"So how exactly do these holiday parties work?"

"Well, you come here on Christmas Eve, celebrate that day and all the next, then stick around to wait for New Year's Eve, which is when the party starts back up again. In between it's just kind of mellow partying," Alex explained to Jo. Alex, Jo, Matt, and some people they didn't know were standing out on Stone's back porch, the party having started but still not in its craziest stage.

"So you just...live here until the holidays are over?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Matt replied, putting his right arm around Jo's shoulders when he noticed her shiver.

"Are you and Charlie planning on staying, Alex?" Jo asked, grabbing Matt's right hand with hers and playing with his fingers.

Are these two dating without my knowledge or are they just close?! "Yeah, we always do."

Jo looked up at Matt. "Are you?"

He nodded, grabbing her hand for a moment to hold her fingers still but letting go after a second, a teasing grin on his face.

"Can I stay too?"

"Of course," Alex replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Well, I'm going inside now--don't...like...don't do anything weird."

Neither of them knew what she meant and didn't get the chance to ask before she headed back in the direction of the living room, hearing bits of a joke or story Sean was telling.

"And then the clown stole all the wine!" Everyone who'd heard the beginning of whatever he was saying laughed, and Alex smiled at the oddity of that one sentence.

"It's been a while since I've seen a clown," Jerry absentmindedly said, looking up at the ceiling.

"Why? You don't own a mirror?" Alex asked as she walked in the room.

"No, it's just been a couple days since I last saw you."

"Ooh, good one. You're getting better at this."

"I'm learning it all from you."

"Well I should hope so. Who else would you gonna get it from--Charlie?"

"I'm right here, you know," Charlie said from the couch next to Jerry's chair.

"I know. I love you," Alex sang, turning and walking out of the living room, wandering out to the front yard to see what was going on out there.

"Hey Alex!" someone called, and without looking to see who it was, she tried to follow the direction of the voice, not getting it quite right. "This way!" That time, she recognized the voice as Chris's. She found him standing with Ben and Kim.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing. We're just trying to decide who's getting sacrificed at midnight," Chris said.

"Ooh, pick me. I'd make a great sacrifice."

"No you wouldn't. You're in the cult now. You have to help us choose," Ben explained.

"Yeah. I choose me."

"You can't."

"You might be pleased to find you can pick me," Kim said, making Alex laugh.

"Can I pick Chris?"

"Please do," Chris himself replied.

"Nah, I could never. So really, what are you guys doing?"

"Talking shit." Kim lifted his beer in the direction of another huddle of people. "Look at them. Who goes to a party just to stand around in the front yard?" The three others laughed and Kim deadpanned, "I'm serious."

"Yeah, you got a point. But anyway," Chris began, turning to Alex, "we're waiting to see if Maura will show up."

"Why, is she coming?" Alex asked in a too-sharp tone before brushing that off and trying to act as if the mere mention of that name didn't set all her nerves on fire.

"Can you be any more obvious about how much you hate her?" Ben half-jokingly asked.

"Yeah. Jesus Christ, I fucking hate that bitch. She won't show up if she knows what's good for her."

"Yeah, that's why we're wondering if she will. We wanna see a fight. My money's on you, Alex," Chris said.

"I'd put money on myself too, if I had any," she retorted. "Anyway...why? Do you guys think she's coming?"

"I don't think," Kim said, looking up past her, "I know."

Alex turned to see the very girl they were talking about striding down the street in the direction of the house. "Dear God. Speak of the devil and she shall appear, huh?"

"For real," Ben said, watching Maura get closer and closer.

"Keep walking, keep walking..." Alex urged under her breath, but it didn't work. Maura opened the gate and let herself into the front yard, not even hesitating as she walked up to the house. Alex hid behind Chris (who immediately saw what she was doing and puffed himself up to help shield her from Maura's view) and prayed to all her gods that she wouldn't be spotted.

No such luck. Maura's eyes somehow found her and she walked over. "Alex, oh my God. Hi! How have you been?" She eyed Chris. "Finally found yourself a new man, did you?"

How about I make you need a new spine? Alex didn't want to give in to her taunts, but there was no way in hell she was going to "be the bigger person" (as Charlie always said) and walk away. But now she had to make a choice: should she go the "I don't need anyone" route or...?

