HELLO I AM SORRY THIS TOOK ALMOST SEVEN HUNDO YEARS TO GET PUBLISHED. I approve of this message though.
ANYWAYS ENJOY
The trip to the tree lighting was a short one, in fact, James thought it might've been faster to walk considering the time it took to warm up the van— James—blushing so hard that he thought maybe he didn't even need it—realized he forgot his hat, then finding a parking space large enough to accommodate the van, and they definitely could've walked.
It was just after five o'clock and the sky was starting to darken when they all climbed out of the van and made their way through the crowded parking lot into the large park where the tree lighting took place. If they thought the crowd outside was bad, inside the park was worse. James had lost track of Christian and his entire family. He stood there, slowly turning in a circle, and wondering if he ought to just walk back to the van or even to the house, when Christian appeared in front of him.
Christian grasped both of James's arms and stopped him from spinning. "Where'd you disappear to?"
"I... I was right here."
"Come on. Let's get hot chocolate." Christian pulled him forward and let go of one of his arms, but kept his grip on the other and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Don't want to lose you again." James stumbled over a dip in the pavement and Christian tightened his grip on James's arm. "See, not letting go now."
James turned to sneak a peek at Christian and found Christian looking back at him. "Hey, so, what about your friends?"
"What about them?"
"While we're here, are you planning to see anyone? Do they know you're even here?"
"Yeah, yeah. I, um..." Christian looked down and kicked a rock out of their path. "I sent them a message when we were in the car on the way here yesterday. Wanted to sort of prpare them."
James bit his lip and glance at Christian, then asked, "For me?"
"For you." Christian bumped their hips together, but held on tight to James's arm. "Just, um... I know you know Matt from when he's come to visit. Then there's trevor . Um... It's kind of a funny story."
"Haha funny or like, weird funny or creepy funny?"
"Coincidentally interesting funny?" Christian shrugged and tilted his head to the side. "We've all known each other for like, our whole lives almost. Went to school together and even played all the same sports when we were growing up."
"You played sports?"
"What? I'm... sporty."
"Yeah, okay." James rolled his eyes. He'd known Christian for many years and had never known him to play or even watch any sports.
"Anyway, I'll get to that. It's just that like, Trevor dated this girl for like all of high school, and then they broke up when he went off to college, right? He and Matt went to the same university. And Matt dated this guy he met when he was a freshman for years and years."
"You're boring me ." James faked a big yawn. "I don't care about their dating history."
"Shut up." Christian elbowed him in the ribs, but not hard enough to hurt. "There's a point to this. I was just giving you backstory."
"Don't care," James sang, dragging out the 'a'.
"Fine. They're dating. Each other."
James jaw dropped and his eyes poked out of
