washing machine heart

the holidays and strained relationships

Weeks passed, happiness flooding throughout the University as the holiday season approached, the halls being filled with the bright lights of Christmas. Even if Emily didn't believe in God nor Christian holidays, Christmas was her favorite time of the year. The smell of the snow as it fell from the sky, holiday food (especially pumpkin pie and turkey), the decorations, gift-giving (and recieving.)

It wasn't just Emily who loved Christmas, it was all of them. They all adored the great spirit of the Holidays, the pure happiness and forgiveness of the time. The first time the snow fell to the ground, all of them went outside- JJ, Emily, Derek, and Spence ran outside and fell to the floor, creating snowangels and developing a snowball fight. At one point, Elle, Pen, and Tara noticed them messing around and enjoyed the time with them- completely forgetting about any tension amongst the group.

It was pure joy as they spent hours in the snow, laughing, smiling, even crying from the pain in their stomachs from the happiness. It was as if they all forget anything had happened in the first place. At one point, Elle leaped forward and tackled Emily to the floor, shoving snow in her face as she laughed out loud. For a moment, JJ felt a twinge of jealousy at their touch, but quickly realized that she was also happy for her... for Emily, because she knew in a platonic way she missed her friendship with Elle.

Even Spencer was in awe of how happy they all were, playing outside until the sky fell into pitch black, the world only lit up by the lights lining up on the main road of their campus. At some point, Penelope was in 'tears' from how cold she was and invited everyone back to their dorm room.

Even though Elle had seemed to forgiven them, she had yet to come home. Most of the time, it didn't matter to her as Emily was there a lot of the time since Spencer spent most of the time in his boyfriend's room. JJ was relieved to see that Elle wanted to spend time with them again, maybe she would get her best friend back. She cared very much about Emily, but Emily had Spencer, she had no one.

The two of them all piled into Penelope's room, peeling over their snow-soaked boots, throwing them into a pile in the corner of the bathroom. Derek had snatched a couple bottles of beer and vodka from his room, shoving it into a backpack and running down to the room behind them, closing the door.

Emily plugged her phone into a speaker, playing the best playlist she could think of. A random song, "Yellow" by Coldplay played out, and with content, she took a seat next to JJ on the couch.
Elle watched them from across the room, and sent a brief smile. It took her a lot of time, but she had gotten over it with the help of Penelope and Tara. She was now just simply happy for them, although seeing them together was a bit different than just imagining it.

Spencer grabbed Elle's hand for a moment and nodded at her, proud of her for being so forgiving and content with the situation laid out infront of them. "Good job," he nodded before releasing her hand and leaning over to grab his boyfriend's, who was standing near them.

Elle returned the smile, before thinking for a moment. She needed to actually speak to them. Slowly, but surely, she made her way across the room to where JJ and Emily sat, talking quietly under their breaths. She couldn't make out what they were talking about, but was sure she didn't want to actually know. It would either hurt her feelings or gross her out more than likely, unsure of which option was worse. She approached them, looking down at them. "Hey, guys."

JJ turned from the brunette, smiling up at the curly-haired girl. "Elle." She scooted away from Emily, who peered at her for a moment, before turning to look up at Elle with her... with JJ.

"Listen, I think it's obvious, but...." She paused for a moment, turning to play with her hands infront of her abdomen. "I forgive you guys, I want you to be happy. I'm gonna continue staying with Pen and Tara, but I want to be friends. With both of you. Real friends, not just saying we're gonna be friends, but actually being friends and re-getting to know one another." She reached a hand up and began messing with her hair, done speaking.