𝚂𝚄𝙿𝙴𝚁𝚄𝙽𝙺𝙽𝙾𝚆𝙽 ✩ ɢʀᴜɴɢᴇ

𝚡𝚡𝚡𝚒. 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞

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."