Let it be known that when Alex partied, she partied hard. She wasn't about taking it easy with one or two beers an hour; she preferred to chug beer after beer until she couldn't see straight, then slow it down to only a couple an hour. That was her strategy, and it worked for her.

Or so she'd like to think. In reality, this made her quite the ball of fun--tripping all over the place and saying almost everything that crossed her mind. It was a good thing her friends knew not to take her seriously at parties.

"...and that is why I can never go back to Walla Walla. Life is crazy," Alex was saying to a group of strangers out on the back porch. They all laughed as she tipped her head back to finish her beer. "Well, this was fun. I'm going back inside now." Alex waved at the friends she'd made and went into the house. She spotted Jerry's blond hair and stumbled over, slinging an arm around his neck when she reached him and somehow managing a normal tone as she asked, "what's up?"

"Not a lot," Jerry replied, looking at her with drink-reddened eyes. "What's going on with you? Having fun?"

"Yeah. This party's great. Better than yours; you suck at hosting." She saw him start to protest and laughed. "I'm kidding, blondie. Your parties are--" she hiccupped, "--the best."

"I know," he said, nodding. "But you hurt my feelings anyway."

"Oh, sure I did. Hey, there's Eddie!" Alex exclaimed when she caught the singer in her peripheral vision. She turned in Eddie's direction so fast she tripped.

"Whoa, careful!" Eddie exclaimed, taking a big step forward and catching her.

She looked up at him with wide eyes, feeling that she probably would have been more embarrassed had she been sober. "Wow, this is so romantic. This is why I'm gonna marry you just like Charlie told me to. She did say that, you know. I told her I thought you were nice and as a joke she was like 'why don't you just marry him?' and now I think I might wanna. Marry me, Eddie."

"Sure thing, Alex." He helped her stand up straight and patted her shoulder. "We'll get married in Chicago and go to a Bears game to celebrate."

"Let's get married at the Bears game!"

"Yeah, good idea!"

"How drunk are you guys?" Jerry asked, looking at them with raised eyebrows.

"Extremely," Alex said at the same time Eddie said, "fucking very."

"Yeah, me too. Now stop cheating on me."

"Who are you talking to?"

"Eddie."

Eddie looked at him with a fucking very drunken grin and shook his head, giving Alex a kiss on her cheek and saying, "see you, new wife" before walking away.

Jerry looked at Alex and laughed. "I was kidding, y'know. It's always you, babe."

"Yeah, hot stuff?"

He nodded and took a sip of his beer. "We'd make a good couple."

"Oh, I know." Alex winked and reached out to ruffle his hair. "Too bad we're not a couple." And she turned and stumbled away like a baby deer standing up for the first time.

Ben, Kim, and Chris were still out in the front yard, as Alex found out when she walked out there. They all greeted her happily, clearly also drunk.

"Hey, it's my girlfriend!" Chris said when he saw her, his voice light and playful.

"Hell yeah, it is. Wow, I'm really cheating on everyone today." Alex grabbed Chris's hand and twirled into his hold.

"How so?" Chris asked, laughing and putting his hand where it had been when Maura was there.

"I told Eddie I'd marry him. But I'd forgotten that meant I was cheating on Jerry. And then I remembered that you're my man. So yeah."

"Hey, I'm gonna marry Eddie!"

"Fine, I'll marry Jerry."

"I guess that means you n' me gotta get married," Ben said in a low voice to Kim.

"Hey, I'm just standing here--"

"Exactly. And hey, you guys know Maura left, right? You don't have to stand like that anymore."

"We know," Alex said, hooking two fingers through that same belt loop as before. Chris nodded and drank some of his beer before offering it to his 'girlfriend.'

"It's too late for this," Kim said, tapping his left foot once. "Let's go...play a show."

"Alright, you've had enough to drink," Ben said.

"And you haven't?"

"No, not yet. Hey Alex, have you seen Charlie? I'm supposed to yell at her if she drinks too much, but if I keep drinking--and I plan to--then I'll forget."

"Yeah, she's inside. With Layne."

"Ooh," Chris mocked in a high-pitch. "With Layne. How cute."

"I know," Alex agreed, "what a good couple they'd make."

Kim and Ben looked on as the idiotic pair joked around about couples while standing around like, well, a couple. They exchanged a lame look and shook their heads, raising their bottles at the same time and taking long sips of their drinks.

Christmas was always the craziest.

