⌜ chapter twelve ⌟

"I did not miss this place." Alec says, looking around as they walk through the trailer park to get to the Hunters'.

"Why did we even agree to this?" Reggie questions. "I hate it h— Ow!"

"Dude, shut the hell up." Tyler shakes his head at his brother.

"Shawn wants us here." Letty reminds them, leading the way. "So, shut up until after the pie."

"And then I can talk?" Reggie asks.

"No." The other three all say in unison.

"Shut your trap or I'll feed you to the goat." The brunette mutters as she leads the way through the trailer park.

"Should'a made him wear red." Tyler says, and she chuckles as she glances at the boys over her shoulder.

"What do you need your purse for?" Mr. Matthews' voice gets their attention, and they all stop arguing.

"Well, I just don't wanna leave it in the car, okay?" His wife tells him.

"Well, I don't wanna leave the car in the car, but we're stuck with it, okay?"

"I can't believe you guys." Eric says. "Just give me the keys to the car, I'll be more than happy to go and get the purse." He holds his hand out toward his dad.

"And when would you be back?" Mr. Matthews questions.

"Not comin' back."

"You know, I'm never taking you guys anywhere again." Cory tells them.

"And I am very surprised by this family's negative attitude." Mrs. Matthews says as she glances around at them.

"I have to go to the bathroom." Morgan says, and her mom leans down to her height.

"Not here, honey. Hold it till we get home." She tells her.

"Damn. Talk about privileged." Reggie says, gaining the Matthews' attention.

"You can use the bathroom in the Hunters' trailer, Morgan." Letty tells the little blonde. "We have less money, not poor hygiene." She says.

"Yeah, if that were the case, you'd have to sanitize your son." Reggie says, and Alec punches his arm, making him groan as he grabs where he was just hit.

"Didn't I tell you to stop talking 'til after pie?" Letty questions as she glances briefly in his direction. "And Eddie's in juvie, so your purse is fine." She adds as she looks at Mrs. Matthews.

"Sweetie, I didn't mean—"

"No, that's fine. I don't like it here either." The brunette says as she starts walking. "My father wasn't the only reason I never let Eric come over."

"So, why are you forcing me?" Reggie questions.

"I told you where the Pot Pie was, you could've stayed at the house." She says. "You know, now I understand why Lina went to New York instead of spending the holiday with you."

"I think she left to get away from your negative attitude." He argues as they all follow after her. "I guess you really fit in well with the family that's afraid of the trailer park."

"Up yours, Reggie."

"That's not very nice."

"Dude, shut up before I kick your ass." Alec says as he walks ahead of his sister to get away from their housemate. "Which one was it again?"

"To your right." Letty tells him, and he turns to see the trailer that has a paper turkey on the door.

Alec knocks, and everyone says hi as they all slowly start to make their way into the Hunters' trailer. Letty smiles when she sees Shawn, and then she hugs her younger brother.

"Chet, hello." Mr. Matthews greets. "I brought you this really nice bottle of wine."

"Wine?" Alec mouths as he looks at his sister, and she makes a motions like oh, well.

"Well, thank you, Alan, but as it happens, we had a very good wine planned for this evening's festivities — excellent wine, whole box of it right in the refrigerator." Mr. Hunter tells him.

"Oh, well, in that case, we don't need to drink this. We'll drink yours, and, uh, save this." Mr. Matthews says.

"No, no, no, no. If you went through the trouble of bringing us wine, the least we could do is drink yours and not ours."

"I thought I wasn't allowed to bring any alcohol because—" Reggie groans when Tyler throws his elbow into his ribs. "I hate all of you."

"You know what would be just special?" Mrs. Hunter asks as she reaches out and takes the wine bottle from her husband's hands.

"If Alec ran up to the store and got some sparkling cider and apple juice?" Letty chimes in, and her older brother picks his head up from staring at the carpet.

"I can do that." He nods.

"What do you say we pour both our wines in a big bowl and add some bananas and oranges and have ourselves some friendship sangria?" Mrs. Hunter suggests.

"I'd ask why you're ruining the fruit." Letty mutters as Mr. Hunter leans toward his wife.

"Nobody wants that, Virna." He tells her, speaking quietly.

"Yes, we do. We want that." She argues, her voice just as hushed as his. "We want bananas and oranges, and tiny-little pastel-colored umbrellas. Now, you go get them. They're in the drawer."

Letty rubs her forehead, thinking that this isn't going to turn out well. Shawn looks at her, and she offers him a small smile.

"May I serve you some hors d'oeuvres?" Mrs. Hunter asks. "This is a gruyere and pecan log with a selection of crackers. It's one of the items I most enjoy from the good people at Hickory Farms."

"Oh, I would love some. Thank you, Virna." Mrs. Matthews says as Letty takes the covered tray that she's holding and walks over to the kitchen.

"I know it's not as fancy as you would've served at your home."

"No, no. It's exactly what I would've served." She lies as she takes a cracker off of the tray that Mrs. Hunter's holding for them.

"No, you're just sayin' that. You would've served the port of wine cheddar in the ceramic crock."

"Yeah. Remember, you gave it to that mailman that one year for Christma—" Eric's cut off when his dad shoves a cracker in his mouth.

"Wine?" Alec whispers as he leans down at his sister's side. "He still drinks?"

