CHASE HOME
A lively winter sunlight is pouring
in through the living room windows, flooding the house with an uneasy warmth.
It is still cold outside -- probably very crisp, with the sting of ice
in the air -- but the sunlight inside makes it seem impossible that the
weather would be anything but pleasant outdoors.
The juxtaposition of such extremes
on this type of day has always baffled Courtney,
and it does so even more
today. The light streams in and covers the Christmas tree and its pile
of unwrapped presents, but something makes the whole thing feel distinctly
unlike any Christmas Courtney can remember.
She opens the door happily, knowing
already whose finger pushed the doorbell a moment ago.
"Hey! Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas,"
Lauren beams,
reaching out to give Courtney a warm hug. She comes into the house quickly,
gives a quick shiver and then begins to unpack herself from her scarf and
gloves. "So what'd you get? Anything really exciting?"
"You make it sound like we're still
ten years old, you know that?"
"Can't help it. So c'mon -- what'd
you get?"
"Mainly clothes," Courtney says,
moving into the living room to sort through the pile of gifts and pick
out samples to show Lauren. "Ooh, and these!" She holds up a pair of shoes.
"I mentioned to my mom, like, three months ago that I liked them, and she
remembered and went out and got them."
"Excellent."
"How about you?"
"Same kinda stuff. Wasn't it more
fun when we were kids and Christmas morning was, like, this magical time?
It's not the same when you can go out and buy the stuff yourself if you
really wanted to."
"Yeah, I know. But still ... it's
Christmas. That just makes it special in itself." Court picks up a gift
bag from under the tree and holds it out. "Here, this is yours."
Lauren takes the bag, brimming with
decorative tissue paper, and hands Courtney a gift-wrapped box. "And here's
yours."
"So guess what?" Lauren says suddenly,
before Courtney can suggest that they open their presents.
"What?"
"Trevor didn't even come home."
"Seriously? Wasn't he supposed to?"
"Yeah, but he called, like, two days
ago and told my parents he wasn't coming home for Christmas. I didn't even
get to talk to him."
"What is going on with him?" Courtney
asks. "I remember a couple of years ago, you two were so tight."
"We were! But lately it's like I
don't even have a brother." The idea seems genuinely troubling to Lauren,
who shakes her head sadly. "It sucks."
"I'm sorry. And this is probably
the hardest time of year to deal with something like that. You always miss
people more around the holidays."
"Yeah ..." Lauren looks up and there
is an unmistakable sparkle in her eye.
"What?" But the new direction of
the conversation is not at all lost on Courtney.
"Jason,"
Lauren says. "Don't you
miss him? Don't you wanna be spending Christmas with him?"
Courtney fights the truth for a moment,
but with a sigh, she admits, "Of course. I wish we could be together today.
It just isn't that easy."
"Why not? If you wanna be with him--"
"Because I can't trust him! Not after
the way he let you get hurt and made me look like such an idiot."
"So maybe you guys have some stuff
to work on. That doesn't mean it has to be over."
"I wish it didn't," Court says sadly.
"But if he kept something this big a secret, knowing that other people
were going to get hurt, then how I am supposed to have any faith in him
as a friend or a boyfriend?"
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