✩✩✩

"I wrote a new song," Alex slurred at about 4 in the morning. The friends were sitting on the back porch fence railing (the order was Kim, Sean, Jo, Matt, Chris, Layne, Charlie, Jerry, Alex, Stone, Eddie, Jeff, and McCready) and each drinking their at least tenth beer that night. They all turned to look at her as she took another swig from her bottle and continued. "It's for Maura."

"Let's hear it," Charlie hooted.

"Okay. It goes...something like...like this." She cleared her throat and snatched Jerry's cigarette away, taking a long drag from it before giving it back and clearing her throat again. "Maura," she sang, "you're a bitch..."

Jo laughed, making Alex laugh as well. She stopped and looked down for a moment as she regained her balance before continuing. "We hate you...'cause you're a real bitch..."

Sean snorted and nearly fell off the fence.

"So do us all a favor...and get...get the fuck outta here. Get the fuck outta here...you make me wanna throw up my beer...so just get the fuck outta here."

Everyone was laughing so hard Alex stopped and finished off her beer, tossing the bottle onto the grass on the other side of the yard. Charlie nodded and took up the song. "Get the fuck outta here!"

A second later they were all doing it, arms around each other and each trying to keep from falling backwards. They did it for a while, occasionally starting the song from its quiet beginning and working up to loud off-key yelling. "You ruined the party, we hope you're happy, now get the fuck outta here!"

They all laughed so hard they thought they'd die. Jeff ended up falling off the fence, but he was okay; he'd just be a little sore when he sobered up.

✩✩✩

"It's Christmas mornin'! Chri--It's Christmas!"

"It's been Christmas for a good eight hours, Matt."

"Whatever. Christmas mornings are the best."

He wasn't wrong. Presents were exchanged and hugs were given and they were all happy. Alex and Charlie were happy their Christmas Eve had turned out okay (Maura having been forgotten) and were now hopeful that they'd get through the holidays just fine. They were having a great time; the look on Jo's face when Alex and Charlie gave her the brand-new flannel they'd managed to buy at Molly's was priceless. Layne got a kick out of the Game Boy Charlie had bought for him (she'd sworn to kill Alex and Jo if he was ever told about the four extra hours she'd had to work to buy it) and Charlie was delighted when he presented her with two David Bowie albums, two Queen albums, and a Mudhoney tape ("I don't know if you like these guys, but this is kinda rare. If you don't like the songs, in a few years you can sell the tape to someone who does for a good amount. Probably..."). Charlie happened to really like Mudhoney, so it worked out.

Alex hadn't expected anything that year, so she was very pleasantly surprise to find she had gotten several gifts. There was an Areosmith CD and a notebook from Chris ("I noticed you write all over your arm and thought you should have a proper place to write stuff down"), a Led Zeppelin CD from Stone, a red blanket from Sean, another Zeppelin CD and shit ton of candy from Jerry (none of these are as sweet as you! was written on the inside of the cover of the shoebox they'd been put in and just kidding, you're mean, but I still love you was written along the inside bottom), and a pair of black skater shoes from Eddie. She was so happy with all her presents she thought she might explode.

Giving gifts was also a ton of fun; Alex's favorite part of the day might've been getting to see the look on Eddie's face when he saw the Chicago Bears hat she'd gotten for him. Or maybe it was the overjoyed you're the best! from Jerry when she gave him the new guitar effect pedal she'd practically sold her soul to buy. It had also been great fun to exchange gifts with Stone because she'd also gotten him a Led Zeppelin CD, and she would always remember how Chris had laughed when she gave him a Seahawks shirt and a dog collar for his dog Howdy and joked that the shirt was actually the dog's too. Sean had threatened to disown Alex when he saw what she'd gotten him: a book on drums.

The rest of the day was spent partying and getting just as hammered as they had been earlier on, but not quite so for Alex. When night came she sat out on the back porch by herself, again on top of the rail but this time without overly-drunken antics. Instead she smiled to herself and reminisced, thinking about past Christmases spent on that same porch, back when life was easier.

1990 had been such a year. It had to be the worst year of her entire life. Truly awful; she'd known pain all her life, but never anything as bad as the aftermath of early 1990. But in a way, it had also been the best year of her life. She'd made amazing friends that she really loved, her friendship with Charlie was only strengthened by the hardships they'd gone through, and she was grateful that through it all, she was still alive.

Alex sighed and wiped away the pesky little tear that was oh-so-slowly making its way down her face. Things could be so different.

