and the stars will all come out

chapter thirty-six! ☆

"THIS IS ABOUT TO BE THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS EVE EVER."

Landry was staring at the pine trees rushing past as Dave drove, her heart pounding excitedly in her chest. Her duffel bag was in her lap, it was the time of year where it was so cold outside Dave had to turn the heat all the way up to be comfortable, and for the first time in forever, she was actually excited for Christmas.

She looked back at him. "It better be."

Dave smiled at her. "I'll make sure of it."

☆

WHEN THEY GOT TO THE CABIN, TAYLOR WAS IN THE KITCHEN, MAKING HOT CHOCOLATE.

"Hey, guys!" he said merrily, as he poured a steaming chocolate mixture into four red mugs. He was shirtless like basically always, even in winter, except this time he was wearing a Santa hat. "I'm making us hot chocolate, the Taylor way."

"It has booze in it, doesn't it?" Landry immediately asked.

"Fuck yeah it does. Tonight is going to be rad. You can just dump your stuff downstairs, Nate's getting everything set up. We're gonna drink, smoke, maybe play a bit of holiday tunes if it doesn't make our ears bleed..."

"You need help with anything, T?" Dave asked, and Landry adjusted her heavy duffel bag on her shoulder and descended downstairs.

To her surprise, the basement wasn't the equipment-filled, beer can and ashtray littered haven it always was: Nate had arranged four large air mattresses around the Christmas tree in a bit of a maze, which he was noisily filling with air. Presents were jammed in every available corner, festively wrapped. The basement was almost overflowing with gifts. Last year, she would've found it uncomfortable, even claustrophobic. She didn't seem to have that fear now.

Landry's breath caught in her throat. She could see a pile of presents marked with her name, even from the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey, Lani," Nate said, somewhat distracted as he mercilessly hammered the pump, up and down, up and down. "This is a pain in the ass. But I'm almost done."

"We all sleeping down here tonight?" she asked.

"I figured that would be easier, considering Taylor's just gonna wake us all up at five o'clock in the morning anyway."

She laughed as she set down her duffel bag. "Okay."

"Taylor bought some drinking game from this sex shop the other day. It's either gonna be ridiculously entertaining, or wildly uncomfortable."

"Probably a little bit of both," she said just as Dave and Taylor were coming downstairs, holding two mugs each.

"For you, ma'am," Dave said unnecessarily poshly, handing her a mug, and she took it, feeling the warmth fill her palm. "Thanks."

Landry took a hasty sip, whipped cream mixing with froth and melted chocolate, found it didn't taste overtly like alcohol, and set it down.

"So you were in a sex shop the other day?" she asked Taylor.

"Yep, D came too," he said proudly, and Landry resisted the urge to shoot a meaningful glance at Dave, wondering if he was thinking about the basement bathroom.

Taylor continued on, not noticing. "Found this drinking game. We got a bottle of whiskey once we run out of the hot chocolate. The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of getting drunk in the name of friendship, so if anybody has any dark secrets they'd like to share..."

He gave Dave such a knowing look that Landry's heart couldn't help but spasm a little in her chest.

"...Now's the time."