Aubrey Garcia's Journey home.

Chapter Thirty Nine.

Aubrey was bent over the project she had forgotten to do, trying not to stress herself out. About an hour ago, her Father had come in and asked her if she was ready to come downstairs yet. She wasn't. She really needed to get this last thing done before coming for breakfast, and it would only take a moment. Just one.

She heard a knock at her bedroom door and she turned around. James was standing at the doorway.

"Hey Aub. You okay?"

"I'm fine." She said stiffly, turning back to her project. "I just need to get this done, okay? I'll be down for breakfast in a second. Just... Eat without me or something." James sighed and walked out the doorway. Aubrey felt bad, but she didn't have time to have dinner right now. She had work to do. A small buzz came from her bedroom's landline, so she picked it up with a sigh.

"Aubrey? Hey it's Eliana. Um, James said you were acting weird and wanted to know if it was girl stuff." Aubrey rolled her eyes.

"Look, I'm just busy doing a project. Can everyone leave me alone for five seconds?" The other end went quiet. "I'm sorry, I'm just really stressed with this assignment and-"

"It's okay, I mostly wanted to ask you about tonight. Should we hang out at your house? Or do your parents get upset about that?"

"Look, we can talk about today later. I'm busy and I probably can't hang out now." The line went quiet again.

"Ok. Um. Merry Christmas." The line went dead. Aubrey turned around to go back to her project when Aubrey realized what Eliana had said. Christmas? She ran over to the calendar on her wall and scanned for the date. A small red circle surrounded today's date.

"Oh my God." She murmured, staring at the circled date. It was Christmas. She immediately picked up the phone and dialed Eliana's number. She picked up on the first ring.

"Hey if this is about-"

"Oh my God Eliana I'm so sorry. I didn't realize it was Christmas." Eliana was quiet for a moment.

"You didn't realize it was Christmas?" She said slowly as if Eliana thought she was lying.

"I didn't, Eliana I am so sorry."

She was quiet for a moment more.

"Did you forget to get me a present?"

"No!" She cried, relieved that she wasn't a total failure of a friend. "I remembered. I just didn't remember that today was-"

Eliana laughed. "Oh calm down, I know you wouldn't usually snap at me." Aubrey sighed in relief. "Okay, now I have to go apologize to the rest of my family." Aubrey paused. "Oh and you can come over now if you'd like."

Eliana snorted. "I'm going to be busy until about 7-8 tonight. Can I come over then?" Aubrey nodded vigorously, before remembering that Eliana couldn't hear nodding over the phone.

"Yes! See you then!"

"See you!" Aubrey hung up, then raced downstairs. James, Lexi, Leon, Carter, and Aubrey's Mom and Dad were both sitting at the table, having not eaten anything.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know it was Christmas and-" Her mother waved a hand at her. "It's fine my child. We know you've been stressed, come sit." Aubrey sat down and hesitantly began to eat, before smiling and cramming eggs and english muffins in her mouth. She didn't even stop to question why Lexi was here. 

"Merry Christmas." Carter said, smiling innocently at her. Leon gave a halfhearted wave in her direction and went back to playing on his game boy under the table. She could clearly see that his little rainbow flag sticker had made its way back on to it. Or it was a new sticker. It was hard to tell.