Tom DeLonge's Intern

Chapter 35: Happy Holidays, you Bastard

(A/N: really long, I'm sorry. But there was a lot to cover. Picture is a reference to Tom's outfit).

Tom's visit to South Carolina was about half a week long. Mark had apparently arrived before Tom did, which irritated Tom, but I had to remind him that Travis and Mark were in a band together and were probably closer than Tom and Travis were. He said that there was a lot of re-hashing of the events that took place right before the hiatus happened, and that things were tense, but after a day or so of coming together for their friend, they were able to have a civil conversation about it. Travis was probably the luckiest person to survive the plane crash; he had come out with injuries that were pretty bad, but he was lucky to be alive. Travis was due to be transferred to a hospital in LA in a few days, but would probably have to have tons of surgeries to repair all the damage from the burns he sustained during the crash and burn of the airplane. The major trauma was taken care of upon the first hours of his arrival to the hospital. Tom was extremely happy and grateful that Travis was alive and able to have coherent conversations with him. Somewhat, at least.

            Thanksgiving came without much warning. Well, besides all of the Fall Holiday décor that littered every single store. I was in a slight panic trying to finish baking the turkey shaped cookies to bring to the Thanksgiving dinner at Connie's house. Tom and his mom had been going back and forth for a few days trying to decide whether or not to have dinner at our house or hers, and they finally settled on Tom's childhood home. I was only slightly nervous about meeting the rest of Tom's family; really, I just hadn't met his mom or his older brother yet. Tom's dad was a subject we never talked about, so I wasn't sure if I was ever going to meet him. His grandparents were out of town, so it was just going to be a small gathering. Connie insisted that we not bring any food and that she had plenty, but I thought it would look good if I brought some kind of post-dessert snack anyways.

            "Next year, I think we should have our first Thanksgiving together." Tom mumbled from behind his laptop screen. He was sitting at the island, doing work on his computer while I struggled with the cookies at the stove directly in front of him.

            "Yeah? Are you going to sit there and do that while I struggle with the cooking next year too?" I replied, opening the oven door and checking to make sure the cookies looked like they were a nice gold-brown color.

            Tom made a noise that sounded like he took a breath through gritted teeth. "Ouch, Chloe."

            I grabbed the pan of cookies and placed them on the stove, turning around to face him. He closed his computer quickly then looked at me. "I'm kidding. You have no choice but to help me if you want to eat, anyways. Maybe Connie will give me some cooking tips." I flung the oven mitt I had been wearing for the past couple minutes at him. Tom winced in anticipation of it hitting his face, but it smacked against his Macbeth shirt instead.

            "Are we going to see your parents at all this year? I feel like it's been ages since I've seen your mom. Are they even cooking?" Tom asked, resting his chin on his knuckles after tossing the oven mitt back at me, but failing to hit me with it. Instead, it landed on the countertop next to the stove. "I meant to do that." 

            I rolled my eyes at him before answering the more pressing question at hand. "That's a good question. God, I'm such a horrible daughter." And I was. My parents had no idea what I was up to these days. They knew I was back together with Tom, but I'm not sure if they knew that I was living with him again. Or that I got a raise and was making pretty good money now. I had been so focused on my relationship and working that I pretty much pushed everyone else important to me away. It's not that I didn't keep in contact with anyone, it was just that I forgot to half the time.