um, should I meet you at your house?”

“No, I’ve got some errands to run. I’ll come by and pick you up in a little bit.”

“All right.”

I got off the phone with Frugal and went and found the invitation to the party. It started at six. Frugal didn’t show up to my house until ten minutes after seven. He seemed kind of nervous and abnormally sweaty when he arrived.

“You ready to go man?” he said.

“Yeah. I think we’re pretty late.”

“I know. …And I can only stay for like thirty minutes.”

“That’s fine with me. That’s good. Now I have a real excuse to leave.”

We walked outside to Frugal’s car. His drums were in the back. Frugal started the car and then took about a minute to find a song on his iPod. Then he lit a cigarette. A squirrel crossed the street in front of us and then stopped on the sidewalk and started eating out of his hands.

“This party is going to be weird,” said Frugal as he played with his hair in the rear-view mirror.

“Yeah I think you’re right. Why do you say that though?” I asked.

“It’s just going to be our friends from high school that are married and have kids and then there’s you and me late as fuck, going to a show afterward, no direction whatsoever to the naked eye.” I laughed. We came up to a stoplight and Frugal said, “So D.J.’s going to be there.”

“Brittany’s husband?”

“Yeah.”

“Is that a problem?”

“I’ve never met him.”

“What? Really? I’ve met him like three times.”

“I’ve never met him, man.”

“Wow, that’s strange. It’ll be fine. Big show tonight.”

Brittany was Frugal’s high school girlfriend. They broke up shortly after graduation. A year later Brittany moved to St. Louis, married some guy named D.J., and had a child with him. Since then D.J. and Brittany had another child but other than that—and the fact that Brittany sometimes makes little cracks about her husband being a moron—I don’t know much about him or them as a married couple.

Frugal merged on to the freeway. I looked out the window over at the golf course. I saw two old men in golf attire standing on a green together discussing something that required a good deal of pointing back towards the fairway. Maybe they were pointing at a bird or a squirrel eating out of its hands.

“What did you think when you heard Janice was getting married?” Frugal asked.

“I don’t know. I read the invitation a bunch of times.”

“Goddamn it I’m low on gas.”

“I guess I expected to feel something but I didn’t. Thinking about it now though I feel relieved because I don’t care that she’s getting married.” Frugal gave me a weird look as if he didn’t get what I was saying. “It took me a long time to get over her. Now she’s getting married and I don’t feel weird about it at all. It’s relieving because at one time I didn’t think getting over her was possible. It’s always possible.”

“Yeah, but it’s never really easy to convince people of that when they’re in it you know?” said Frugal.

“I’m reminded of that almost every day.”

Nelson and Melinda’s house was located in a pretty nice suburban neighborhood. Frugal parked on the street a couple houses down.

“I don’t want to go in there,” said Frugal. “You have any gum?”

“No.”

“Hell.”

“Let’s just get it over with,” I said. We got out of the car and walked up to the front door of the house. Frugal knocked but no one ever came to the door.

“I guess they’re all in the backyard or something. C’mon,” said Frugal. We walked around to the side of the house. Frugal found a twenty dollar bill on the ground. “Oh hell yeah,” he said as he put it into his pocket. There was an alleyway leading into the backyard. In the alley were four or five little kids running around playing with what looked to be a size three soccer ball.

“Well Eli, we could have kids that age,” said Frugal. For some reason I imagined my brother Lance saying “Only every other weekend.” Frugal opened the gate and we walked through the alley. The kids didn’t appear to notice us at all. Kids, cats, and dogs all tend to find me very uninteresting.

The backyard was very impressive. A large area of the yard was covered in brick and there was a lot of nice backyard furniture. As I expected, Frugal and I were slightly underdressed. The ladies were wearing dresses and skirts and the guys were wearing Polo shirts or button ups with slacks. Next to the stairs leading up to the house was a large table covered with wine bottles. There was also a bowl filled with sangria. Frugal and I headed straight to the table and both took turns filling up nice wine glasses with pinot grigio. Brittany approached us as I was still filling up my glass.

