Max & Chloe's Hella Shitty Coffee (Life is Strange)

Chapter 20

Christmas Eve with the Caulfield family meant two things: board games and chocolate. Every year they would start with Uno around midday, move onto monopoly once the arguments got too intense, and finish was risk when Ryan was inevitably caught cheating, or someone flipped the board in rage over their bankruptcy. Every year it was a test to their strength as a family and every year they swore that on next Christmas Eve they would start a new tradition. This year was no different. Max stormed out of the room when the plus 4 card was used on her 3 times in a row, Ryan was caught cheating and also managed to find himself in bankruptcy, and Vanessa made terrible defensive decisions in Risk, getting angrier and angrier every time a territory was taken away from her.

Evening rolled by and the three of them were barely on speaking terms, and so, they each retreated into separate rooms of the house for the remainder of Christmas EVE. As she did every year, Max zipped up her thickest coat, snuck out her bedroom window, and went to join Fernando and Kristen who were already sat at a bench overlooking Green Lake. The three of them had been trading gifts in secret Santa fashion on Christmas Eve at that very bench for the last three years. The secret part of secret Santa was something they had never been able to master, given that there were only three of them it was easy to guess who had who. This year Max had Kristen, Kristen had Fernando and Fernando had Max.

"She makes it at last!" Kristen exclaimed. "Get your butt over here Caulfield I wanna know what you got me."

"What makes you think I got you?" Max replied to which Kristen simply raised her eyebrows. They spent some time catching up on the last couple of months of each other's lives. Kristen was attending the University of Washington, and so was still living at home, while Fernando was studying in Colorado. Fernando caught Kristen and Max up on discovery of girls, Max caught Fernando and Kristen up on her and Chloe, and Kristen caught Max and Fernando up on nothing because 'life had been boring since they left'.

They each exchanged gifts, Max was now the proud owner of a Colorado State University Jumper which was accompanied by a matching scarf and stationary set. He had likely done his Christmas shopping last minute and decided merchandise from the campus shop would do, still it was better than the gift of nothing (in the form of a bag of air) and unicorn mask he had given her on their first year of secret Santa.

"I want pictures of you wearing that around UCLA." He told her. Max assured him that he would be receiving photos of no such sort because Max had no desire to get abused over being a traitor to her own university.

They stayed together, sat by the lake through to the countdown to midnight, they wished each other a happy Christmas and went separate ways home. For the fourth year in a row, Max snuck back in through her window undetected a little after midnight and as she had every year for as long as she could remember, Max snuggled into her soft, warm bed, and lay awake all night as if she was still and excitable five year old waiting for Santa to drop down her chimney. Max had tried to pass hours with Chloe, but Chloe's exact words were "I love you Max, but I love sleep more." She had also messaged Victoria who had happily kept her company playing words with friends with her until 3am, but then she grew tired and left Max to wait impatiently for her parents to wake.

Around 7.30am Max's tiredness finally got the best of her and she started to drift off into a half asleep/half-awake state. This was short-lived however, as around 8am her parents awoke fully refreshed and came into Max's room playing loud Christmas music and telling her to get up. Now that the option was there, Max wanted nothing more than to hug her bed, still, she followed her parents downstairs, nonetheless.

Now that Max was older, unwrapping gifts held much less excitement. Her father smiled and claimed to like the jumper Max has bought him, though Max was certain he'd never wear it. Her mother thanked her for the bottle of her favourite perfume even though she already had a full bottle in her bedroom. Max opened the envelope from her parents, it held an open-ended ticket allowing her to visit home next semester. It was a present more for her parents than it was for Max, but she feigned happiness and thanked them both.