Christmas that year started as a fucking disaster. Stone had wanted to host the party as always but Pearl Jam was constantly between tour stops and he wouldn't have had enough time to plan it all. So Alex offered to host it at her apartment. That was all good and well, but...

The phone book was missing and, unlike Stone, Alex didn't have her friends' numbers memorized. So she went around Seattle inviting people in person and leaving notes on doors two days before the party. The invitations were late so she didn't expect that many people to show up and planned the rest of the party according to that figure. Then Christmas Day came around and she realized she had seriously underestimated how down people would be to come to a party on short notice. Luckily, Dave, Charlie, and Kim were all willing to go to the nearest open store and pick up some more food. Not so luckily, not a single one of them remembered to bring money, and they had to go back for it. Then they came back with the food and realized they had forgotten to get ice. Alex's solution was to impatiently snatch up the cooler, run outside, fill it with snow, and bring that back up.

She thought it would be smooth sailing from there, but someone noticed that the Christmas tree didn't have a topper. Making one was easy--Alex reshaped a few old wire coat hangers into the shape of a star and wrapped a length of string lights around that. The problem was getting it to stay atop the tree. It took a lot of duct tape and swearing as the branches scratched her arms, but she finally managed to get it to keep from falling. Internally cursing herself for offering to host the party, she fell back onto the couch, at which point someone informed her that they were out of drinks. Thank the heavens for Eddie and Rhea, who happened to be standing nearby. They saw Alex about to combust and quickly offered to go out for some more beverages.

"I guess hosting isn't as easy as being a guest, is it?"

Alex looked up to see Jerry standing beside the couch and shook her head. "It's starting to get ridiculous."

"ALEX! THE STAR'S STARTING TO FALL AGAIN!"

Alex closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Lord, give me the strength..."

"Hey, I'll find someone else to take care of it," Jerry said. "I need you to go somewhere with me."

"Where?"

"Um...not far. Hold on."

They left Sean doing his best to fix the star and headed off to wherever it was that Jerry wanted to go. Alex had to ask where they were going again, but Jerry wouldn't give her a real answer. But it didn't take her very long to realize that they were headed in the direction of the AIC house; she just couldn't guess why.

"Alright, here it is. I left your present here by accident," Jerry said with a big smile--the kind that usually graced his face when he was excited about something he was planning. "Let me just go in and get it."

Alex nodded and reached up to adjust her beanie before putting her hands in her pockets, wishing she'd put on more than a hoodie. Snow had been falling all day and it was so cold out that she could barely feel her fingers. She pressed her arms into her sides to try to generate heat there and looked around. Someone was sitting on a balcony across the courtyard, listening to The Stills-Young Band's Midnight On The Bay play on what sounded like a pretty old boombox. Alex took one hand out of her pocket and waved at them, and they waved back.

Jerry stepped back out less than a minute later. "I got it. But you gotta wait until midnight or it's not as special."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Alex said. She shivered and asked, "can we go back now? It's getting colder."

Jerry shrugged his jacket off and put it around Alex's shoulders. "Absolutely, just give me one minute. I, uh...I have something I wanna tell you." He stepped forward and took something out of his jacket's pocket--a familiar red-and-white box. He took a single cigarette out and lit it before giving it to her. "You know, that morning after the day we met was fucking freezing. I actually really wanted to go back inside...but more than I wanted to do that I wanted to stay out there and talk to you. And I didn't even know you. It's just that there was this weird feeling I kept getting in the back of my mind that I knew I couldn't ignore. It wasn't, like, love at first sight; I don't really believe in that. It was more like...I have a feeling I'm going to fall in love with you. And you know what? I was right."

Alex took the cigarette out of her mouth, holding it between the first and middle fingers of her practically numb right hand. "It was pretty cold, wasn't it?" She laughed and waved the cigarette through the air for a second, watching the little trail of smoke it left behind. "Yeah, I remember. And I--I don't have anything half as beautiful as that to say. All I can think to tell you is that...I love you. I mean, duh, you know..." Alex trailed off and finally relieved the smoke of her stare, instead shifting her eyes to meet Jerry's. "I said it first."

"What? No, you didn't. Mine counted."

"You didn't actually say the words. You still haven't."

He looked like he was about to argue again, but he shook his head and wrapped his hand around the one Alex was holding the cigarette in. "I love you. I'm in love with you. And I have been for a long-ass time, so it feels good to finally say it." He brought up his other hand and pulled the cigarette out of Alex's hold.

Alex narrowed her eyes and said, "you know, you really shouldn't smoke."