“Hey guys I see you finally decided to show. …And what do you know you found the alcohol. Hang on.” Brittany ran over to the side of the backyard and picked up a little girl that looked about three and carried her over to us.

“Winona this is Matt and Eli.” Winona shyly turned her head away from us into Brittany’s shoulder.

“She looks just like you,” I said.

“Thank you.”

“How old is she?” Frugal asked.

“Two.” Janice walked up to us. She gave Frugal a hug and then me.

“Thanks for coming,” she said.

“Oh yeah. Thanks for inviting me.”

“Of course I invited you. You’re one of my favorite people. I don’t know where my fiancé is. You’ve met Scott right?”

“Oh yeah, a couple times.” Frugal and Brittany looked to be having a nice conversation. Janice looked great. She was wearing a red skirt. Her hair was long and beautiful. I first started liking her in English class tenth grade year. I saw her looking at me from across the room. We became classroom buddies. She made fun of me a lot. She poked me in the stomach once when we walked by each other in the hallway and I was hooked.

“So how have you been?” she asked.

“Good.”

“Are you still writing?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m so glad to hear that. I miss writing so much. I’m so busy, you know? I work all the time. I barely have time to even hang out with my fiancé.” Janice has a bachelors degree in English with an emphasis on creative writing. Now she’s a lawyer.

“When is your actual wedding?” said Frugal.

“August.”

“In New York right?”

“Yeah that’s where most of Scott’s family lives.”

“You excited?”

“Yeah. I’m more excited about the honeymoon to be honest. I feel like the wedding is us putting on a show and the honeymoon is the after-party.”

“Where are you guys going?” I asked.

“Greece.”

“Nice,” said Frugal. Brittany’s Mom Mrs. Carter sat down in a chair about five feet away from us with a glass of red wine and looked over and noticed Frugal and I standing with Brittany and Janice. “Is that Matt and Eli?” she said. We both walked up and gave Mrs. Carter a hug.

“Matt, how are you?” she said.

“I’m pretty good.”

“Great. Hey Eli. You look so handsome with your grey hair.”

“Thanks Mrs. Carter.” Back in high school Mrs. Carter always used to ask me why Brittany and I weren’t dating even though Brittany was dating Frugal who was and still is one of my best friends. She also used to let us use her outdoor hot tub all hours of the night. I would often be the only one in the hot tub wearing only my boxer shorts. Afterwards Brittany would take my wet boxers and put them in the washer for me. Those nights I’d end up going home without any underwear, which to my chagrin we all used to call “Freeballing.” Then the next time I’d end up over at Brittany’s Mrs. Carter would always bring me my clean boxers and insist that I use the hot tub whenever I want.

“So do you guys have girlfriends?” said Mrs. Carter before taking a sip of wine.

“No, we sure don’t,” said Frugal.

“Why not? You both are such great guys and you’re so handsome.”

“I wish I knew the answer to that question,” said Frugal. “I’m going to get another glass of wine.” Frugal walked off. I noticed that I too needed a refill but Frugal was too far away for me to ask and I felt like it would’ve been rude of me to leave because I thought that maybe Mrs. Carter would think that I couldn’t stand there and talk to her without Matthew Frugal by my side.

“I always wondered why you and Brittany never dated,” said Mrs. Carter. “I love Matt; I just kind of always hoped you guys would get together.”

“I don’t think Matt would’ve been very happy with me if Brittany and I had gotten together.”

“Probably not,” said Mrs. Carter, laughing. “He’d get over it though.”

“I’m going to get another glass of wine. Do you need anything?”

“No Sugar, I’m wonderful.” I walked back to the table and refilled my wine glass. Frugal, Brittany and Janice were talking about how the backyard we were congregating in had just recently been redone because a tree fell into it. Apparently if the tree would’ve fallen just a few seconds earlier, Nelson Lott and the groceries he was carrying would’ve been smashed into the earth.

Janice’s fiance Scott came up with two plates of food. He kissed Janice.

“Want to go sit over there?” he said.

“Scott you remember Eli, right?”

“Yeah. How are you?”