"Yeah." She turned to her left and tried to give an apology with her eyes as she looped her arm under and around Chris's. "You remember Chris, right?"

Maura hadn't expected that. She looked up at Kim and Ben, who gave her such cool, bored looks that she thought it couldn't have been news. "Well, congratulations."

"Whatever. Anyway, what are you doing here?" Alex asked. Chris pulled his arm away and settled it around her waist instead, and Alex put her index finger through the belt loop above his pocket.

Maura's eyes flickered to Alex's hand for a split second, then back up at her face. "What, I'm not invited to the VIP-exclusive parties?"

"Of course not--you're not a VIP."

"Oh, and these randos are?" Maura gestured to the other people in the yard.

"More so than you. Seriously, why are you here?"

"To celebrate, silly little Alex! It's so sad seeing someone so pretty yet so stupid."

"Is that what you say when you see your reflection?" Alex suddenly remembered what she'd said to Jerry about owning a mirror. That had been funny and she had struggled to say it with a straight face; this was the opposite of funny and now she was struggling to keep her cool so she wouldn't kill Maura on the spot.

"Shut up," Maura snapped after a moment.

"What, used up all your practically worthless brain cells coming up with that last one? Well, it was unsurprisingly simple, so I'm not sure just how much brain power that would require...but then again, you don't have much of that anyway, do you, sweetie?" Alex felt Chris lightly press his fingers into her side and correctly interpreted that as him telling her to chill out unless she really did want that fight.

"Look, I didn't come here to start anything. I'm above that, but you're clearly the same old street kid as always, so I'm just gonna move on."

"Good, I don't know why you're standing there wasting my time anyway. Go on, you lower the IQ of the entire yard."

"Fuck you," Maura said. She looked at Chris and said in a sweet tone, "when you're ready to be with a real woman, call me."

Without missing a beat he responded, "and I'm guessing someone with as little a life as you will be waiting right by the phone until then."

She opened her mouth and closed it, rolling her eyes and turning to walk into the house. Alex breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at Chris with a small grin. "I owe you for that."

"Are you kidding me? Real woman--you're about as real as it gets."

"Thanks," she said, her smile widening. She heard Ben clear his throat and quickly snatched her hand away as he dropped his arm and took a step back. She was about to say something when she heard Maura's awful voice again.

"Hey, Thing 2! I knew you'd be around when I saw your bratty twin outside."

Alex tensed, her every sense on high alert as she waited for the person Maura was addressing to reply, already knowing who it was.

"Oh, hi, Maura..."

Yup. Charlie. But Alex knew she couldn't just stomp over and drop Maura on her neck; Charlie didn't need defending.

"Happy holidays, Lottie, was it?"

"Actually, I go by Charlie--"

"Same thing. Anyway, how are you? Still so broke you can't afford nicer shoes, huh?"

"And you're still so shallow you're gonna go for my shoes, huh? Why don't you try getting a job instead of living off your parents' money, Maura?" Charlie's tone was soft and sweet but clearly laced with strands of venom.

"At least I have parents that care about me. Oops, I meant at least I have parents."

"Everyone has parents, dear Maura. I know you didn't make it to the sixth grade where they explain this, but believe it or not, it's true. You need two people to make a kid."

"Guess that means you'll never have kids then, huh? Since no one would ever be dumb enough to want to get with you."

"Sorry I don't need anyone to want me to feel good about myself, but we're different, Maura."

"It's good that you're like that, in that case. Because standing here looking at you kind of tells me you don't have many other reasons to feel good about yourself."

"I swear I'll go over there and smash her head against the wall," Alex said to Chris, who shook his head and grabbed her elbow to keep her in place.

"Not that it's your business, but I'll give you one of the many: I don't sit around my parents' house all day doing nothing but trying to come up with cheap insults. I suppose you can't relate."

"You couldn't do that if you wanted to anyway..."

"Alright, listen, bitch--"

Alex yanked her elbow away from Chris, giving the Soundgarden guys a quick I'll catch up with you later and appearing next to Charlie in a flash."Charlie..."

"Ooh, the Trashy Twins unite. I tell you, it's nice seeing you both."

