A Little Christmas Magic

She's an idiot.

That's the only answer.

It's not like the whole universe is working its butt off to make sure that Holly has the worst Christmas ever, or anything... But that's sure as hell what it feels like to Holly.

It had started when she'd come home from uni, just over a week ago. She'd barely said hello to her brothers and parents before rushing back out of the door to drive to Jonathan's house.

It had been three weeks since she'd seen Jonathan, and she missed him like crazy. Long distance relationships were hard, but they were making it work. And she'd bought him the best Christmas present ever, too - a signed cricket ball by his favourite player that she'd won on an eBay bid.

And then she'd barely said hello to Jonathan before he told her that he didn't feel that they were working out anymore, and long distance was too hard. And when she'd asked, he grudgingly admitted that he'd been seeing someone else at his own uni.

So, yeah, finding out her boyfriend was cheating on her was not the best start to the Christmas holidays.

Holly grits her teeth remembering the goddamn cricket ball. Eighty pounds down the drain. She'd been all set to sell it herself on eBay to someone else, but her brother Henry is crazy about cricket, so it had been boxed and wrapped up for him now.

The Christmas holidays had started to look up a couple of days ago when she'd gone out for a night with some of her friends to a bar, and then to a club. She was so up for letting down her hair (not literally, though - a pixie cut wasn't exactly the kind of hairstyle you can let down) and having fun with her friends.

Until she dropped her iPhone in the toilet.

And now - now, it's Christmas Eve.

And what's she doing?

Running from store to store, looking for goddamn cinnamon for the apple crumble, because everyone else was busy and they just couldn't have their Christmas apple crumble without cinnamon.

The clouds hang low and dark, grey and miserable, over the town centre. It might even snow, if they got lucky.

Ha, thinks Holly. Like that's gonna happen. A white Christmas my arse.

She'd tried Tesco, but hadn't even been able to park. Asda was fresh out of cinnamon, and the two Sainsbury stores she'd been to hadn't had any either. So now she was wandering around the town centre in the hopes of finding somewhere that sold some.

Holly shivers inside her wool coat, burying her nose into her scarf. Was now the time to regret the pixie cut, when she doesn't have any hair to keep her face and neck and ears warm?

She should've listened to her mum and borrowed those hideous leopard-print earmuffs. Her crocheted beanie is so holey it doesn't do much to keep her warm.

Even though the shops will be closing in about an hour, Holly can't summon up the energy to rush around. Why did it even matter? Christmas wouldn't be the same this year anyway. She'd been going out with Jonathan since Year Ten. They'd spent time together on Christmas Day for the last four years.

"You'll get over him soon, sweetie," her dad had told her, when she'd been crying into one of Jonathan's hoodies the other night. "I know it's tough now, but in a few weeks, you'll have forgotten all about him. He didn't deserve you anyway."