"Right, right. Yeah," he replied. He pretended to be deep in thought for a moment, then took a long drag from the burning Marlboro before handing it back to her. "Do you wanna head back now?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I hope the party hasn't completely fallen apart."

"Eh, I'm sure everything's okay. And if it's not, we'll leave it all to Sean and go to McDonald's instead."

"Yeah, great idea."

✩✩✩

The rest of the Christmas party went well, but the next day was just as hectic as the beginning of the prior; Pearl Jam and Soundgarden had shows to play on the 27th and 28th of December, respectively, and everyone was scrambling around trying to help them get everything in order for their flights. The guys in Soundgarden made it through preparations without too much of a fuss, but the Pearl Jam gang had a tougher time getting everything in order. It was not as chaotic and confusing an affair as the planning of the Christmas party had been, for which everyone was glad, but it was still enough to put them all in such sour moods that the goodbyes were rushed and treated as sources of great relief. Those remaining in Seattle wasted no time in leaving the airport as fast as they could once they'd bid their farewells. It had turned out to be quite the ugly afternoon.

"Well, that sucked," Charlie said after a few seconds of silence in the car. "We won't see them until next year, will we?"

"We probably won't," Layne answered. "I'm not sure about the other guys, but Eddie said they'd be in Daly City on the thirty-first and somewhere else on the second of January. Uh...Salem."

"Salem?" Alex echoed in an inattentive sort of way. "The witch trial place?"

"Nah, it's the one in Oregon. I think."

"Oh, nice."

"Yeah."

The rest of the car ride back to Alex's place was pretty quiet. Once there they put Charlie's new copy of Terminator 2 (one of her Christmas presents from Layne) into the VCR and immediately followed that with Christine and Home Alone. They were arguing over which movie to watch next when the phone rang. Alex picked up and spoke for a moment with whoever was calling before Jo got impatient. She scooted over and leaned in to try to hear who it was.

"Who is it? Is it the bank? 'Cause I think I owe them money and I think this might still be the number they have on file."

Alex gave her a look and said to everyone, "It's Stone. He says their flight was delayed and that they just got into LA."

"Speaker," Jo said.

"Hey, I'm gonna put you on speaker," Alex said into the receiver. "We'll finish talking shit later." She lowered the phone and pressed the speaker button. "Alright, say hi."

It was a little unclear who she was telling to greet who, and everyone came out with some variation of "hello" at once.

"How was the flight?" Jo asked.

"Good, after the delay. Jeff fell asleep and snored so loud someone had to wake him up."

"Who?"

"Me, because I was sitting next to him and also trying to sleep."

They all laughed at that. "Hey, listen," Charlie said, "we're sorry about how everything turned out earlier."

Everyone else immediately started apologizing as well. "Yeah, sorry about that..." "It was stressful..."

Stone chuckled. "It's okay. We're sorry too."

"Uh-huh! Sorry!"

"Was that Jeff?" Layne asked.

"Yup. Oh, and Eddie's not here right now, but we were talking earlier and he said he felt bad too."

"Wait, didn't you guys just get there? Where is he?"

"I have no idea. But Dave's gone too. It's just me, Jeff, and McCready here. And McCready's sleeping."

"Yeah, he's being a loser," Jeff said.

"At least he's not snoring like he has to keep everyone around him awake in case he starts dying in his sleep," Stone quipped. "Anyway, we're gonna go look for food now. We'll call you guys later."

"Alright!" "Bye!" "Get me a souvenir!" "So long, Stone!"

"Sure! Bye!"

✩✩✩

"Is this what you've been doing? You missed a call from everyone back home," Stone said when he found Eddie with his arm up one of the hotel vending machines. "And you're gonna get us kicked out."

"That's only if I get caught," Eddie replied. "What did they say?"

"That they're sorry everything went so bad." Stone crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "So," he began in a hesitant tone, "is being out helping with the whole getting-over-Alex thing?"

Eddie pulled his arm out of the machine and sighed. "Yeah. I wish I had some kind of magic button I could press that would make those stupid feelings instantly go away. I mean, she's dating Jerry now. And I told Rhea I didn't wanna date if I was into someone else, but I actually like her a lot too, and it's not like she's gonna wait around..."

"Well, if anything's gonna make getting rid of those feelings easier, this tour will. Especially when we leave the U.S."

"Right. And they're already mostly gone." Eddie shrugged and went back to working on dislodging a candy bar from its place in the vending machine. "Everything is gonna turn out just fine."

