Christmas was Alex and Charlie's favorite holiday. They loved almost everything about the season: the pretty Christmas lights, the snow, the fact that the good hot chocolate mix (yes, the kind with tons of mini-marshmallows) was cheaper than it usually was...it was a great time of year.

It was a yearly tradition of theirs to steal a Christmas tree from the reject section of the lot--the trees that would otherwise go in the chipper. Charlie always insisted that stealing was wrong, but Alex assured her that they were only saving the trees from a harsh fate. So it became a regular thing. Only that year, Jo came with them to assist in getting the tree home. It was such a hilariously ridiculous scene; they went under the cover of night and tried their best to be stealthy as they searched for the right tree. When they finally found it, Alex took hold of the top, Charlie the middle, and Jo the cross nailed to the bottom of it, and they hoisted it over their heads and ran away. They made it home with a fairly decent tree, its only defect being the fact that it leaned. So what? Alex had said, I think we're all a little crooked anyway--this tree belongs here.

The only element of Christmastime that Alex and Charlie weren't all that fond of was the drama. Something happened every year, no matter how hard they tried to avoid blow-ups. They just couldn't escape what had become known to them as their Christmas Curse. They would've liked to believe that 1990 would be the year with no unfortunate Christmas party incident, but they weren't holding out too much hope.

Christmas Eve seemed to dash up so quickly the friends hardly had a chance to get really ready for it. It was decided that the party would be held at Stone's place, a decision Stone himself didn't exactly approve of but that couldn't be taken back once it was made, as potential guests were immediately informed of the event's location and no one could afford to call everyone back afterwards to tell them about any changes that might've been made to that aspect of it.

The girls spent the first few hours of December 24th milling around their apartment, trying to think of ways to pass the time until they had to leave for the party. Charlie and Jo cleaned and rearranged random things in the apartment while Alex lay on the couch complaining about Christmas parties being the worst.

"Why don't you just...not go?" Jo asked a very moody Alex.

"What?"

"If you dislike them so much, why go?"

"Because I refuse to let Christmas win. I'm gonna enjoy Christmas even if Christmas doesn't wanna enjoy me."

"Alex, that doesn't--" Charlie began, but stopped herself. "Never mind. You do that."

"Right. What time is it, anyway?"

"Time for you to get a watch," Charlie replied. "It's one-fifteen."

Alex nodded, rolling off the couch and standing up. "I'm going for a walk."

"You want company?" Jo asked.

"Nah, it's okay. I'll be back soon."

"Alright, just be safe," Charlie called. Alex nodded and shut the door behind her.

"Why does she not like Christmas parties? I have it understood that neither of you really like them but she seems to actually hate them." Jo turned to Charlie.

"Well, it's not really limited to Christmas parties. It's just that holiday parties in general always seem to bring some kind of trouble."

"Oh, that makes sense..."

"Yeah, and it's always been more her than me when it comes to misfortune but hey, my friend's problem is my problem, you know?"

"I get that. You're great, Charlie."

Charlie couldn't help a smile. "So are you."

✩✩✩

There's nothing quite like a good cigarette, Alex decided as she walked around on the streets. She kicked at pebbles and snow in the way, trying to distract herself by focusing a little too hard on the smaller things around her: the ash falling off the end of the cigarette, the crunch of the snow under her boots, the sound of a bird chirping nearby. None of it was enough.

"I hate Christmas parties," she said, kicking another small stone and watching as it rolled away. "How am I even supposed to celebrate without--" She stopped herself, sighing and looking up at the sky. "This fucking sucks."

An hour passed and Alex had only made it to the market (a fifteen or twenty minute walk). She kept talking to herself, trying to feel better but failing. "No job, no money, no food, almost no apartment, no will to live..." She trailed off and looked up at a nearby car with its window down. "Run me over!"

The driver turned and gave her a confused look. "It gets better!"

"WHEN?" she yelled back, but all the driver did was give her a thumbs-up and drive off. She sighed and wandered into the market, still talking to herself as she went. "Can't afford that...or that...or that..." She turned into the cereal aisle. "I wonder how much I could get for this flannel."

