Jolene's World - Veronica's Drama-infused Party (companion to videos #8 & #9)
Hello, my name is Veronica Maples.
If you want to know what really happened between Darrel and Chen before he met Ashely, I'm the best one to tell you, since I'm clearly the most impartial of the bunch.
We has just graduated from college and knew we would be going our separate ways, so we decided to have one last hoorah at Winner's Gulch, a small gambling town about an hour's drive from the University.
We were short on funds, so we all checked into the cheapest motel in town, the Sleep Tite Motel. I told the bunch we were lowering our standards because a majority of us had just earned our degrees in writing, and here we were staying at a place where the owners couldn't even spell "tight" correctly.
On the up side, the place had a pool, which pleased everyone except Chen. Chen has a fear of water because, when she was a small child, she lost both her parents in a boating accident.
The first day was spent exploring the town a bit. The guys went to Folly Tower to play pool and practice their golf swings, . . .
According to Troy, Keith finally found an activity were he had no skill or talent. 😏
The girls and I decided to go to the spa for some rest and relaxation, only Analise got in a huff over something I said - I'm not sure what - but she stormed off. What a drama queen!
That left just Chen and me to enjoy the steam room.
Chen insisted on wearing that ridiculous life jacket, but I decided to cut her some slack.
All-in-all we had a pretty good time. We don't have a lot in common, if fact, I don't think any of us really do. We all became friends mostly due to all of us being friends with Keith, the "golden boy."
Keith likes ALL the girls. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we isn't trying to woo Ashley away from Darrel.
But I digress. Keith is the ladies' man, and Chen isn't much better. While we were in Winner's gulch, she gave Troy a more-than-friendly hug, and flirted shamelessly with Keith.
To be fair, Darrel and Chen were technically just friends, but I've known for a long time that Darrel carried a torch for her, so I felt it was just tacky that she seemed so insensitive to his feelings. From Devon's reaction, my guess is that Chen was stringing him along too.
I'm not a big fan of Chen, but I like her better than Analise. Analise is so emotional and prone to tears. Sure, we all hate losing at the roulette table, but seriously, Analise?
It's clear that Analise is crushing on Keith, and Keith might be overly encouraging of her affections, buying her gifts . . .
and spending quality time alone with her, . . .
but then the next thing I know, he and Chen are flirting!
A few days into the trip, Darrel downed some liquid courage . . .
and made Chen aware of his feelings for her.
This led to a date . . .
Which led to her telling Darrel her life's story in the spa's sauna at 4 am.
This in turn led to a cuddle, then a make-out session.
Darrel was smitten from that point on. There was no doubt about it!
However, earlier that day I spotted Chen flirting with Keith again, so I thought I needed to give Darrel some friendly advice. I told him Chen wasn't to be trusted and that she was treating him like garbage.
Darrel said he didn't want to hear it. He was exhausted after staying up late partying several nights in a row, but said he'd sleep on it. The next morning, he said nothing about it and seemed to be in good spirits.
I don't know if he forgot our conversation or not. But I noticed he was drinking quite heavily and started doing so early in the morning.
I like Darrel, but he's so childlike, it's easy for people to take advantage of him. I think that's what happened on that day. Darrel drank heavily, . . .
Then he went to the circus with Chen.
They came back to the hotel and announced their engagement. We were all flabbergasted!
We agreed to go out with them to celebrate - except Keith, who seemed unusually withdrawn. He begged off, saying he needed to get some sleep.
Of course there had to be a wedding arch, and Darrel had to suggest that he and Chen get married right then an there - I'm sure he was still under the influence and not capable of making sound life-changing decisions, but nobody listens to me!
We all figured the best thing we could do was be supportive of their decision and let things sort themselves out in time.
So there we all stood, among the random well-wishers who stopped to watch the show.
Everyone except Keith, that is.
The next morning I knocked on the door of the room Chen and Darrel were sharing, and asked if they wanted to go out to breakfast with the rest of us. Chen said she was starving, but Darrel was still sound asleep, so Chen left him a note telling where we went.
As we were finishing up breakfast, we all received a group text from Darrel saying he was leaving immediately for a job interview his mother set up for him, thanked us for the "memories" (as if he had any,) and said he hoped to see us again someday - especially Chen.
