Christmas on the Subway

Alec stepped onto the train, still rubbing sleep from his eyes.
Right, they'll only be awake by around nine. It's around 6:30 now. I just buy the hot chocolate and get back as quick as I can.
He sat down near the back. He listened to the beat and whoosh of the train as it moved down the tracks.
He looked around. There weren't so many people on the train. Just a tall man holding a notebook and an old lady wearing a bright pink track suit.
He looked across the aisle to see the last person. A small girl with short, ebony hair. She was clutching a book in her hands and staring at the pages. She looked up for a moment. Her eyes widened when she noticed him. She quickly turned and looked back out the window at the lights passing by.
After a moment, it finally clicked in Alec's mind that the girl was one of his students.
Her name was Diana. She often came and sat in his classroom in the morning. He said hi to her, she waved to him. They both did their work in silence. The bell would ring. She would get up to leave, Alec would say goodbye and Diana would wave. He found it kind of odd that she sat in his room rather than with her friends.
In math class, she was shy in front of everyone and a little awkward. She was fairly smart, though she didn't think so.
He saw her look back at him.
After a moment, Alec said, "Hi, Diana." As was the normal greeting.
Diana shyly waved as she normally did. Alec moved away from the window closer to the aisle. Diana looked worried. More talking than that wasn't the usual thing to do.
"Why are you on the subway right now? Aren't you going to be with your family for Christmas?" he asked.
"No," she said, closing her book. "Well why are you here, Mr. Tolson?"
Her question surprised him. She usually didn't ask any.
"I'm buying hot chocolate. I make it for my family every morning on Christmas, but we ran out," he said.
"Oh," said Diana. She opened her book again and started reading.
"Well why are you here?" Alec asked.
"I don't want to be at my house," she said.
"Do you have anywhere to go?" he asked.
"I'll just stay here," she said.
"No you won't," he said.
"What?" Diana asked, obviously confused.
"You're welcome to spend Christmas in my home," Alec said.
Diana looked surprised. "It's really fine," she said.
"No. My job is to take care of you kids. I can't let someone spend a Christmas alone on the subway," he said.
She was quiet for a second, staring down at her book.
"You know what, Mr. Tolson, I'd love to spend Christmas with you," she said. A smile was tugging at the corner of her mouth.
Alec grinned.
"Well you have to come buy hot chocolate with me, though," he said.
"Oh yeah," she said.
Diana went back to reading her book and Alec listened to the steady beat of the train against the tracks.
"Time to go, Diana," said Alec, getting up as the train slowed to a stop. Diana stood up and shut her book. They quickly got off the train and walked up the stairs into the bright city.
They walked for a while, Alec always looking behind to see if Diana was still there.
"Why are you going all the way here to get hot chocolate?" Diana asked.
"Because this place has the best hot chocolate mix," said Alec.
"You make it from a mix? Isn't that kind of cheating?" she asked.
"Once I tried to make hot chocolate without a mix and I set off the fire alarm for my whole building because I managed to light the chocolate on fire," he said.
Diana grinned. "I guess that's fair."
They went into the store and bought the mix. Thankfully there wasn't much of a line since it was so early.
"Do you have any traditions that you do around now?" Alec asked as they walked back to the T.
"I mean, I wake up really early and eat ice cream, if that counts," she said. "I do it mostly because I knew it'd piss off my parents."
Alec laughed a little. "My son does stuff like that sometimes."
"How old's your son?" asked Diana.
"He goes to the school. He's a junior, a grade above you," said Alec.
"Really? What's his name?" she asked.
"Miles," he replied.
The train screeched into the station. Alec and Diana got on. Diana sat in a seat next to Alec with her hands tucked under her thighs and her book on her lap.
"Oh, I know Miles. He's in my art class," said Diana. "He's nice."
"I would hope he is," Alec laughed. He glanced at the book she was reading.
"Shakespeare sonnets," he said.
"Yeah. Shakespeare is cool," she said.
"Do you have a favorite sonnet?" he asked.
"Sonnet 116," she said. "It's all about how strong love is and how it will outlast death. Seems like it'd be nice."
They sat in silence, Diana reading and Alec listening to the tracks, until their stop.
When they went back above ground, it was snowing.
Diana gasped in delight. "I love snow!"
Alec chuckled at her childish joy.
Diana walked with a bounce in her step all the way to the apartment. Her hair was sparkling with snowflakes which were beginning to melt.
Alec unlocked the door and looked inside. No one was awake yet.
"You can just sit wherever, doesn't matter," said Alec. Diana carefully sat down on the edge of a couch.
"You don't have to be so nervous about it," Alec laughed, then went into the kitchen.
As he heated up four mugs of hot chocolate, he heard a door creak open. Alec walked into the living room just as Miles did.
"Good morning!" said Alec.
