Jingle Bells and Parallels

10. Ryder

Chapter 10

~Ryder~

       I promised myself I wouldn't get involved with Alan's ridiculous theory about someone from the North Pole planning a heist at the mall. If he and Orchid were to get into trouble because of it, I'd rather just sit back and stay out of it.

       I was doing a good job of staying out of it until I heard an argument break out in the living room. Normally, I liked watching my siblings argue with each other but this time, Jerome was involved so I just had to be mature and try to break up the argument.

       I walked into the living room where Jerome and Alan were arguing with each other, Orchid was trying to break up the argument, and Nolan was just sitting on the couch, reading a book and not paying any attention to his boyfriend and his brother arguing.

       "Why are you two arguing?" I asked.

       "Because your brother is an idiot," Jerome said.

       "That may be true but I don't get why you're mad at me," Alan said. 

       "You don't get... How can you not get it?" Jerome asked. "I agreed to help you and Orchid out with the whole Santa heist thing, and then you go ahead and ask my ex-boyfriend to join."

       "You what?" I asked, looking at Alan.

       "I didn't ask Brandon to join," Alan said. "I just asked him what he thought about it since he's my co-worker. I could use a second opinion from someone who works at the North Pole."

       "Wait, hold on," I said. "Why did you ask Brandon anyway? I thought you hate him."

       "I don't hate him," Alan said. "And I asked him because out of all my co-workers, he seemed like the most trustworthy."

       "The most trustworthy?" I repeated. "Hasn't he been trying to annoy you every single time you had a shift together?"

       "He used to," Alan said. "But then Janelle decided to be both homophobic and biphobic so we bonded over our mutual hatred for Janelle and got involved in a food fight with her. We won. At least, I'm saying we won."

       "I still don't get why you decided to involve Brandon," Jerome said. "I would like to stay as far away from him as possible."

       "You know, he really isn't that bad," Alan said. "And he did make a few points that I didn't even think about. Like how Santa Claus refuses to talk about his life outside of work. We know nothing about him, and Brandon even tried finding things out about him to be a polite co-worker. We don't even know his name. Who would hide their name from everyone?"

       Oh, come on. That was a very good point of why Alan should be suspicious of him but I didn't want to get involved with this. Not at all.

       But now, I was very interested in seeing the outcome of stopping the heist or whatever it was this Santa Claus was planning.

       "Besides," Alan continued, "I'm the one who discovered the blueprints and figured out that someone at the North Pole is planning something. I should be the one who has a say in who gets to help us out."

       "Why don't you have a vote?" I asked. "See who's fine with Brandon helping out?"

       "Well, I'm clearly against it," Jerome said. "And that says something since I tried keeping things on good terms between us. He's the one messing everything up." Jerome then looked over at Nolan. "You're against it, right?"

       "I don't get to vote," Nolan said, keeping his eyes on the book he was reading. "I'm staying out of this whole thing so I don't care if he helps out or not."

       "Traitor," Jerome said.

       "I'm being impartial," Nolan said. "I don't get why I should vote on it when I'm not getting involved with whatever you three are going to do to stop Santa Claus. "

       Alan looked at Orchid. "So... Are you with or against it?"

       "Well..." Orchid said slowly. "I honestly don't see a problem with it. Brandon isn't a horrible person. He did help me get out of my relationship with Felix after all, even though Felix is his brother."

       Jerome sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, I know he's not a horrible person. I just... Hate how he has been treating Nolan. He could hate me as much as he wants but Nolan doesn't deserve all the hate he gets."

       "Maybe there's more to more to it than meets the eye," Alan said.

       I raised an eyebrow. "Are you actually defending Brandon being a jerk to Jerome and Nolan?"

       "What? No," Alan said. "...Okay, maybe but in my defence... Well, I actually can't say. He never told me not to tell anyone but I still felt like he told me in confidence so my lips are sealed."

       I was a very confused person right now. For the past few days of Alan working at the North Pole, he was constantly complaining about Brandon and Janelle, and how he couldn't wait for the holidays to be over so he never had to see them again. And now, he wasn't annoyed by Brandon at all.

       I didn't get it at all.

       Alan's cell phone starting ringing so he pulled it out of his pocket. "Ooh, and speaking of..." He answered it and held it up to his ear. "Hey... Not really, no. I just thought it was for decoration... Really? That just makes him even more suspicious... My shift is later today, starting at five. We can check it out then... Okay, I'll see you then."

       "Alright, I'm even more curious," I said. "What's making who even more suspicious?"

       "So at the North Pole, we have this huge red bag sitting in the back of the sleigh," Alan said. "And we never really thought about it but obviously, there's something inside of it to make it seem full so Brandon decided to ask Santa exactly what's in there to make it that way. And Santa got defensive. Like really defensive. As if he was hiding something. Brandon's shift just started so he'll still be working when I get there to start my shift, so we're going to check it out then. So do you believe me now about something weird going on?"

       I sighed. "I can't believe I'm about to say this but yes, I do believe you. And I want to help."

_______________

oof ryder has officially joined the investigation team. 

and my new ship is going to work really well together to take down santa 

i mean what????? what ship?????