When former beauty pageant queen, Ellie Wilde, hears of her grandmother's sickness, she's the first to offer to drive her to her chemotherapy. What she didn't know she was agreeing to was an obnoxiously cheerful blond boy somehow nudging his way int...
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The elevator doors glide open and Ellie grabs hold of her grandmother's arm to help steady her as they make their way back to the car. The chemotherapy has begun taking its toll on her grandmother, making her weaker than ever.
The doctors assure her that the treatment is going well, but by looking at her, anyone would assume just the opposite. The bags under her eyes and the thinning of her hair are only a few of the physical changes Ellie takes note of. Each day she looks less and less like her grandmother.
"Ellie!" Cooper shouts. She follows the sound of his voice to see him sitting in their usual seats and waving.
She glances over at her grandma and she nods her on, a smile gracing her lips as she lowers herself onto a seat next to the entrance doors.
"I'll only be a second," Ellie assures her, nodding a quick goodbye before making her way across the room. "Hi, Cooper."
"Hello. Merry Christmas."
"It's Christmas Eve."
He rolls his eyes. "Merry Christmas Eve then. I will say that I did not expect to see you here on this lovely holiday. Christmas Eve in a hospital. It doesn't get much more depressing than that."
"I believe it was you that said, 'Cancer doesn't care.'"
He laughs. "You have a good memory."
A silence falls over them and Ellie fidgets awkwardly, shifting her weight from foot to foot as she glances back over to her grandma. Her face is buried in a magazine, completely unaware of Ellie's gaze. She turns back to Cooper to see his eyes trained on her.
"Um, I didn't think you'd be here today. When I came in you weren't by the elevators."
"My appointment was a little bit earlier today."
"Why are you still here then?"
He shrugs, his eyes dropping from hers in what looks to be embarrassment. "I don't know. I guess I was waiting to see if you were coming in today."
"Oh." She pauses, unsure what else to say. "Where's your mom then?"
"I sent her home. I didn't know how long you'd be, if you'd even show at all."
"So how are you getting home?" Ellie asks, her lips turning downwards into a frown.
"I'll probably call Nate or something."
"But it's Christmas Eve. Most people are spending time with their families."
"Shit," he mumbles. "I guess I didn't think about that. Well. That's all right. I can take a bus home then."
"I could give you a ride if you'd like." She glances over her shoulder at her grandma before turning back to him. "We were just about to leave."
He shakes his head. "I don't want to inconvenience you. I'm fine taking a bus."
She reaches down, wrapping her fingers around his cold wrist and willing him to get up from his seat. "It's Christmas Eve. Come on. I'll give you a ride."
He doesn't protest, instead, pushing himself up from his seat and following after her. As they approach her grandma, she glances up from her magazine, folding it and setting it back down as she stares at Cooper and then back at Ellie.
"We're giving him a ride home."
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"What's your family doing this evening, Cooper?" Ellie's grandma asks from the front seat—which Cooper made her take after insisting he sit in the back.
"I don't know." Ellie looks in her rear-view mirror to see him staring out the window. "They don't really celebrate Christmas anymore."
"Oh. How come? Religious reasons?"
He lets out a quiet laugh. "No. They're not religious. They just don't really celebrate the holidays. When I was little they did but now that I'm grown they don't see the point. To them it's just a commercial thing."
Her grandma sighs. "What a shame. We love Christmas in our family. Don't we, dear?"
Ellie nods silently, glancing in her rear-view mirror once more to see a sad smile on Cooper's lips. As if he can sense her staring at him, his eyes connect with hers. She quickly averts her gaze back to the road in front of her.
"I love Christmas," he says quietly. "It was always my favorite holiday. My family just doesn't celebrate it anymore."
"Why don't you come join our family for Christmas tomorrow?" Ellie's grandma says, causing her to nearly swerve off the road.
"Grandma—" Ellie starts before being abruptly cut off.
"I'm serious," she says. "Join us. We'd love to have you."
"That's all right, ma'am. I wouldn't want to intrude on your family's Christmas."
"I'm going to be frank with you, young man." Ellie's eyes widen as she turns to her grandma in horror. It's never a good thing when her grandmother decides to be 'frank' with you.
Cooper must gather this from the look on Ellie's face because he gulps. "All right."
"You have cancer. You know this, yes? A, what was it? Eighteen years old?"
"Nineteen."
"A nineteen-year-old boy with cancer does not need to be spending his Christmas alone in a dark house. He needs to be surrounded by warmth and joy. If your parents won't celebrate the holiday with you, then you should celebrate it with someone else. Why not us? I make a lovely ham. My daughter, Jen, may be cooking it tomorrow though, as I don't have the strength. But her ham is sufficient enough. We'd be happy to have you."
Ellie looks back at her rear-view mirror to see Cooper's eyes trained on her, almost as if he's asking if she'd be happy to have him. She agrees that her grandma has a point. No one should spend the holidays alone in a dark house, but especially someone who is battling a sickness like him.
She nods, holding eye contact with him through the mirror. "You should come. It'll be fun."
A smile takes over his lips and spreads to his eyes as he nods back at her. "I'd love to."