"Um... hi," he said, then looked at Diana. "You know, not to sound rude or anything, why are you here?"
"I don't want to be at my house," she said.
"Huh, okay," said Miles. He sat down next to Diana, who was now sitting cross legged on the couch. Diana gripped her book tighter.
The microwave went off in the kitchen.
"Miles and Diana could you two get the mugs out?" he asked.
"Yeah," they said, getting up.
Alec went into his room to wake up his wife. She wasn't much of a morning person, but she was always willing to wake up on Christmas.
"Mona! Wake up!" whispered Alec. He shook her a little.
"Ughhhh what?" she muttered, rolling over after a few minutes of shaking to look up at him.
"It's Christmas!" Alec said.
"Oh yeah!" she said, sitting bolt upright and then jumping out of the bed. As she landed, she fell directly on her face with a thud.
"Are you okay..." Alec asked. He was answered by Mona's loud laughter.
"But actually there's something I have to explain," said Alec.
Mona stopped laughing and sat up.
"I saw one of my students on the subway and she said she didn't want to be at home for Christmas and that she would just ride the subway all day. So I let her come here," he said.
"Aw, well that's fine. She can stay, of course!" she said.
"Well if you'd said no, I wouldn't have listened," said Alec, shrugging.
Mona stood up and lightly smacked his arm.
Meanwhile, Diana and Miles sat in the couch with the four steaming mugs of hot chocolate on the table, not saying anything. Diana stared at the words on the pages of her book. Miles read over her shoulder.
"Shakespeare?" he asked.
Diana, surprised, slammed the book shut.
"Oh, uh yeah," she said, grinning sheepishly.
"That's interesting. No one I know reads poetry," he said.
"'Course not," said Diana.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.
"Nothing. High schoolers don't read much of anything," she said. "It's kind of sad."
"No one has time," said Miles.
"Yeah, exactly," said Diana.
They looked at each other for a second, not talking until Diana decided that was too much eye contact.
"You wanna read my favorite sonnet?" she asked.
"Yeah," said Miles.
Diana flipped to 116 and handed the book to Miles. He read, concentrating on each word.
He looked up at Diana. "That's a great poem," he said.
"You really think so?" Diana asked, looking pleased.
"Yeah. It also suits you pretty well," said Miles.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.
"I mean, you seem like you'd enjoy romance," he said.
They both jumped when they heard a thud.
"What was that?" asked Diana.
"Probably my mom. She's kind of clumsy," said Miles.
"Should we see if she's okay?" asked Diana.
"Nah. She's fine," said Miles. A minute later, Alec and Mona walked out of their room.
"Hi!" said Mona.
Diana waved shyly.
"I'm Mrs. Tolson," said Mona.
"I'm Diana," she said, giving a small smile.
"Shakespeare eh?" asked Mona. "You know I married this guy because of Shakespeare." She poked Alec.
"You're so embarrassing, mom," said Miles, putting his palm to his forehead.
"In high school, we had to memorize a poem, and he memorized that 'shall I not compare thee to a summer's day' one. When he said it, he looked right at me. I thought it was kind of weird, but I thought 'well he seems nice'. And look at us now," she said.
"Really?" asked Diana, laughing. "Wow I wish someone would do that kind of thing for me."
"Be a go getter, Diana," said Mona. "Don't wait for someone to ask you out! I bet they are are plenty of people just waiting to ask you out."
"Uh... thanks?" she said, looking mildly uncomfortable, but flattered at the same time.
"We should drink the hot chocolate before it becomes cold chocolate," said Alec.
They all picked up a mug and drank from it.
"Ow!" said Mona. She stuck out her tongue. "This happens every time! Stupid heat!" She continued to drink the hot chocolate.
They all drank hot chocolate and told random stories.
Diana talked about how how she and her friends once played a bunch of practical jokes on this guy that was bothering their other friend. Alec talked about how some kid brought a cat into his math class and caused another kid to have an allergic reaction. Miles told them how he fell asleep on the subway one time and was there until the train was out of service for the day.
Diana ended up staying until dinner, at Mona's insistence.
When they finished eating, Diana finally made her stand to leave.
"I need to go back to my house. I can't just stay here," she said.
"Well, goodbye then," said Mona, sadly. She gave Diana a tight hug, which Diana gently returned.
"See you in art class, yeah?" said Miles.
"Yeah," said Diana, smiling at him.
"You'll be fine?" asked Alec, frowning a little.
Diana paused. "Course I will."
She quickly put on her jacket and scarf.
Alec said bye, Diana waved and left. It was almost as if she was never there in the first place.

Well, I hope you liked this! I was in the Christmas spirit for once. And if you'd like, leave a review or a suggestion! That'd be very appreciated. Thanks for reading! And stay piefaceingly!