Every Moment ── TOM HOLLAND²

24. "tom holland fan"

December was Luna's favorite time of the year. The month held nothing but pleasant memories of her and her family decorating their house and having debates about who'd make what for Christmas. She can only remember one time when she wasn't happiest during Christmas, and that was when Andres Giraldo left his family.

The six year old girl was fiddling with a Christmas ornament, the shiny ball showing a distorted reflection of herself. Andrew was out on a date, while Diana studied for a test in her room, leaving Luna with the task of helping Victoria put up the tree. Not that the young girl minded, it was her favorite thing to do with her mom besides tricking people into kissing underneath mistletoe.

Though, the girl seemed less excited this year, and it was fairly obvious to everybody. It's been a month since her dad got "lost" and she was slowly losing hope that he'd return. He was meant to be there with them, lifting up the girl to put up the higher ornaments and humming a song underneath his breathe. Instead, she was staring at the ornaments with a frown, not used to the shiny new ones they'd bought earlier that afternoon.

"Why did we get new ones Mami?" Luna asked as she placed the shiny new ornament on a branch.

Victoria paused, thinking of an answer to give the young girl. Diana and Andrew knew exactly why their mother decided to get new ornaments after they'd been trying to get her to do so for years. He was a memory that came attached to the old ornaments, a memory that Victoria did not want to haunt her when she was meant to be happiest.

"We needed new ones baby," Victoria responded with a soft smile, handing Luna another sparkling ornament.

Luna frowned at it, before looking up to her mother. "But Papi liked the old ones." Victoria's breathe caught in her throat, and it took all her control not to burst into tears as her younger daughter stared at her. She was so naive, and Victoria wanted to keep it that way, there was no reason to tell Luna her father most likely wasn't going to come back. If she could have hid it from Diana and Andrew, she would have, because they were just children, they didn't deserve to deal with this. But Diana and Andrew were too old for her to hide it, too aware of their surroundings. They'd been the ones to held keep Luna in the dark, occupy her while their parents argued about money in the kitchen, or play a movie loudly to block out the crying of their mother when Andres stormed out. "Is Papi coming back for Christmas?"

Victoria swallowed, a sad smile on her lips. "I don't know Luna." The six year old frowned at this, and immediately Victoria was kneeling to her level, opening her arms for the girl. Luna stepped into her, wrapping her arms around her mom. "But you'll be okay if he's not there right?"

Though Luna was only six years old, she knew what that meant. It meant her dad wasn't going to be there, and most likely wouldn't be around for any other holidays in the future. She was sad, but she nodded her head, not wanting her mom to feel bad. "I'll be okay mami," She said softly, her little hands holding Victoria's cheeks. "I still have you."

After the confession at the restaurant, Luna decided she needed to be alone. Completely alone. Meaning Liz had to grab the still moping Mia and leave Luna's apartment, leaving the girl with her thoughts. It felt like she'd been seeing her apartment for the first time in months, seeing as a majority of her time was spent in her bedroom nowadays.

It occurred to her when they were walking back home that day that Tom probably wasn't doing the same thing as her. He definitely wasn't cooped up, crying in a dark bedroom and wishing he could turn back time like she was doing. He was working his ass off, while Luna did the exact opposite. So after kicking Liz and Mia out, she decided it was time to be productive and went to Target to buy decorations for her very unfestive home.

It's safe to say Target was the perfect place to therapy shop, the families surrounding her with excitement for the upcoming holiday made her feel a light better. Her cart was filled, from new ornaments to wreaths to fairy lights, Luna Giraldo was prepared to make her house look like Christmas threw up in it.

"Good evening Peter."

Luna has never been closer to strangling herself than at that moment. The robotic woman's voice came from the electronics section, and like the sad idiot she was, she ventured to the section. She was met by a dozen tvs of different sizes, all of them playing the same damn trailer. She stood completely still, watching with a blank expression as her boyf- ex-boyfriend's face appeared on a dozen screens at once. She'd done a good job of avoiding social media in the past few weeks, knowing if she got a glimpse of him it'd just bring her to tears all over again.

She wanted nothing more than to facetime him, and laugh at one of his ridiculous stories from set that he always shared with her. She wanted to call him and apologize for her stupid mistake, but the fear of being rejected made it so hard. She was already sulking from not being together with him, and she was certain if she tried to get back together with him, and he denied her, she'd never stop sulking. She didn't deserve his forgiveness, not after what she did.

When the trailer stopped, Luna snapped out of it, a shaky sigh leaving her lips. "Big Spider-Man fan?" Her head snapped up, meeting the eyes of a Target worker. He smiled slightly at her, and Luna's eyes darted down to his name tag. Doug. "We actually got the dvds, it's the perfect Christmas gift."

Luna shook her head slightly, "Uh, no, it's okay, but thank you."

Doug nodded, but still he gestured back to the tv. "You seemed pretty interested. Have you seen it? Or just a Tom Holland fan?"

Luna shifted, her hands deep inside the pockets of her hoodie. "Both," She mumbled, and she was thankful that Doug hadn't recognized her or he would have picked up on the sadness in her tone. Or she thought he didn't.

Doug's eyes suddenly widened, his mouth open wide. "Wait, I recognize you!" Luna bit the inside of her cheek, looking around the isle, thankful that it was empty. "You're more than a Tom Holland fan!" Luna chuckled at this, shrugging slightly, despite the words tugging at her heart. "Could you maybe, take a picture with me or something? It's just my friends-"

Luna shook her head, "No, it's fine. Let's take a picture." Doug grinned, pulling out his phone eagerly. The two took a few selfies, Doug making a different face in each picture while Luna kept her smile, it growing with each photo he took. Doug practically radiated happiness, and Luna was using that to her advantage. Eventually the two went their separate ways, not before Doug thanked her a bunch of times, to which Luna shrugged with a smile.

Trudging into her apartment with five bags on each arm, Luna began planning out how her apartment would look. When she got the perfect image, she began decorating the house. In no time, the house was lit up with fairy lights, her walls covered in festive decorations, and Christmas tree glowing in the corner.

Much to her disappointment, this didn't cheer her up like she'd hoped it would. Christmas was her favorite time of the year, yet surrounded in everything involving it only made her feel lonely. She contemplated calling Liz and asking her to come over, but decided against it. Liz needed a break from her, if the girl spent any more time with her two heartbroken friends she'd be in the same pit of sadness as them. The last thing Luna wanted to do was drag her friend down with her.

She thought back to Doug, maybe being around a stranger was what she needed to keep herself distracted. A person that barely knew of her situation, someone who she couldn't unintentionally drag into her hole with her.

Her eyes landed on the paper with the phone number scribbled on it, and slowly she reached for it. She stared at the phone number for a long while before swallowing a lump and dialing the number. He answered the phone after two rings, and Luna could feel herself choking up. Could she do this? Should she do this?

"Hello?"

She tensed up at the sound of his voice before letting out a breathe. "H-Hi, it's Luna. Do you, um, want to come over and talk?"

me: *sips tea while reading angry comments*