𝐂𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐌𝐀𝐒 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊-Louis Partridge

1: LOUIS

LOUIS

━━━━━━━━━━

Christmas. The most predictable time of the year when people change the word "happy" to "jolly". And now, here I am, walking around New York; sirens wailing from a distance with the wind blowing my scarf, and horrible Christmas songs coming in and out of my ears.

I step into a café.

"It's Christmas!" I groan to my friend, Erin.

He works as a barista here in our neighborhood. Since his Christmas break had already started, he's starting to fill up funds for college.

"Yeah, it's been a year since you broke up with..."

"Go on, say her name. She's not Voldemort."

Even though I insisted that Erin could say her name, he knew I was really bothered by it.

It's hard; the way things end up in a relationship, how all feelings for one another slowly fade away, how soon a person knew it was going to end but you didn't.

"Oh, wait."

"Your letter came in," he smirked.

It's not a college acceptance letter or something. It's an actual letter; from a real person if you know what I mean. It could've been through text, but we prefer mailing each other stuff. Specifically, letters.

I don't know her name. I never did.

We weren't ready to tell each other our names until now. So, we made pen names for each other. Mine is London and hers is Paris. Yes, she does live in Paris. Mine has always been London ever since before I got stranded in New York.

The truth is, my family and I were planning on spending Christmas in New York. I decided to come earlier and my family got stuck in London because of the pandemic, coronavirus; remember?

Now back to the point, Paris wrote me another letter today. She doesn't know my exact address so she sends it here in the café. And me? I always send her letters to a library in Paris.

"Here." He hands me the envelope. "Open it."

I tear open the envelope and smiled at how adorable she always makes her letters. There's glitter on it; green and red, perfect for Christmas.

I narrow my eyebrows. "She's spending Christmas in New York?"

"Really?" Erin replies, spreading his hands happily.