In the Band

Chapter 16

“Where’d you find these lights again? All the stores are closed.” Jon asked Brendon.

“Well, this morning, when you guys were sleeping, me and the girls went on a hunt for all these decorations,” he said looking up at the string of lights he was suspending from the ceiling, “We found the tree in an abandoned lot. The lights, well, uh, let’s just say we borrowed them….”

“I don’t want to know anymore,” Jon said shaking his head.

Brendon started singing again. I got up to do something I’ve been putting off for a while.

“I’m gonna go call my sister,” I mumbled before leaving to go to the bathroom.

After shutting the door, I turned on my phone. It’s been off for days, so consequentially, it was flooded with messages.

’78 Missed Calls’ I read. The number was a lot higher than I thought it would be. I clicked ‘View Now’ and with a tightening in my stomach saw that they were all from my father. Pressing ‘End’ I dialed my grandmother’s number.

“Hello?” My grandma’s voice came from the other end.

“Hi, it’s Allison, Merry Christmas.”

“Oh hello, dear, Merry Christmas to you too,” she paused and I heard another voice in the background, “Here, Kelsey wants to talk to you.” I already felt my eyes moistening.

“Allison! Merry Christmas!” Kelsey sounded excited to hear from me. I felt bad for not calling sooner.

“Merry Christmas, Kelsey,” I said trying to sound as excited as her, “What did you get?” She proceeded to list all the things that she found under the tree this year, which was much longer than the few little presents she normally got from me.

When she finished, there was a long silence. “I miss you,” She said, causing a few tears in my eyes to escape.

“I miss you too,” I said, trying to swallow the lump in my throat.

“When will I see you again?” Kelsey asked. The hope was very prominent in her voice.

“I don’t know.” I wished that I did.

“Oh,” she said, barely audible.

“I promise I won’t wait so long to call you again,” I told her, ending the conversation before she could tell my voice was strained because it was struggling not to crack. “Have a great day.”

“Bye Allison, I love you.” A tear ran down my face.

“I love you too.” My thumb pressed the end button.

I sat on the counter around the sink, trying to calm down. Suddenly, there was a beeping from my phone and my heart clenched. I wasn’t ready to talk to my father, not now. I lifted up my phone to turn it off again. To my dismay, the screen read ‘Nick’ instead of ‘Home’. He had texted me.

Happy Christmas!

I sighed. I guess that I shouldn’t always expect the worse. I texted back lamely:

You too!

Then, I turned off my phone, fixed my make-up and went back to where everyone was sitting.

“There you are! We were just about to go,” Spencer said to me.

We all left the hotel room and rode the elevator down to the lobby. Everyone was talking excitedly about the holidays, but I just kept on thinking about how much I wished that I went down to Florida with Kelsey.