"Sometimes, but he doesn't get drunk." Letty says quietly as she looks up at her brother. "It's just wine, alright? He's not drinking anything stronger." She tells him as Mr. Hunter quickly goes after his wife to stop her from leaving to buy something nicer to serve things in.

Tyler lets out a low whistle, which immediately gets Letty, Alec, and Reggie's attention. They all look over at the oldest, and he motions to Mr. and Mrs. Hunter, who are over by the open front door arguing.

"Yes, it can. Cheese can turn this around." Mrs. Hunter says, and their voices are gradually growing louder.

"It's not about what we eat, honey. It's about who we are." Her husband argues before looking over at the Matthews', who moved to the kitchen. They smile and wave awkwardly. "And who they are. And we're different. And no amount of cheese is gonna change the fact that tonight is not gonna go well, and I told you so."

There's a knock on the door, and Mr. Hunter opens it to see who it is. It's the man who lives across from the Hunters. He whispers something to Mr. Hunter, who then quickly excuses himself to talk to his neighbor outside.

Letty whistles the same as Tyler had, and the three boys look at her. The brunette's looking at the boy closest to the door — Reggie — and then jerks her head in the direction that Mr. Hunter disappeared with Luther. He glances around, seeing that most of them are taking part in their own conversations, and then he turns and moves closer to the front door. Trailer doors aren't exactly thick, not the best for concealing voices.

Reggie walks over as Mrs. Hunter's on the brink of a meltdown, and he bows his head as he stands beside Letty. "Bunch'a cranky old men. They want us all out of here because we don't live here anymore. Matthews are too high-class, and we Blacks and Prices moved up from trailer folk." He tells her, somewhat mocking them, and she rolls her dark eyes.

The door opens, and Mr. Hunter walks back in. "Well, I hope y'all enjoyed your dinner, and, uh, thanks for coming, and well, let's do this again next year at some neutral third-party air force base." He says, and Shawn stands up from a chair that's near him.

"Dad, we haven't eaten yet." He tells him while Reggie's filling his brother and Alec in on what he overheard from the neighbors.

"Uh, 'course we haven't eaten." He says as he moves further into the trailer. "Why, our guests have just arrived, but, uh, this is the small-talk part of the evening, so y'all talk, we'll talk, everybody talk, talk." He continues as he ushers his wife and son out of the trailer.

"Ah, them Hunters." Cory chuckles as he looks at his family. "Quirky, but you gotta love 'em."

"Start with all the talk about how you wanna be at home right now, and fists are gonna start flyin'." Letty says, and they all look at her. "You are all so pathetic. Mrs. Hunter wants nicer things because you're from a higher class of society. Morgan can't use the bathroom here 'cause the trailer park's not as clean as your house that's built into the ground. And the neighbors want us all gone because we're not one of them." She scoffs.

"Scar—" Alec starts.

"No, that's great. That is a real nice message to teach kids." She nods. "The Matthews' are better than the Hunters because of where they live. Does that make the Hunters better than us?" She asks as she looks at her brother. "You know, 'cause we grew up in motel rooms 'til I was five since we couldn't even afford this?" She motions around them.

"Nobody's better than us, kid." Reggie says. "We're all just people."

"Shop owner, janitor, credit card fraud." Letty shakes her head. "No, Regg, I'd say we pretty much scraped the bottom of the barrel. So, I guess by today's logic — Cory and Shawn shouldn't be friends, Morgan shouldn't go and have pie over with Herman Stechino, and I should stop trying to turn my life around and planning to end up with Eric, But, hey, at least your kids will be of a higher class since you're a business owner. You know, speaking of, let's do Christmas at the bar. And no presents, I can't afford it. I'm outta here." She shakes her head as she starts for the door.

"Scarlett!"

"Shut up, Alec."

"Letty, wait!" Eric runs after her, and she shakes her head.

"No, Eric, it's fine. Alright?" She turns around to face him once she's standing outside. "None of this isn't anything I didn't already know. Now, I'm just the trailer trash who's no longer welcome in the trailer park."

"No, none of this is okay, Letty." He argues as he takes her hands in his. "Motel, trailer park, or the house down the block from mine, it doesn't matter — you're still the same person that you've always been. I don't care where you live, or who you came from; nobody gets to make you feel like less of a person than anyone else." He tells her, and she looks down. "I know I made some comments I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry. But none of that class stuff matters."

"Matters to everyone else." She says as she looks up at him.

"I don't care." He shakes his head. "We came here to celebrate Thanksgiving with our friends and our families. And I, for one, am thankful to have someone like you in my life. Someone who's not afraid to speak the truth, even when the people she thinks are being jerks are the people that she cares about the most in the world. And you were right, we were all acting like idiots." He says as he looks around at the others. "We're all people, no better or worse than each other or anyone else. Can't we act like it?"

"I should say so." Mr. Matthews says, smiling as he looks at the two teenagers. It never ceases to amaze him how much he learns from watching his son and the girl that he loves.

"Let's eat." Mr. Hunter agrees.

"Come sit with me?" Eric asks as he looks down at Letty, reaching up wipe a stray tear from her cheek, and she offers him a small smile as she nods. Her smile widens as he then laces their fingers together and leads the way back into the Hunters' trailer.