Secret Santa Set-Up

Friends-Giving

  "No, no, no!" Calliope yells as she runs towards her kitchen, as the fire alarm goes off. She groans when she reaches the smoke filled room, pulling open the oven to find her turkey has nearly become completely burnt. "Wonder if I can pass it off as blackened," she tosses the pan into the sink, groaning as her doorbell goes off.  She grabs up a hand towel, waving it back and forth quickly under the alarm, trying to get the smoke to clear away from the disc that continues to blast its annoyance through the apartment. 

  Teetering on her heels, she unlocks her door, not even looking through the peep hole to see who it is. "Come in!" she calls out, moving towards the other side of the apartment to open the windows that overlook the alley below. 

  "What the hell happened here?" Lucy whines, skirting her way through the apartment amidst the smoke and impending chaos that everyone knew would ensue with granting Calliope her wish of making the turkey.

  Calliope jogs into the kitchen, waving the towel once more, pushing the smoke away from the detector. "You let me cook. Enough said," she rolls her eyes at her best friend who remains standing with her hands on her hips. 

  "Good thing I brought these then," Lucy says over her shoulder as she goes back towards the apartment door. When she returns she's carrying five frozen pizzas. 

  "Love the vote of confidence, Luce."

  "I just know you, my dear Calli Kaye. If the turkey had turned out then I'd have slid these in the freezer for our next girl's night. Instead they'll go great with the Thanksgiving side dishes," she tosses a wink at her friend, plopping the frozen pizzas onto the counter. "Oven to 400 please."

  She flips the dial over to 400 before grabbing up the pizza pan. "I had high hopes. I followed the directions exactly how they said to. I don't understand. It should've still had like, another hour to cook. How did it get like this?" Calliope taps against the charbroiled bird that sits in her sink. 

  Lucy's eyes flick between the fowl and the oven, curiosity winning out. "Did you ever get the dial fixed?"

  Calliope's blue eyes look back at her friend. "It just fell off, I popped it right back on."

  Digging through a drawer next to the oven, Lucy pulls out a thermometer and drops it in the oven on the rack. Within two minutes, the oven dial that shows 400, is actually giving the heat off of 500 degrees. 

  "I quit!" Calliope tosses her hands in the air, tears threatening to make themselves known. 

  "No, you don't," her friend warns her, pushing the frozen pizzas into the freezer before turning the oven off completely. She passes her cell phone to the woman, "The Pizzeria on Main is still open. Call them and order for delivery."

  "Such a friggin failure," Calliope whines to herself as she takes the cell down the hall into her bedroom. 

  Five years ago at the age of twenty-three, she and Lucy had decided to begin an annual Friends-Giving event the night after Thanksgiving. It had been the same year that Calliope's parents had divorced, demanding that she spend the day split in half, giving her entire day to the two of them separately. Now at twenty-eight, the event had grown in numbers, giving each of their friends a place to vent post holiday experiences with their own families. 

  "I heard that crap!" Lucy calls out from the hall. "Knock it off with that kind of talk."

  Calliope orders the pizzas and rejoins her friend who is giving her the look as she walks out. "Why? It's the truth. Just ask my father and the latest woman in line to be my next step mother."

  "That's a bunch of nonsense and you know it." 

  "Not according to Sierra," Calliope pauses, her eyes dancing across her ceiling, "Sienna? Siesta?"