This is a parody story, no characters represent any real person, alive or deceased.
All characters are over the age of 18, including cartoon characters who have failed several years of school.
*****
Francine Smith's cell phone began its rhythmic combination of vibrations and rings. Looking at the screen before answering, she saw it was her sorority sister from college, Lois Griffin. Lois lived in Quahog, Rhode Island with her family and was a stay at home housewife and mother, just like Francine.
"Lois Griffin! Long time no see. What's up with you these days?" Francine greeted her old friend.
"I'm in Washington D.C., if you can believe that." Lois enthusiastically responded. "I'm chaperoning my son's high school field trip."
"Sounds like a great time." Francine lampooned.
"For sure," Lois replied. "I'm stuck in a hotel room each night, trying to keep a bunch of high school boys and girls and their raging hormones out of trouble." The women both laughed at that thought. "Today was the last day of the trip. The kids all went back home on the bus about an hour ago."
"It's been forever since we've seen each other." Francine continued.
"That's why I called, silly." came Lois' retort. "I stayed over an extra night, hoping you and I could catch up. I don't have to go back until tomorrow afternoon. I've got a great room with two queen sized beds, a living room and big flat panel TV. I hoped I could talk you into picking up a nice bottle of wine on the way over and you could spend the night so we can catch up on old times."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Francine wrote down the directions to her friend's hotel and went upstairs to get a bag together.
An hour later, Francine arrived at the hotel, parking in the covered parking structure before finding herself holding a couple of small overnight bags and knocking on the door to room 522. The door pulled open, and Francine was greeted with a big bear hug by her college friend, dressed in a simple khaki skirt and green blouse.
"Francine Smith, you old slut from Gamma Pi! Get in here."
"I hope I wasn't imposing, asking you to bring the wine." Lois Griffin said.
"Of course not!" Francine said as Lois held the door open.
"Come in and have a seat. Let me have that bottle of wine and I'll pour us both a drink."
"That sounds like a great idea." Francine said, smiling as she took a seat on the sofa while Lois poured the wine into the insulated coffee cups from the coffee station in the room. Lois handed one to Francine and sat down on the other end of the sofa, facing her friend.
"So, Lois, how has life been treating you?"
"I'm living the life." Lois laughed, her short red hair shining in the light from the table lamp. "Peter lost his job at the toy factory, but he got on at the Pawtucket Brewery somehow. Little Stewie is getting close to being ready to talk."
Francine nodded. "What about Chris and...what's her name?"
"Meg." Lois responded dryly, "whatever on her. Chris was here in town for the field trip. He's kind of at the awkward age, if you know what I mean. Too young to drive, but too old to be a looked at only as a boy. He's almost a man." Lois laughed.
Francine reached into her bag and pulled out a joint and lit it up. "Care to relive the old times?" she giggled.
"Sure, I'm game. It's a smoking room." Lois replied, taking the weed from her friend and taking a long hard toke and chasing it with her wine.
"Drink up and I'll get you a refill." Lois encouraged her friend s she grabbed the wine bottle. As the two old friends finished the joint and drank their wine, Francine contemplated the truth of Lois' statement as it related to her own son.
Lois noticed that Francine had a far off look in her eyes. "Francine?" She giggled her friends name softly. "Are you still with me?"
"What? Oh, I'm sorry; I was just thinking about..." Francine broke off her reply and then looked down into her lap, no longer responding to Lois.
Lois stood up and scooted across the couch. Collecting her skirt under her thighs, she sat primly on the edge of the sofa next to Francine, looking at her, letting the concern show in her eyes. Lois gingerly took Francine's hand and placed it between her own.
"Is everything alright? You look like you're about to break down and cry at any second," Lois said in a quiet, soothing voice.
Tears formed in Francine's eyes as she fought her emotions back, not wanting to break down in front of Lois.
"I think that this might be a good time to refill your drink," Lois said as she stood up, heading toward the kitchenette.
"I...um..." Francine started to protest but then thought better of it. Lois was right; she could use a drink to calm her nerves. "Here, I'll help you," she said as she too stood and followed the redhead.
Lois grabbed the bottle of Merlot and poured the wine. They took their wine and went back to the couch, sat down and faced each other. Lois held up her glass, and in her soothing voice said, "To a good glass of wine."
Francine touched her glass with Lois' and added, "To a gracious host." before both women took a sip. The wine went down smoothly.
"So, what's troubling you?" Lois asked as Francine pulled out another joint and lit it up before passing it to her friend. Francine took another sip while she decided how and if she wanted to answer.
"Something's wrong Francine. I'm offering you an outlet. I don't care if you tell me about it or if you just want to use my shoulder to cry upon, but you need to have some sort of release," she gently stated as she tried to hold in a big lung full of smoke before releasing it at the end of her sentence.
"Thanks. I just don't know where to start." Francine giggled nervously.
"The beginning would be good," Lois said, smiling as she handed the joint back to Francine.
