Page 43 of Rise After Fall

“The what?!” Taeli asks.

“I think she means swamp ass,” Jena answers for her.

Taeli snaps her eyes to Jena. “Swamp what?”

“Oh, come on. You know, when sweat gathers in the folds of your muffin top or between your thighs near your vajooter or between your butt cheeks,” Jena explains.

“Yeah, general wetness that likes to show up in all your nether regions, even under your tatas, when it’s hot out or you walk around too much and it has nowhere to go. Swamp ass,” Erin adds.

“I call it booty dew,” Ansley interjects.

“Oh, I like that one. Booty dew. Us old biddies with hot flashes have a lot of booty dew,” Sara-Beth says.

“Um, okay,” Taeli mumbles.

“Princess acts like she doesn’t sweat,” Erin says, elbowing me in the side as I take in the strange conversation.

“I do. I just use that anti-monkey butt powder,” Taeli defends.

“Monkey butt—that was the other one I was trying to remember!” Jena cries.

“I don’t like powders. It always ends up in places it shouldn’t. I like these. If you get the lightweight ones, it’s like wearing nothing at all,” Leona continues, touting the pros of period panties.

“Do they really help?” Ansley asks her.

“Oh, yes. I’m dry and as fresh as a daisy.”

“I gotta get me some of those,” Ansley muses.

“I’m sorry, but are we all just gonna overlook the fact that Jena calls her vagina a vajooter?” Maxi asks.

Everyone shrugs.

Isley shuffles back to the table, where Jena has a plate stacked with food waiting for her.

“Ah, that’s so much better,” she says as she takes a seat.

She snatches a chicken wing and bites into it.

“What’d I miss?” she asks around the mouthful.

Everyone bursts into laughter.

Morris

We pull up to the brewery at the same time as Corbin.

Joanna, Kinley, Scooter, and Clay pile out of my truck as Corbin waits by the door.

“Hey, bro. You off tonight?” I ask as we make it to him.

“Yeah. I’ve been at the house, hanging with Pop, while Mom and Maxi were up here with the girls. I think the old man misses having you around,” he says.

“They finally have an empty nest now. It was bound to happen eventually,” I say.

We walk inside, and Mom and Leona are twirling around on the dance floor together.

“Uh-oh, looks like it’s gonna be a wild night,” I say.