We were all taken aback! Was he skipping out on all of us, including his bride? Who does that? We all know he has memory issues, but we just couldn't fathom that he'd forget getting married. We all decided not to respond, and to my knowledge, none of us ever spoke to him since.
That was a year ago. Then we receive this strange text from Darrel's mother, saying Darrel is getting married, and she'd like us all to come in early and spend some time before the big event. MARRIED she said!
We all messaged among ourselves - to be honest, I don't think any of us kept track of each other over the past year, being busy with our new lives and careers - and we all decided to get together and rent a AirBnB to catch up with each other and confront Darrel about how he treated Chen.
So here we are in Sunset Valley.
Bea Buzzerby, Darrel's mom, invited us to a get-together at her house. We all went out of obligation and left as soon as we could. Chen stayed back with the intention of confronting Darrel, . . .
but before she could give him a piece of her mind, he up and kissed her.
She said he seemed genuinely happy to see her, which threw her off balance and made her wonder just how much he remembered about what happened in Winner's Gulch. To complicate things further, Darrel's fiancé Ashley came running up and saw the public display of affection and was very upset.
Chen said she stepped away to give them some space to sort things out.
She overheard Darrel tell Ashley that she was over-reacting and of course Ashley was the one he loved, it was just that he and Chen were really close once, and he was glad to see her again. Chen decided to leave at that point.
She never had the opportunity to confront Darrel about their marriage, so I figured it was time to throw a party of my own and give Chen a chance to clear the air with Darrel. Of course I invited Ashley and her sisters, so they can see what the situation is.
Ashley brought along her best friend Jolene for moral support I guess. Darrel, the clueless puppy that he is, was thrilled to have both his "best girls" in the same place.
Chen was clearly losing patience with him. She accused him of cheating on her, and he was taken aback!
Ashley wasn't happy with him either.
The guy may be clueless but he can be sweet too. He brought me a hostess gift! He can be a charmer.
We talked a little about his teaching job, then he went to dance with Analise while Ashley, feeling like a fish out of water, withdrew into a book.
I tried giving Darrel warning look, hoping he's notice the effect his attention to other women was having on Chen, but he never caught on.
It seemed Chen decided to resort to trying to make Darrel jealous by dancing with Troy . . .
But that seemed to have no effect on him. Everyone quickly got tired of Darrel's bad behavior, I mean you can only excuse the guy because of his mental challenges for so long, right?
Ashley decided to try drowning her sorrows. Her friend Jolene had to step outside to check and make sure the babysitter was doing his job. Good help is hard to find, you know. This gave Chen the opportunity to talk to Ashley privately.
Chen decided Ashley wasn't the problem - Darrel was. So she let Ashley know she had no ill will against her, and her beef was with Darrel and the way he wooed and discarded her back in Winner's Gulch.
At first, Ashely didn't understand, because Darrel said it was Chen who ghosted him, not the other way around, but Chen explained that she and Darrel were technically married, and Darrel has not ever acknowledged the fact.
"Yep, I was there. I witnessed the whole thing," Devon chimed in. "That's what happened."
I went to tell Devon to mind his own business and let the girls hash things out on their own, while Ashley suggested that she and Chen get together and go see a movie sometime.
It was shortly after this that I noticed Keith eyeing Ashley. Oh my gosh! He's not really going to go there, is he?!?
Yep, he's really gonna go there. The cad!
At least she was finally going having a good time. Darrel ignored her completely. Something tells me the wedding is off. What Ashley decides to do from here is anyone's guess, but I don't see her committing to Darrel.
As for Chen, time will tell if she makes up with Darrel or divorces him.
On a side note. I spotted Troy out brooding in the rain - again. It seems to be one of his favorite activities.
Analise said she went to check on him and offered him an umbrella.
She reported back that he's brooding over some girl he met in a bar where he was moonlighting as a mixologist earlier in the day.
He said they really hit it off.
He's wondering if he should ask her out.
As for me, while the rest of them are on vacation, I'm getting a leg up on my career. I've got a temporary gig as a journalist, and I've just started my new book, The Tide is High and It's YOUR Fault! Soon to be available in bookstores everywhere. Check it out!
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