Missy grabbed me into a hug as I tried to pass her in the hallway. “You went to bed so early last night. Everything okay?”
“Yep, everything is fine.”
I escaped and closed my bedroom door behind me. Missy’s personality was the opposite of Katrina’s. So nice to your face you never suspected the stab in the back. She used to call me every day when I first left, all while secretly dating my boyfriend who had been saving up money to come to California so we could be together.
I think I could have forgiven that if it wasn’t for the money she stole from my roommate when she came to visit. Thanks to her, I lost my apartment and my first friend in California.
So, yeah, I have some trust issues. And I let the chip on my shoulder make a permanent home. I did better at auditions with it. I adopted confidence like it was a starring role I’d tried out for. And eventually, that confidence felt real. Except when I came here.
Doug
I woke up Christmas morning to someone banging on my door. “Doug, get your lazy butt out of bed. Merry Christmas!”
“Coming!” Apparently, Owen still got a kick out of being the first one up to see all the presents. Only we weren’t little kids anymore, and my neighbors were probably seriously peeved.
I threw on a pair of pants and ran to the door before he started yelling again.
“I thought you were skiing?” I asked.
Owen and Tracey stood there grinning at me, and then they barged their way in and shut the door.
“We decided to come back a day early. We brought you something. Get dressed in whatever you have that’s warm.”
Tracey began tidying up my apartment, which was pretty good motivation to get ready quick. I felt bad she thought she needed to do that. I wasn’t a slob, but sometimes I left things to when I felt like doing it. When you live alone, there’s no one there to care whether or not your kitchen is swept.
I hurriedly finished getting dressed and brushing my teeth, and then we went down to see Owen’s truck bed filled with snow.
“What’s all this?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you on the way.”
“Where are we going?”
Owen and Tracey got back in their truck and motioned for me to join them, so I did. I got in on the passenger side next to the two newlyweds and listened as they took turns telling me about their trip.
“It turns out we stink at skiing.” Owen nudged Tracey in acknowledgement of some shared inside joke.
Tracey smiled. “I felt terrible about being away from your mom on Christmas. It’s not a very nice daughter-in-law thing to do.”
I was not about to admit how hurt our mother was or the things she’d had to say about Tracey, but I shared a look with Owen. It would not have been a surprise to him.
“But how did you get all the snow in the back of the truck?” I asked.
Owen chuckled. “At the gas station on the way out of town, I noticed a snow shovel up against the back wall and the big bank of snow on the hill behind it, and decided to bring a little souvenir back.”
“What are you going to do with all of it?”
He pulled into the driveway of the house they’d just bought and hopped out. “We’re going to dump it in the grass and make a snowman.”
We went and got shovels. Then the three of us attempted to make one big snowman from the pile we dragged out of the back of his truck. The poor thing was misshapen and patchy with grass and dirt, but we didn’t have enough snow to try again.
Tracey frowned at it. “I’m going to see if I can scrounge up a scarf or something.” She ran in the house and came back with a linen, fringy thing with sequins and wrapped it around the place where there should have been a neck.
“Okay, boys, go stand by it. I’ll take a picture.”
We complied, and then I took her phone and had her and Owen go stand with it.
They’d destroyed their grass, and I could tell Owen’s back was bothering him from all the shoveling, but this was what made the two of them such a good pair. They were pretty much up for any adventure as long as they were together. I was grateful they’d decided to include me this time.
