All My Christmases

1999

"It's so been so weird," Charlotte lamented as she took a seat at the Evans' kitchen table. "Ever since I moved for school, it feels like he's trying to avoid me."

"Well, you two have certainly been through a lot this year," Lisa sighed as she passed Charlotte a cup of coffee, knowing full well all the changes that had happened since January.

After last Christmas, Chris had moved back to New York City and things only had gotten crazier from there. It hadn't been but a few months that Chris had booked an acting gig for a show that would film in California that fall. Not long after came graduation, Chris moving to Los Angeles, and then his parents dropping the bombshell of their divorce. Coupled with Charlotte moving away and starting school, suddenly it was almost Christmas and it had been almost six months since they had even seen each other in person.

Charlotte had been able to get her parents to go along with the idea of her visiting Chris out in LA, and she had spent a week out there over the summer. The nearly 3,000 miles between home and California might as well have been a million. After spending some days in the city, going shopping, and even popping into a nightclub with a few other actors who Chris had met while working, it seemed to be the opposite of life on the East Coast. To be honest, it made Charlotte feel more uncomfortable than she was willing to admit.

On the flight back to Boston over the summer, she knew that it wouldn't be easy for their lives to continue the way it had been, only she hadn't been willing to admit it aloud at that point. She didn't expect Chris to give up on his dream, especially when it seemed to have happened so quickly and was going well, and she wasn't prepared to give up on hers either. At that point, she was gearing up to move to Rhode Island to go to college when she returned home. She was excited about the idea of being on her own, even if it was just a dorm room an hour and a half from home. She knew the time difference, their schedules, and their lives were only going to get busier and more hectic, but it wasn't until she had the silence of the airplane and no one in the seat next to her to talk to that the thoughts began to intrude her brain.

"Did you want to come with me to pick him up at the airport?" Lisa asked, shaking Charlotte from her thoughts. She looked over at the oven and checked the time, "I need to leave here in about 10 minutes."

"Oh," Charlotte sighed, "I didn't even know what time he was getting in," she admitted. "I think I'll head home," she as she felt an invisible stab in her chest. "How could he have not told me when he would be back?" She thought to herself. "Just let him know he can come over when he's settled," Charlotte said as she stood up and grabbed her scarf from the back of the chair, and tucked it around her neck into her school sweater for the walk back home.

It wasn't but an hour later that Lisa pulled into the driveway of her room with Chris in the front passengers' seat. The drive home had been painfully silent, Chris barely saying a word the entire ride. He walked in through the garage and tossed his backpack on the kitchen table. He looked around and sighed. Christmas didn't really feel like Christmas this year, even if he was back at home with his family. Lisa followed behind him and closed the door.

"Charlotte said to go over once you were settled in," Lisa said as she hugged her son. "I know you're probably out of sorts from the time change, but I think she really misses you, don't make her wait too long," she said as she took his coat and placed it in the closet.

"That's great," Chris muttered under his breath. He dragged his suitcase behind him as he walked up the stairs, the large bag hitting every step on the way up. He rolled the suitcase into his room and loudly shut the door behind him, making Lisa jump downstairs. Chris flopped himself on his bed and covered his head with one of his pillows, eventually drifting off to sleep.