"Unfortunately, I'd rather gouge my eyes out than spend another second looking at you," Alex said, putting a hand on Charlie's shoulder.

"Then don't. Forget all of this, I just wanna say hello to Stone, okay?"

"What makes you think he wants to see you?" Charlie nearly yelled.

"Who wouldn't be happy to see me?"

"I'm gonna say--"

"--nothing," Alex finished for her. "Come on, Charlie, let's just leave her alone."

Charlie gave her a look of surprise and slowly nodded, stepping aside to let Maura go into the house.

Unfortunately, Charlie's shock had been completely justified, and she should've questioned it a little more. Alex could never be trusted to be the peaceful one.

Well, it wasn't all her. All she did was plant her foot in its big ole boot on Maura's butt when Maura tripped over the step on her way inside and give her a good push so she'd fall forward.

"YOU BITCH--" Maura stood up and whirled around, facing the two girls with flaming eyes and putting a finger in Charlie's face, as she was the closer of the two. Alex pulled Charlie behind her and stepped forward, grabbing the finger and directing it to point at her own face before starting to bend it up and backward so it pointed at Maura's. "Don't put your dirty-ass finger in my friend's face ever again or you won't get to fucking keep it." Her grip on Maura's finger tightened and she bent it back just a little further to see Maura wince before letting go.

"You're crossing the line, Alex," Maura growled, rubbing her finger. "I'm not even here to--"

"I don't care. Yeah, I admit I was out of line, but you don't get to insult my friend and think you'll just get away."

"Alex, it's okay..." Charlie said, lightly touching Alex's arm.

"Charlie, she--"

"Whoa, what are you doing here?" Stone must've heard of the whole ordeal because he was suddenly standing right behind Maura. The music playing inside the house had stopped and Alex could see people in there trying to see what was going on.

"I...I came to..."

"To what? Fuck with my friends?"

"What makes you think I'd do that?"

"Jeff told me. You know Jeff...he's been standing like ten feet away from you for the longest time."

"Whatever. Okay, look. I came to talk to Janet because I know she always comes to these things and she's been avoiding me for a week and I'm about to run out of Peruvian--"

"She's not here, alright?"

"Huh, maybe she'll show up. Do you mind if I wait for her for a while?"

"Yeah, I do. Please just go, Maura. You're upsetting my friends and no one wants you here anyway."

She looked at him as though he was a bit of dirt on her brand-new shoe. "You're a jerk, Stone. I'll see you around."

Giving Alex and Charlie an ugly look, she turned to walk back to whatever hole she'd crawled out of, not bothering to look back at them as she crossed the street and disappeared.

"She's gone!" someone inside the house yelled, and loud music filled the place once more as the people who'd been looking on finally turned away.

"Are you guys alright?" Stone asked Alex and Charlie.

"Yeah, just...fuck, I wish I'd broken her finger," Alex sighed.

"We're good. Thanks for sending her away," Charlie said.

"Hey, she doesn't belong here anyway." He gave them both a silly grin and shook his head. "What the hell am I gonna do with you?"

"Deal with us," Alex replied, a smile finally taking over her lips. He raised one eyebrow and nodded.

"I don't see that I have a choice. Anyway, I'm going back inside. Have fun."

"We are," Charlie said with a cool nod. He left and she turned to look at Alex. "Hey, are you okay? Did she say anything to you?"

"Just the usual bullshit. I'm sorry she said all that to you."

"It's okay, I know she just wants attention or something. She doesn't even get her facts before trying to insult people. At least I have parents--mine are just in a different state, but whatever. So much for escaping the Christmas Curse, huh?"

"You guys, I heard what happened!" Jo was hurrying toward them. "Is that girl gone?"

"Yeah, she's gone. Man, I'm glad you didn't see that," Alex said in a sheepish voice.

"I got a pretty good idea of it. I'm sorry your Christmas Curse struck again."

"Hey, I was just saying that," Charlie said. "It's okay, this actually isn't that bad. And there's still a lot of party time left; we can still enjoy Christmas."

"Damn right," Alex confirmed, "and that's exactly what we're gonna do."

✩✩✩

still not done with the holidays!

don't forget to stay hydrated, be safe, have fun, listen to good music, be what you wanna be, and stay sober for Layne! until next time :)