Heya, how you doing?
First off, merry Christmas and happy holidays to you guys! I hope you're all doing well, safe and sound with your families this season and keeping protected from the virus (unless you're luckily from New Zealand). Hope you had a great one! If you didn't, here's me passing on some dinner to ya. Get yourself a glass of wine and dig in.
Second, so sorry that this third part got delayed. Since it was Christmas, I was busy with gift-wrapping, cleaning, getting away from academics, and more. I had written half of this since the last update, but I completely forgot about updating because, ya know, Christmas.
Lastly, I'm even more sorry to say that I won't be updating next week. It's a short break from uni work, and even though our uni's pretty cool to give us a month-long break after the first week of January, I really need to unwind next week to fight that last week of the semester! GSS updates will resume on January 9th, which is a Saturday. Hope it's alright with you guys.
For now, let's get on with it, shall we? Again, happy holidays, you guys. See ya!
Character: Ian
Requested by: (author-made)
POV: Ian
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A few hours ago
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"Sorry, Mom," I say to my mom on my phone, picking up a box of chicken in the grocery store and putting it in my cart. "I still have stuff to sort at the office today. I don't think I'll be able to make it to Sacramento tonight."
"Now that's a bummer," she tells me, sighing. "But honey, make sure to FaceTime me tonight, okay? I just want you to still be here with us, you know, in spirit."
"Wow, sounds like I died."
"I miss you every day, Ian," she replies. "I wish you and Pam could come over."
"Mom."
"Not as a couple, obviously! That girl's a sweetheart on her own," she says, laughing. "She gives me better gifts than you do. It's too bad you two fell out though. She was perfect."
"I know," I mumble, looking wistfully at my cart as I make my way to the cashier. "But hey, we're still good friends. She talks to me more than I talk to her though."
"That's because she doesn't have any regrets."
"And I have regrets in our relationship?"
"No," she answers. "You have regrets in pretty much anything you do, except for Smosh."
I push my glasses back to my face with a sad smile. "You know what? I'll see what I can do to make it home tonight."
"Ah, my lucky charm worked!" she exclaims, grinning. "You better have something to bring over, my boy. I love you!"
"Love you too, Mom," I reply before hanging up and putting my things next to the register.
Christmas wasn't so bad. I mean, sure, everyone felt like tigers being freed from their cages at the zoo, so everything was festive. That lamppost giving off light? Wrap more lights around it. Those signs placed on a building? Make them shine. These boxes of uncooked chicken waiting to be served on a table of a warm, loving home? Yeah, put a red bow on it, as if someone would be overjoyed to receive this. But then again, I'm the one handing my card to this emo kid to pay the box of chicken off, so...
I wasn't a big fan of the holidays. You would probably think that I was, because over at Smosh, we celebrated like, I dunno, tigers being freed from their cages at the zoo. But that's just an ordinary Thursday for all of us there, and if you have Courtney and Sarah planning the parties, you know you're in for the true definition of a celebration. But of course, everything sort of ends there, because when you're home with dirty laundry, pictures of your best friend who lives ten minutes away from you but he has a girlfriend, and uncooked chicken with you, well... let's just say it's not the best thing to have.
But I can change all that. As soon as I get home, I drop everything off. I prepare a set of clothes, pack a few clothes, and unplug a bunch of stuff. I start working on the uncooked chicken, mumbling ingredients as I cooked it, wondering why the flavoring seemed so boring. I'm not too fond of flaming spicy, but Garrett recommended it for this recipe I'm working on. As much as I fear him in Eat It or Yeet It episodes, he's actually an excellent cook to ask culinary advice for.
After cooking the nicest smelling chicken dish for Christmas, I check the time. If I get out of here in 30 minutes, I think I'll be able to make it to dinner without the Sacramento sun setting. Thankfully, I've thought it through, and I finish working on everything I have to do in 15 minutes. I put my things in the trunk of my car, and when I get into my seat, I check the rear-view mirror. As if anyone was there, laughing at me for looking at her in the backseat.
There are many reasons why I don't go home to my parents during holiday season, but it's primarily because it makes me feel like shit. Sure, I don't want Pam back, but I had my shit together when I had her. I had my shit together when Anthony was still with me. And when everything sort of broke down, even though I'm thankful for my friends, I just know that there was huge chunk of my life I had easily lost and couldn't get back. And I didn't know how to explain to my parents that my fine ass doesn't have a partner of its own back in LA. So I avoided them constantly, thinking to myself that isolation was alright.
I leave for Sacramento almost immediately, keeping my sleepy eyes on the road as the scent of chicken managed to keep me awake. A long, empty highway stretches on, and honestly, I've forgotten what this looked like. All sandy and hot with a two-way path. This was the secret path I kept to myself, because it had no traffic from LA, cutting 30 minutes off my Sacramento trip. Growing a bit sleepy, I play whatever's on the radio, since my phone's out of juice. That's when, from a distant view, I see a broken-down car in the middle of the road.
And scarily enough, a familiar face. I pass by the car until I recognize the person trying to fix it. I immediately stop my car and get out, not having either a mechanic's tools or knowledge, and walk towards this person. "Y/N?" I mumble, confused.
Y/N turns around with smoky ash on her face. "Ah, well if it isn't Ian Andrew himself!" she exclaims, smirking. "And... you're blonde. Honestly, you being blonde is a bit more of a shocker to me than you being here. Mind giving your old friend Y/N a bit of help here?"
