ANOTHER LONELY DECEMBER, Riley Johnson

Paper Shreds

🎧: Bruises - Lewis Capaldi

I woke up to a sour aftertaste lingering in my mouth. What I said to Riley last night wasn't fair. She didn't deserve that. I pulled the blanket over my head, hoping it would somehow wash away the tiredness on my face. Of course it didn't help. I was forced to get out of bed when a loud knock on my door echoed through the room.

"Hey, are you- Wow, did you get any sleep?" Abby asked observing my face with concern.

"Yes, I did but your loud entrance ruined it" I said, opening the door wider so she could walk in.

"Sorry, Tipper sent me to get some boxes. She needs more decorations for tonight's party" she apologized as she started looking through the boxes.

"More decorations? Is she trying to turn that house into Santa's workshop?" my question made her laugh. Tipper did go all out on decorations this year which, considering last year's decorations, didn't seem possible. There was anything in that house that hadn't been decorated or somehow turned to a Christmas theme. It was almost scary to be honest.

"Alright, let me get dressed and I'll come help out" I said, waiting for her to walk out of the room so I could put on a decent outfit. John was supposed to get here during the day, Tipper invited him to the white elephant party as she knew he was practically family to Abby and I. Unsurprisingly, he'd gotten pretty close to Jane, they were good friends.

"Can you take that and put it over there?" Tipper asked as soon as I got upstairs. Although she obviously wanted everything to be perfect, she definitely seemed less stressed than she did last year. The fact that they were no political stakes probably helped. I was asked to look for the list of guests as Harper couldn't remember where she left it. It was on top of the kitchen counter which made perfect sense. My eyes moved following the ink on the paper until one specific name stopped me.

"I invited her because you two really seemed to get along last year" Harper shot me an innocent smile. She had absolutely no idea about what happened last year.

"What does it say 2?" I asked pointing at the number next to her name.

"Oh, because she's brining her girlfriend" she smiled again. I parted my lips but no sound came out. "Is something wrong?" she asked suddenly sounding concerned.

"No- Nothing" I forced a smile in a pathetic attempt to lie but she wasn't that stupid. That's when Abby walked in the room.

"What? What happened? You can tell me. Did she say something to you?" she asked worriedly. Abby quickly understood what was going on and tried to step in.

"I don't think it's any of our business, baby" she spoke softly, taking her fiancé's hand in hers. Harper's eyes widened as she understood the subtext of what Abby had just said.

"You... and Riley?" the question hung in the air, her tone implying that she wasn't necessarily looking for an answer. "You and Riley" she repeated. "I didn't see that one coming" she whispered more to herself than to us. "So, you're..." she started hesitantly.

"Still not into labels but I guess lesbian would fit" I forced a smile. She gave me a comprehensive look and moved on to another subject. I'm glad she did so because I didn't feel like talking about her ex-girlfriend with her.

The rest of the day went by quickly. Turns out working for Tipper was exhausting, every item had to be placed a very specific way. Each type of food had its own plate so the shapes matched, same with the glasses. Once everything seemed perfect to her, she finally allowed us to go get ready. We didn't have that much time before guests would start arriving so I took a quick shower and put on a fresh outfit. I picked a retro red halter neck blazer top, the deep V-neck showed a flattering amount of my cleavage, I paired it with simple black pants.