[gathering] All My Bells Are Ringing

[drownondryland]

Meredith was clear, when the idea of a party came up, that she's never done anything like this before. Thrown parties, yes, but the kind with loud music and copious amounts of drinking that mostly got way bigger than she intended them to and wound up with her waking up either on the couch surrounded by everyone else's trash or in bed with someone,

Comments

[daretodo]

There are things you do for love. Sometimes they're hard -- sacrifices that need to be made for the greater good. Sometimes they're easy -- picking up your dirty socks from the floor the first time you're asked instead of the tenth. And on that hard to easy scale, attending this party with Mary Jane is somewhere around the middle. I've been doing my best to avoid Meredith since November, having not been entirely comfortable in her presence for a while, now, the inherent nature of our acquaintance awkward as all get out despite a solid effort to get over that obstacle. Being in her house makes me a little nervous, truth be told, but while Mary Jane might be the actress in the family, I'm perfectly capable of acting like everything's a-okay. It helps, too, that it's the holidays, I know most of the guest list by sight, if not personally, and that I was invited at all suggests the good doctor doesn't harbor any ill will towards me for requesting a new physician in the future

[justsookie]

You know, there are a lot of people I admire in this small little house, a lot of people who make me feel like I'm a bit of the fish out of water, the country bumpkin among all these greats. But if there's something I can say for myself, it's that being on the island has slowly but surely opened up more opportunities to me, those with which I can prove myself, which has me holding my head a little bit higher than I used to. Not that I've ever been precisely ashamed of myself, and certainly not of my grandmother, but there is a certain satisfaction in putting one's efforts toward something completely new and not coming away entirely empty-handed

[daretodo]

There are times, I've gotta say, that I'm not the smoothest guy in all the world. In spite of my go get 'em holiday attitude, actually being spoken to -- and by Sookie Stackhouse, no less -- catches me by surprise, and I'm forced to gulp down my mouthful of juice in one go, eyes widening

"Miss St-- Sookie, hi!" I reply quickly, not quite breathless, but a little out of sorts. Fortunately, at least, I'm not too bad at fast recoveries. "I didn't realize you and the good doctor were close... Uh, unless you're pals with Sean, in which case, I... Obviously didn't know you were close with him, either."

[justsookie]

Sometimes it's a bit strange to me, how people can have such different aspects to their personalities that seem to contrast or even conflict. Surely, no one who simply watches the speeches that Peter gives, carefully worded and delivered with no small amount of emotion, would guess that the man currently choking on his orange juice is the same guy. I stifle the urge I have to laugh a little, not out of derision or to make fun of him, but just from thinking how cute it is that he's still a humble guy at the end of the day. I bury it because I'd really rather not give him the wrong idea.

"Oh stars," I say anyway, tone apologetic as I reach for a napkin to hand over to him. "I didn't mean to catch you off guard or scare you, I'm sorry. But um, yeah! Meredith's a good friend of mine and she asked for a bit of help setting up, so here I am! She did most of the work though, don't let her tell you any different. It's my first time meeting Sean, though."