"Ha, old friend."
"Right, we dated. But hey, it was high school. It doesn't count."
"It doesn't?"
"I'm just messing with you," she says, chuckling. "Look, the engine's dead and all that, so the best we can do for now is get a call to get this baby towed."
"What happened anyway?" I ask, not looking at her. "And why are you here?"
She rolls her eyes at me, telling me, "Well, it broke down. Second, you told me about this highway. I refused to believe it, but now that LA's as bottlenecked as a bar, I decided to give this a look-see. I had to get home before sunset anyway, and I set out early. Turns out, this is a completely empty, unknown highway, just like you said. It was going so fine until the engine decided to, you know, go poof."
"So I'm your Christmas miracle," I retort, crossing my arms. "As much as I'd like to call, my phone's out of juice. Maybe we can push it over to the side, hope not a single Christmas fool takes it, and get back to it tomorrow."
Y/N looks hesitantly at her car, worried, before getting her stuff out of the car and dumping them onto my backseat. We work together to get her car off the road, marking the coordinates where we left it off. We get into my car, and she leans back in the passenger's seat.
"You have always been such a sweetheart, Hecox," she remarks. "I kinda wonder why we broke up. Oh, right, Smosh."
"That wasn't all," I reply, starting my car. "You had to go to college. You had big plans."
"Well, things worked out better for you than it did for me," she explains, sighing. "What you have is five times the dream of an ordinary college student. And hey... you're happy, right?"
I keep my eyes on the road, and Y/N looks at me weirdly. "Uh-oh," she mumbles. "I knew money just can't buy everything, but I thought... yeah."
"You're still a know-it-all, huh?"
"Ah, shut it. You know I'm right."
Y/N and I were pretty much that one couple in high school whom everyone thought was a bit of a fluke. Think about it, this emo-haired kid making weird videos on YouTube with his best friend somehow enters a relationship with this know-it-all of a girl. And they worked! They worked really well to the point that they were willing to risk it all until reality kicked in and they knew it wasn't going to work. Y/N went to college, I continued with Smosh. And unfortunately, we didn't hear from each other for more than a decade. Sure, we didn't end on a bad note, but we didn't have much to talk about anyway. She was my first girlfriend, which made her my first ex as well. Looking at her now, the scary thing was not seeing her again but seeing how much of Y/N had changed as well as the parts of her that stayed.
We get to a gas station, and as Y/N rings for 911 to get her car, I decide to try and impress her. I give Damien a call, pretending he was my girlfriend in an attempt to catch Y/N's attention. It didn't seem to work, since she was more interested in getting home to Sacramento instead of caring for whomever I was dating. She did ask me though on our way to Sacramento, "You have a girlfriend, huh?"
"Yeah, she's a real nice one."
"Totally," she mumbles before grinning at me. "She sounds a lot like Damien Haas from Smosh though."
"So my attempts to make you jealous were futile," I reply, drinking from a can of Red Bull I bought at the gas station. "Damien wasn't in Smosh until 2017."
"Why were you trying to make me jealous?"
"Why are you keeping tabs on me too?"
We both laugh at the absurdity of our questions, but Y/N says, "Well, I just think you're a real nice one. I know that high school sweethearts don't end up beyond a YA novel trope, but... I did wonder some time ago if you could come over for dinner. First, you're nice. Second, it'd spare me the introductions to my parents."
"I don't think they'd approve of a guy who's been making skits and sketches on YouTube for over 15 years though."
"Nah." Y/N turns her eyes back to the road. "I think they would."
We eventually arrive at Sacramento, but before I drop Y/N off at her place, she tells me to head somewhere else. The sun was starting to set, but since I was a few minutes away from my parents' house, I didn't mind... until she told me to go to the cemetery nearby our old school. I park my car, and Y/N sits on the ground, right in front a couple of tombstones. I recognize their names, and I sit next to her, not knowing what else to do. "Hey, Ma, Pa," she mumbles quietly. "Sorry I'm a bit late. My car broke down, and uh... shit was tough back at work. But I got it handled, and... and Ian's here, for the first time in, like, 15 years too. He kinda saved my fine ass this Christmas, and he's pretty much done that when we were still in high school. And I'm kinda happy that he's here. He's, stupidly enough, my Christmas miracle."
She glances at me as she puts her hand on my leg. "Thanks for being here, Ian."
I hold her hand in mine. "Anytime."
Realizing Y/N was going to spend Christmas alone, I decide to make it extra better for her. We get into my car after a few minutes, and I drive to my parents' house. After an hour of catching up, we finally get to dinner, and I was more than thrilled to be home for the first time in years. Home was a place, but sometimes... it was a person. Home could seem so unfamiliar for such a long while, but having returned to it, I could only feel relief.
From: Shayne
So I just gotta ask, do you approve of office relationships?
From: Ian
Uh, what? Why would you ask me this on Christmas? I don't even know if you approve of me having a relationship.
From: Damien
Ooh, a group chat! This is so cute. I gotta tell you guys all about this girl I like.
From: Shayne
Me first.
From: Ian
I exercise my executive powers to tell you about my Christmas miracle.
From: Damien
I think we should let Ian talk first though. Him having a girlfriend is a miracle for holidays throughout the year.
From: Shayne
Good one.
From: Ian
Yeah, screw you both.
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