“Great. Good to see you,” I said. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks. Appreciate you coming.” Janice and Scott walked away. I think Scott’s a good guy and that he and Janice are happy. They look really fit. I think they run together. I picture them running together for some reason. I like to run alone.

As Janice and Scott were walking away D.J. came up and asked Brittany if she had their cigarettes. D.J. looks like the kind of guy that would be cast in a Miller Light commercial. You look at him and think “Guy.”

“They’re in my purse,” she said. D.J. started to walk away but Brittany stopped him.

“Hey D.J., this is Matt,” she said.

“Hey man.” D.J. shook hands with Frugal.

“Nice to meet you,” said Frugal, nervously. D.J. looked at me and said, “Hey man I’m D.J.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said, even though I’d met him at least three times. “I’m Eli.”

“You guys have met,” said Brittany. D.J. just looked at Brittany with a blank expression.

“D.J. and Matt are finally meeting!” said Mrs. Carter, which took me by surprise. “D.J. always turns the pictures of you guys around when he comes over to my house,” she said, laughing. “The one’s of you guys from your trip to Italy. Sometimes I find them face down after he’s visited.”

“Mom,” said Brittany, also laughing. I looked over at Frugal. He looked like he was having some kind of gas cramp.

“I’m going to grab a cigarette,” said D.J. He walked away.

“Mom, I can’t believe you said that,” said Brittany.

“Well, he does. He turns my pictures upside down.”

“Oh my God,” said Frugal. He buried his head in his hands. Melinda Lott came up with her arms spread out. “I’m so glad you guys came,” she said. She was wearing a nice white skirt. She gave both Frugal and I a hug.

“Have you guys tried the sangria?” she asked. Her teeth matched the red wine in her glass.

“No,” said Frugal.

“Oh well you have to try it. It’s fabulous. Have you guys been inside? Come with me. Let me give you a tour. Wait, get your sangria first then I’ll give you the tour.” Frugal poorly poured us both a glass of sangria spilling some on to the white table cloth. Then we followed Melinda into the house through the back door.

“Okay this is kind of our game room. I mean that’s obvious, you know, pool table.” Nelson Lott and a few other guys were playing a game of pool. Frugal and I kind of waved at them and kept following Melinda up a small staircase and then she turned and walked into a hallway and up to a door and opened it. “This is our bedroom,” she said before opening the door. The first thing I noticed was her and Nelson’s enormous king size bed. Four people could probably sleep comfortably in their bed. There were a couple of magazines scattered on the bed. One was a men’s health magazine and the other two were home décor magazines. The bed faced a flat-screen television.

“The treadmill is only in here temporarily,” said Melinda. The treadmill was located in between the flat screen television and the bed. “Nelson wants to leave it in here but I just don’t want a damn treadmill in my bedroom.” The wall paper was old and silver.

“When was this house built?” said Frugal.

“In the forties,” said Melinda. “Come on, let me show you the kitchen.” We followed Melinda into the kitchen. There was a tall blonde girl in the kitchen wearing a flowery dress. She was eating a pastry.

“Guys have you met Stephanie?” Frugal and I both shook hands with Stephanie. Then she grabbed her plate and left the kitchen. She didn’t seem very impressed with us. Or perhaps maybe she just wanted to eat her pastry alone.

“Check out this old wall oven you guys. It’s been here since the house was built.” The wall oven was green and very small.

“Does it work?” said Frugal.

“No, but I kind of like it in here.” She spilled the remaining wine in her glass on the counter. “Oh shit. Oh well. Come on, let me show you the project.” I looked over at Frugal and could tell that his mind was elsewhere. He still looked rattled from his first encounter with D.J. I patted him on the shoulder and said, “Big show tonight.”

“Yeah. Big show,” he said unenthusiastically. Melinda led us to the front of the house and opened the sliding doors.

“This is the living room. Kind of.” Their living room was empty except for cleaning products and a hardwood floor cleaning machine. “We just don’t know what we’re gonna do with it yet.”

“Man, this is a really nice house,” said Frugal.

“Yeah we like it.”

“I wish I owned a house,” said Frugal with a chuckle.

