A Marvellous Christmas | mcu actors

December 6ᵗʰ

When Elizabeth came back home that day, in her crappy little appartment, she saw the red flashing light of her answering machine. She still had a landline, to a majority of her friends' despair. Letting her handbag crash next to the small table where the machine was, she pushed the flashing button and let the voice of her old friend Kassandra fill the appartment. She was asking for news about her, asking if she was okay, if she had sent her gift to Lucy yet because she hadn't and she had approximatively zero idea so if Elizabeth could call her back and maybe, just maybe, peep her a glimpse of idea, she'd appreciate it really much. Elizabeth shook her head, bemused but still picked up the phone from the base and looked into the contacts on it to find her friend's phone number. As she let the phone dial it down, she went to her bathroom and started a bath, dropping a quarter of a Lush bath bomb in it. Bath bombs were not cheap in that shop but she loved the glitters that came with them so she took the habit of cutting them in four. It made the money worth it. As the water filled the bathtub slowly, her friend's voice exploded in her ear, as usual. Kassandra had always been loud, chirpy, very excentric while Elizabeth was a bit more introverted. Not that she was a complete hermit but she didn't mind being alone and she certainly didn't mind talking at a normal sound level.

"So how have you been doing in that big city of yours?" Kassandra asked, finally.

"Well, I met a guy you know, actually!"

"A co-worker? A friend? Tell me everything, who was it?"

"It's actually a man you haven't met yet but let's say you share a few common interests, especially movie-wise", she smiled, as she put the phone on speaker and got rid of her clothes.

"You met an actor?! No fucking way!!"

"Ahem, yes way", Elizabeth smiled.

"Which one was it? Tell me he's dreamy!"

"He's definitely dreamy, he's one of the Chrises you like so much."

"Shit dude, you met Chris Pine?!"

"Nope, Evans", she sighed, as she entered her hot bath.

"Ouch, girl. R.I.P. your ovaries, I imagine?"

"Well, R.I.P. my book that's for sure. His dog drooled all over the pages and he put dirty paw-imprints all over it."

"You got attacked by his dog? No way!!"

"Kassandra", she laughed. "It's okay, he's nice. Maybe I'll see him again, who knows? He's doing a piece in the theater I like so much."

The end of the evening was spent talking with her friend about her life, about her job, about New York and the magic that was there. They spoke a little about Lucy and how her little girl Lily seemed to grow so fast. Kassandra was dating this guy that she had met a couple of months prior so they spoke about him and concluded that he wasn't the man of her life but he was still nice enough for now. When Elizabeth hung up, it was well past 10pm and she was exhausted. She managed to dine on the leftovers from her fridge and went straight to bed, feeling like she had had the busiest day of the month when really, she didn't do that much.

Days came and went by like leaves falling and growing back on trees. It seemed so slow and at the same time so quick, like a continuous circle that she wouldn't be able to break, no matter how hard she'd try. There were things out of control and Elizabeth learned not to poke into those things. She could have an impact on some others but days: not so much. She would wake up at 7am, take a quick breakfast, pester about her broken coffee machine and sigh about how she couldn't afford a new one. She'd take a shower, apply the smallest bit of eyeliner and mascara, sometimes lipstick if she really was ahead of her usual schedule. She'd dress in her usual skinny jeans, would slip into a woolen jumper if it was cold, in a loose shirt if the weather was okay, a sleeveless blouse if it was summer. She'd wear her usual black Converses, the ones that were starting to really be a catastrophe with holes between the fabric and the white rubber. She'd take a minute to check her purse, make sure everything was in there and would plug earphones on her phone to listen to an audiobook. She wasn't the biggest fan of those, she preferred reading with her own imaginative voices and noises in mind, but headphones were usually a sign to not bother people and she had escaped so many unpleasant behaviors by just having them in the ears that she'd trade them in the subway for nothing in the world. So she had started to listen to audiobooks, so she could still move through the pages, even if she couldn't physically hold them. That day, she was deep into a John Green book when she emerged from the subway. It was pouring and she arrived at work drenched, twisting and squeezing her hair into the pot plant on the counter. She managed to grab a couple of tissues to absorb as much rain as possible and ended up sneezing for the rest of the day. She was freezing, with her damp clothes and her wet hair, she looked like a homeless girl but still, she managed to convince clients to buy more and she cashed all of their baskets with a (tired) smile. Somehow, she resisted the will of staying in bed on the mornings or of going to bed without having dinner, though she reckoned it happened a couple of times. For a couple of weeks, she didn't visit the New York City Center but longed to be there and to get an hour or maybe two for just herself. The stairs were her little haven, her little safe place and she missed it as soon as she went more than a week without sitting there to read.