And Then There Was Vince

Chapter 27: Friendsgiving

November came in like a Lion. We had just barely begun to appreciate the change in the leaves when the flurries decided to start pouring in. The temperature dropped quickly, and not a single soul in the town was prepared. My mother spent the majority of her time complaining, cursing any person or store who was prematurely counting down to Christmas, while I personally looked forward to the dimly lit nights full of snow. Winter was my favorite time of the year, even as a naturally cold person.

I spent a lot of my afternoons and free days snuggled up on Vince's couch watching horrible movies, at least when I didn't have somewhere to be with my friends. Ashley made me promise to give them at least two Saturdays a month, but I usually found my way out of her social commitments to go to him and Kelsey's. It was a balancing act, and a very challenging one at that.

I had long since confessed to my mother about Vincent. I figured that things with him had been progressing to a point where she needed to know about them, even if we still weren't official. Honestly, she took it better than I had expected. I only lost my phone for a week and got grounded for just three days. 

She finally confessed to me that she had in fact known I'd been lying to her about a lot of things for so long. She had just been waiting for me to tell her. 

 A week or so before Thanksgiving, we were all invited back to Eric's house for a "Friendsgiving" of sorts. I took a homemade pumpkin pie with me, but wasn't all that surprised when the other contributions ended up being store-bought fried chicken, pizza, bags of chips, and boxed wine. 

"Welcome, friend," Mandy greeted me with a removed wine bag in her hand, a straw stuck inside of it like it was nothing more than an over-sized Capri Sun. Eric quickly scurried up beside her with a very fragrant drink to welcome me in and take my coat. 

After the party a month prior, the pair had been almost insufferably joined at the hip. They were the hottest and most talked about couple at school, second only to Ashley and Alex, who were also obviously in attendance that night. Aside from those four, Liam and I were the only others in attendance. He greeted me warmly, as expected.

"Where's Corinne?" I asked him, accepting a glass full of liquid that burned down my throat as I sipped. 

"She called about an hour ago and said she was sick," He replied, swirling the amber in his own glass around. "It sounded like bullshit to me. They think she actually had to do something with her grandmother, and I've learned she's very embarrassed about things like that."

"Very," I confirmed, accepting a piece of chocolate from the host. "Her grandma made her go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve one year so she had to miss a gift exchange party Ashley was throwing. She was so embarrassed to admit it that she told us she had diarrhea instead. Which, if you ask me, I think one of those is slightly more embarrassing than the other, and it's not church."

He chuckled. 

He'd become one of my closest friends in less than a month. Every time we were together we spoke comfortably. I never felt judged, or cautious of my word choice as I usually did with the others. If I was ever at an awful party, I could usually seek refuge somewhere near him. The fact that I had come to see him as a refuge made me wonder if things could really be smoothed over after all. Day by day I felt more and more isolated when I was with Ashley, as if I'd changed irreversibly when she wasn't around. 

"Say cheeeeeeese!" Mandy shouted as she appeared in front of us, snapping a picture with a legitimate Polaroid camera. "I can't wait for that one to dry!"

She ran off shaking the photo paper.

All in all, the night was rather enjoyable. There wasn't any loud music, and the food was delicious for what it was. I managed to truly have a good conversation with all of them, and felt the warm fuzz of the holiday season setting in. I was actually kind of disappointed when my mother showed up right on time to collect me, even though that had always been something she'd done.

"Do you think Kelsey would be in for a thing like Friendsgiving?" I asked Vince that night through text. 

"Not a chance," He said. "Her interest in holidays exists only around Halloween."

"Well we should do a Friendsgiving," I shot back. "Even if it's just the two of us."

He didn't answer for a while. I wondered if maybe he could have fallen asleep. It was almost midnight after all. 

"My mom and dad are on a work trip until tomorrow. They'll probably bring some fancy cheeses home, like they always do."

"So it's a date then?"

"Yeah, be here at 6."