"I'll give you ten bucks for it."

Alex looked up so fast she got a little dizzy. "Great, now the cereal's talking to me. I've lost my mind, how nice."

"Alexandra Kinney?"

"God?"

"If you want me to be," a girl said with a shrug as she turned into the cereal aisle. Alex's brain immediately went into a state of chaos as she tried to figure out why that face was so familiar.

"R-Rhea? Rhea King?"

"The one and only," Alex's high school classmate said, putting her hand out. Alex shook it, her mind still struggling to catch up. Here was a girl she hadn't seen in literal years, casually shaking her hand in the market Alex didn't even have any business being at.

"Wha--how have you been?"

"Great! Remember my dad's company? Well, he retired and I got it! And I'm opening some new stores too. So I've been really great; how are you doing?"

"Rhea, I'm so unbelievably happy for you, but this is probably the worst day I could've run into you because I don't think I can get any lower and this is just embarrassing."

"What? How do you mean?"

"I'm unemployed, so poor I can't make rent, and I don't know why I'm in here because I can't even afford anything."

"Wait, you're not working?" Rhea asked in an excited voice.

"Don't sound so happy about it," Alex grumbled.

"No, you don't understand--this is the best day you could've run into me! Aw, this could really be so great..."

"Are you gonna tell me what it is you're talking about?"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry. The opening of one of the new stores has been delayed because I can't find anyone good enough to manage it. And if you're anything like I remember you being in high school, you'd be perfect for the job!''

"Wait, what? I--I'm...What?"

"Okay, so...it's a music shop. Records, instruments, you know. It's all come together real nice, only I can't find anyone right for the job of managing it. But you liked all kinds of music and you were smart and made good decisions...what do you say?"

"Rhea, I really don't think I'm the right person for the job. I wasn't even a good student, I barely managed to graduate high school and I've made so many bad decisions, you don't even know..."

"Who cares what your grades were like? You're intelligent! Look, why don't you just have coffee with me sometime and we'll talk about it? I think you'd be great and I really wanna open this store. Just...here's my number. Give me a call, please." Rhea pulled a card from her wallet and handed it to Alex, who took it an studied it for a moment.

"Fancy. Alright, I'll call you...if I can get enough money together to make the call," Alex half-laughed.

"Are you serious--" Rhea reached into her pocket and grabbed Alex's hand, lowering a ten-dollar bill in it. Alex tried pulling her hand away, but Rhea backed up so she couldn't give it back either. "And you get to keep the flannel. It's nice, by the way. Anyway, I gotta run. I'll see you later, okay? I better see you later."

"Okay, okay! Bye, thank you!" Alex thought about tossing the money back, but all the pride in the world didn't change the fact that she really was in desperate need of every penny that came her way. Rhea waved at her and walked away, which left Alex wondering what the hell she'd been doing on that side of the market in the first place.

"Fate," she said to herself, "destiny. God has a plan." Her spirits finally lifted, she went home, buying three cans of fruit before leaving the market. "One day I'll be able to buy all the cans of fruit at the market, and then...then the market won't have any canned fruit left."

✩✩✩

"I always knew that Rhea was gonna get that company. They all said it was gonna be her brother, but I knew it'd be her," Charlie said once Alex had finished telling her and Jo what had happened.

"So who's this Rhea King?" Jo asked through a mouthful of fruit. Alex had started her story by bursting into the house, throwing the cans of fruit onto the couch, pointing at Charlie and yelling remember Rhea King?

"She's this girl we went to high school with. Her dad was this business giant and there was always this big thing over whether she or her brother would get his company once he retired. But it was kinda obvious it was gonna be Rhea; her brother was kind of an idiot and she's a literal genius," Charlie explained.

"Hey, Adam wasn't an idiot..." Alex started to say.

"Don't defend him just because you had a crush on him, Alex," Charlie said in a lame voice.

"I did not! Don't believe her, Jo."

"I believe you," Jo said to Charlie, who gave her a solemn nod.