She thought about the state of mind she'd been in only a few months ago and another tear formed to replace the one she'd just gotten rid of. Things could be really different.

She shook her head and sniffed, jumping off the rail and walking around the side of the house to get to the street without being seen by any partygoers. A snowflake landed on her nose, bringing back what now seemed like a memory from hundreds of years before.

"Hurry up, it's starting to snow!"

"So what? It's pretty!" Alex tried to catch the falling snow in her hand only to have it melt so quickly she couldn't enjoy it.

"Not as pretty as you," her companion said.

"Aw, shut up."

"No, really. And hey, if you insist on taking forever, soon enough your hands will freeze and you'll be able to hold all the snow you want without it melting!"

"Fine, fine, I'm hurrying. Where are you even taking me? I should've listened to Stone's warning about the likes of you; for all I know, you're taking me to get my kidneys taken."

"I don't even know where they do that. I mean, not that I would anyway. Your kidneys are probably all blackened and shriveled up..."

"Says you!"

They laughed and he told her the place he was taking her to supposed to be a surprise...if she could just wait three minutes.

"The playground?" Alex's disbelief was clear.

"Yeah, we can play and have fun! I call the good swing."

"No, I want it!" Alex raced to the swing and sat before he could, laughing when he tried to use the broken one. "Hey, instead of falling off the obviously broken swing, come give me a push!"

So he did, and she giggled like a kid and put her hand out every time the swing reached its highest point. Finally, he took hold of the chain, stopping the swing before walking around to stand in front of her. "Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Like...reach out when the swing gets up there."

"Oh. Um...it's a habit. I've done that since I was little. I don't know why; I guess I'm just trying to grab hold of the sky. I know that's impossible..."

"No it's not. You can do anything, Alex.  I believe in you."

"Thanks..." She looked down, trying to hide her blush.

He noticed and looked away so she wouldn't get uncomfortable. "Hey, you wanna go sit on that bench?"

Alex nodded and stood up, following him to said bench. There was a tree on one side of it and a walkway light with a built-in radio on the other. Spandau Ballet's "True" was playing. It was a nice spot to sit.

"So...how's your Christmas going?"

"Great. Better than most Christmases. How's yours?"

"Uh, same here," he stupidly said. There was something he wanted to say and he kept trying to say it, but also kept chickening out. Why was it so damn hard to talk? "Hey, Alex..."

"Yeah?" She looked straight into his eyes, catching him off-guard and derailing his train of thought again.

"I--you know, there's--um, we're sitting..." He shook his head and sighed, instead pointing up at the tree branch above them. "Look."

Alex looked up. Hanging from the branch was a bit of mistletoe.

"Never mind, this whole idea was so corny and stupid and probably creepy as hell--"

Alex cut him off with a light kiss on the lips, a little smile tugging at hers when she moved away. "It's not. I love it, this was all so cute. This really is the perfect spot to sit."

"Yeah, it's nice, isn't it? I was here the other day to try to think and I looked up and saw that. I just thought it'd make a good excuse to kiss you," he admitted in a sheepish voice.

"This made you think about me?"

"Almost everything does nowadays. And if nothing does, I think of you anyway."

"How--why are you so sweet?"

"I'm not trying to be, I'm just being honest!"

"Then can I be honest too? This is now officially my best Christmas ever, only thanks to you."

"Mine too, except you're the reason. Well, you're actually the reason so much else has been going so well. You make me...happy."

"Aw, jeez..." Alex's cheeks were burning despite the chill of the night. "You make me happy too."

He looked down for a moment, overcome with a new wave of shyness. When he got past it a second later, he peered up and at her face. "Is...is it okay if...can I kiss you?"

Alex giggled and nodded, and there they were, kissing under the mistletoe while the snow quietly fell all around them.

Without realizing it, Alex had made it to the playground. She sat on the good swing for a moment, closing her eyes and trying to imagine he was there with her. That only worked for a few seconds, so she stood up and went to sit on the lone bench. New mistletoe was hanging from the tree right next to it, and she couldn't help but smile as she recalled the words he'd spoken when they sat under it. Every year after that, he'd used mistletoe as an excuse to kiss her, no matter how much she tried to tell him that he didn't need to do that because couples don't need excuses to kiss each other.

Damn, I miss him.

✩✩✩

nope, still not done with Christmas. hope you're all enjoying this trash :)

i'm out for today. remember to be safe, have fun, stay hydrated, play good tunes, be what you wanna be, and stay sober for Layne! until next time :) go Seahawks!