“Yeah you should buy one,” said Melinda. Frugal laughed and said, “Maybe tomorrow.”

“Well thanks for taking the tour with me you guys.”

“Yeah thanks for giving us the tour,” I said. We followed Melinda back through the house and out the back door. Frugal walked up to the wine table and filled a glass with pinot grigio and drank the entire glass as if it were a shot.

“Man, I gotta get the fuck out of here,” he said. “I’m going to go say bye to Brittany. Maybe her husband can turn me around when I’m talking to her.” He walked away. Janice was standing with some guy I’d never met. I made my way over to them and said, “Hey Janice I think we’re getting out of here. Matt’s got to get ready for his show tonight.”

“Oh, okay. Well, thanks so much for coming.” She gave me a hug. “It was great seeing you. If you’re ever in New York give me a call. I hate only seeing you a couple times a year.”

“Yeah, for sure.”

“We have a great guest bedroom that no one’s used yet.”

“Okay.”

“Bye Eli.” I walked away and went straight out of the backyard without saying bye to anyone else. I waited by Frugal’s car and lit a cigarette. I imagined a trip to New York and wondered whether or not I’d call Janice. I decided after about three seconds that I wouldn’t and I really don’t know why. It’s kind of interesting when you see someone that you don’t see often anymore and how there’s so much to catch up on but you really don’t catch up on anything. Standing there leaning against Frugal’s car, looking at Nelson and Melinda’s house, it saddened me to realize that I’m kind of apathetic about catching up with old friends that used to mean so much to me not that long ago. It’s strange because I used to be over sentimental about everything. Maybe apathy is a part of aging. I hope I’m wrong about that. I don’t know. I’m sick of thinking about apathy.

I saw Frugal exit the gate and once he was clear he started sprinting to the car. “Eli let’s get the fuck out of here!” he said, overdramatically, knowing he’d get a good laugh out of me. We got in the car and I felt safe and relieved and 14 years old.

“Oh yeah!” said Frugal as he drove away from the house. “Goddamn dude. That was fucking horrible.” He lit a cigarette.

“It was a little weird,” I said.

“I cannot believe Brittany’s mom said that shit. I mean, I can because she says whatever’s on her mind, but I don’t know. Meeting D.J. couldn’t have gone any worse.” Frugal was not paying attention to where he was going because we were not leaving the way we came.

“Ah, I doubt you’re missing anything by not knowing D.J. better.”

“Yeah I know. I just wanted it to go well I guess because I still care about Brittany and I don’t want it to be weird that we’re still friends. Shit, where the fuck are we?”

“I don’t know.”

“Great, we’re lost in the fucking suburbs.”

“Melinda and Nelson have a really nice house,” I said.

“I know. Their parents must have money because they’re both waiters. I guess a house is a pretty good wedding present. Aha, here we go.” Frugal found a way out of the neighborhood. “I don’t know man, that whole party just put me in a shitty mood.” We got on the freeway. The sun was setting and the sky was pink.

“The sky looks awesome,” I said.

“Yeah it does.” Frugal took a drag and then tossed his cigarette out the window. “Sometimes I wish I hadn’t blown it with Brittany.”

“You didn’t blow it with Brittany.”

“We could’ve worked it out though. I don’t know.”

“That was ten years ago. You guys were kids.”

“Yeah I mean I really don’t think it would’ve worked but when I see her I always wonder about it. I don’t know man, after going to a party like that and meeting fucking D.J., and seeing Brittany’s daughter that looks just like her…I don’t know. Everyone there is like doing the family thing. What the fuck am I doing, you know? I mean I’m playing a fucking show tonight and I’m gonna get drunk. That’s what I’m doing with my life now. You know what I’m saying?”

“Yeah I do. You’re playing drums tonight; you’re a drummer. I think that’s what you should be doing. You know? You’re doing what you want to do.”

“Yeah.” I looked over at the golf course across the freeway. Two different old guys were on the same green from earlier and they too were pointing down the fairway at something. I wanted to tell Frugal about it and I looked over at him to tell him but for some reason I changed my mind and all that ended up coming out of my mouth was “Big show tonight.”