"Ugh. Whatever. Anyway, this is great and we'll see what happens. Now let's get ready for the party, we have to leave soon!" Alex reminded them. Charlie jumped off the couch and Jo put down her can of fruit to go and pick out her nicest clothes.

That didn't take very long, and they were out the door ten minutes later. They caught a bus to Stone's place, seeing as it was too cold to walk there and they didn't really feel like it anyway. A few minutes later, Alex was pushing open the front door while Charlie and Jo tried to stop her because "knocking is the polite thing to do." She ignored them of course and led them in to the living room, a little surprised to see just Stone, Eddie, McCready (as they'd taken to calling him since having two Mikes was confusing), Jeff, Dave, Matt, and Kim there.

"Hey, you made it!" Stone lifted his drink in greeting.

"Wouldn't miss this for the world," Alex replied, taking a seat next to Eddie on the couch. "Are we early or something?"

"A little, but that's okay. You two can sit, you know," Stone said to Charlie and Jo, who slowly moved to do so. Charlie sat by McCready and Jo sat next to Matt.

"Who else is coming?" Alex looked around.

"What, are we not good enough for you?" Eddie asked.

"No," Alex said, trying to keep her fsce expressionless as she stared at his. She laughed and patted his head. "I'm kidding. You're all I need."

"To answer your question, weirdo," Stone said in a loud voice, "everyone's coming. And some random people you probably don't care about."

"How would you know?"

"Oh, would you like to hear all about the neighbor's friends then?"

"No, that's fine. So what's up, what are we doing?"

"Waiting for everyone else," Kim said in a bored voice, tapping his foot a few times to make his point.

"What, is there just no party without them?"

"Pretty much."

"Dear God...fine. Let's just watch TV like a bunch of losers until they get here."

"You watch TV day and night, doesn't that make you the ultimate loser?" Charlie pointed out.

"First of all, I don't watch TV day and night. And second, I didn't mean watching TV is what makes us losers. I meant we're going to sit here like the losers we are and watch TV. They're separate."

Someone new stepped into the living room and Kim looked up with a sigh of relief. "Thank God."

"What did we miss?" Ben asked as he and Chris sat down.

"Nothing except Alex calling us--never mind, I don't wanna get back into it."

"No, I do--who the hell are you calling losers, anyway? If watching TV isn't what makes us losers, what is?" Stone asked, making Kim sigh and put his head back.

"Your own inner loser. Don't blame me, I didn't put it there!"

"Hey, you know what would be great? If we could eat food. Is there food?" Matt asked, finally looking up from his own quiet conversation with Jo.

"Yeah," Stone grumbled. "You go get it, I'm too offended to move."

"What are you even serving? Beer and crackers?"

"Actually, it's beer, crackers, and Jim Beam," McCready piped up, making Stone nod as if it was something he didn't know how he'd forgotten.

"Which is, of course, all you need for the spirit of Christmas itself," Charlie said in a quiet voice.

"Huh? Whiskey's not a spirit..."

"Yes it is," Dave said, making that the fifth time Alex had heard him speak.

"It is?"

"Yeah, it's...uh-huh. A spirit."

"I don't think it is," Jeff said, finally looking up from whatever the hell he was trying to make with some rubber bands.

"Ask the smart one," Alex said.

"Alright. Alex, is whiskey a spirit?" Charlie asked.

"What? I said to ask the smart one."

"Yeah, I think of you as the smart one."

"I'm not. Whiskey is a spirit though."

"So you--never mind." Charlie looked up. "Hey!"

Alex turned to see Layne wave at Charlie with Jerry, Mike, and Sean all behind him. Now they looked ready to party; Jerry had a case of beers on his shoulder and they were all holding presents. Stone gestured to the Christmas tree in one corner of the room, and Jerry, being the genius that he was, put the case of beers under the tree and asked, "now where do we put these presents?"

✩✩✩

this is just part one of the holiday special. this is gonna be fuuun

this is your special reminder to stay hydrated, have fun but be safe, listen to good music, be what you wanna be, and stay sober for Layne<3

until next time! :)