✩✩✩

The next few days were spent slowly shifting the location of the holiday party (you'll recall these people partied from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day) to the AIC house. The transition was only confusing to those who refused to sober up long enough to realize what was going on and otherwise went as smoothly as it could have.

"Man, we always spend so much money on these parties," Alex said on her and Jerry's fourth trip to the store for more food and drink. "It's a wonder we managed to afford throwing them before we all had good jobs."

"What, you mean you actually paid for all the stuff?"

"And just what are you implying?"

"I was talking about the holiday deals, you know, buy-one-get-one-free. You didn't take advantage of those?"

"Oh, I thought you were asking if we stole. Because we totally did. But yeah, we took them up on some of those deals too."

"Wow. I can't believe my girlfriend is an ex-thief."

"Ha, yeah. Ex-thief. Right."

"That's it. I'm reporting you to the police."

"First of all, you wouldn't. And second, they would never listen to you. You look like a hoodlum. They'd probably think you were there to turn yourself in for something and arrest you before you even said a word."

"What if I got a haircut and went in wearing a suit?"

"Then they'd think you stole the suit and arrest you even quicker. No one would believe the suit was yours. You don't look like a guy who would own a suit."

"I could rent one."

"You'd be the type to take it without paying and say you were borrowing it."

"And you think the cops would infer all of that?"

"Yeah. Or I would go in before you and tell them."

"You wouldn't."

"Watch me." Alex pointed at the police station one block up on the other side of the street.

"But I haven't even stolen the suit yet!"

"'Yet' means you're going to, doesn't it? That's all the evidence I need." Alex grabbed Jerry's hand so as to take his arm off her shoulders and pretended to get ready to gun it for the station but hesitated, shook her head, and put his arm back. "On second thought, I don't feel like walking into a building full of cops. They'd probably arrest me for having the guts to walk around wearing these." She pointed to the duct tape-covered boots on her feet.

Jerry laughed and took hold of her hand before she could put it down and gave it a playful squeeze. "Man, I love you."

Alex looked at him with wide eyes. "Man? Who the fuck is Man?" She gasped and put her free hand over her mouth, then moved it away and asked, "have you been lying to me? Cheating on me with...with Man? I should've known, I--" She was very rudely interrupted by Jerry abruptly halting and pulling her in for a kiss. When he moved back so they could keep walking she said, "you know, it's bad manners to cut someone off like that. I bet you thought I'd forget about Man, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did. I guess it didn't work."

"Nah, it did. Fuck Man. Or don't, because that would be cheating and that would hurt my feelings. Oh, and I love you too. And what was it we were supposed to be getting at the store?"

✩✩✩

"...and there are no commandments."

"Alright, no commandments. Are there any prayers?"

"Uh, no. I don't feel like coming up with any. That's it, right? That's all you need for a religion."

"I mean, you gotta have rules..."

"Oh, right. Okay. There's one rule and it's: don't be a jackass. And that's the Church of Bass."

"It's perfect. I'd like to subscribe to that church."

"Sweet. You can be the one who treats it like a cult."

"You mean it's not a cult? Because I might not want to join if it's not..."

You know, a normal conversation. Well, for Alex and Jerry, at least. It was January 1, 1992, and Jerry was walking Alex home from what felt like the longest party ever and somehow they'd started talking about how religions got started. That made Alex decide to come up with her own religion, and thus the Cult--er, Church of Bass was born.

"So..." Alex began when they got to her apartment. "This is it. You get to go home to a full, happy home, and I'll stay here, alone in my dark dwelling."

Jerry blinked. "Just turn the lights on."

Alex made a face. "Don't ruin my lonely vibe."

"Aw, it can't be so bad. Honestly, sometimes it feels a little crowded over at the house."

"And I feel like I have an excess of space since it's only me here. Maybe you should come live with me."

"Ha, yeah, right. That would be nice."

"I know," Alex said in an uncommitted tone. But wait; that actually didn't sound like such a bad idea. She seemed to realize that at the same time Jerry must have--they both dropped the joking manner they'd been speaking with and Alex said, "it would be nice, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah...would you be down?"

"Totally. Being roommates makes for some good times."

"Right. So really, we're actually doing that?" Jerry asked. Alex thought for a moment, then put on a confident smile and stuck her hand out with a sudden motion. Jerry grinned and shook her hand. "Alright, cool."

"Yeah. Cool."

And so Alex had a new roommate.

✩✩✩

i hope everyone's been having a good time! please do whatever you can to stay safe!! and drink plenty of water, right? and listen to good music, be what you wanna be, and stay sober for Layne. until next time :)