I finish wiping my hands after wrapping up one last oil change, tossing the rag at one of the sinks once they’re clean. After that, I then begin to briskly walk, taking a look around at the garage and going over to the small office in the back. The garage interior is somewhat well put together, having two spaces for cars to be worked on with one large tool cart for each. Hydraulic lifts are set up at each station as well, the machinery being a bit old but still in perfect working order. Once arriving at the back of the shop, I poked my head into the room.

“I’m all finished over here, can you lock up alright by yourself?” I say, looking over to my boss Nyx. She has a bit of a weird name but it’s just a nickname. Her actual name is Nicole Anderfield, but she likes Nyx better. It sounds tougher or something.

She glances up at me from her paperwork and gives a quick nod, shuffling some papers together before responding, “Yeah, go have fun on your date…”

Nyx holds up her finger to stop me from leaving, standing up and walking out from behind her desk. The ever-present stern expression on her weathered, dark face greeting me after she sets down the paperwork. Her brown eyes looking into my own before her demeanor relaxes into one of slight happiness, a rare smile appearing alongside it. She now turns to fully face me, inadvertently giving me a full view of her figure that I or any other guy would take. Standing just under a foot shorter than me with a somewhat round build. She also has a decent amount of muscle thanks to her profession regardless even if she was a little round.

She pushes an envelope into my hand after making her way over to me “And Merry Christmas, Jason.”

I glance down at the envelope and go to open it while questioning the gift, “But Christmas is tomorrow?”

She quickly smacks my hand, stopping me before I open it and replies a bit sternly, returning to her previous attitude. “I’m not gonna see you tomorrow, and wait til you’re alone with your girl. It’s for the both of you.”

I let out a quick chuckle and shook my hand in mock pain, “Whatever you say boss”, alongside that as a quick response. Slipping it into my pocket and turning my joking pain into a wave goodbye before making my way out of the shop afterwards. Entering into the cold outside.

As I exit the shop I see a very familiar figure parking her bright red motorcycle and dismounting it, removing her helmet, and shaking her head to loosen her crimson hair as she does so. She quickly puts it into a ponytail before removing her leather jacket to reveal her red flannel top over her thin but athletic body. I approach her as she turns to face me with a smile on her pale face, her bright blue eyes staring at me lovingly before I reach her. Wrapping my arms around her, pulling her into a gentle kiss, and holding it for a few seconds before slowly pulling away. Each of us takes a moment to look at each other.

“Is Azura going to be okay alone with your dad?” I ask, feeling a bit worried about her. Cass gave me a quick and reassuring response.

“He’s taken care of me alone since I was six, I think he can handle our newborn for a few hours.”

I give a slow nod, “Yeah, I’m sure he can, but I’m still worried. She’s barely three weeks old.”

She gives me a comforting smile on top of everything else while grabbing her cream colored cowgirl hat from her bag and putting it on, “He can handle it. Now, let’s get moving Firecracker, we’ve got a date to have.”

She enters the passenger side of my beat up truck, painted about the same color as her bike, and I quickly get into the driver's seat. Starting it up and pulling out of the parking lot of the auto shop.

🜂🜂🜂

“So, have you thought about colleges yet?” Cass asks me while waiting at a red light.

“No, I’ve still got like a year and a half, and you already know I’ll probably just keep working at the shop after I graduate.”

She lets out a little sigh, the light turning green a moment later. I ask her a question once we’re moving again “Still set on going to Stanford, Cass?”

“Yeah, it’s a pretty damn good Medical school and I’ve already applied for a scholarship there. Hopefully they’ll accept me and I won’t have to stress dad about it.” She responds, eyes on the road, and I smile at her. I’d always love how she thinks about the feelings of others

I give a slight nod as we pull into the parking lot at the local park and grab my bag, getting out of the truck a moment later and helping Cass out of the passenger side. Snow begins to fall as we make our way down the path. The vibrant green grass of the park slowly becomes covered by the falling snow. A nearby pond is mostly frozen over as well, a fun place to ice skate if you can do so without being caught.

We settled down below a large tree a few minutes later, pulling out a blanket from my bag to place over the snow covered grass and sitting down on it. I grabbed a couple of tupperware containers full of soup and handed one to her, beginning to eat as she spoke up. “Back to our conversation topic from a minute ago, do you think you’ll be alright without me once I leave for college?”

I give a nervous smile in her direction, “Well, I’ll have your dad, and Izzy, and Thea”

“And your mom” I sigh and look at her, feeling annoyed but she continues to speak before I can respond. “And I know she’s your step-mom, but she’s the only mom you’ve ever had, so I’m gonna keep calling her that no matter what you say.”

I sigh a bit exaggeratedly before leaning forward to kiss her, “Whatever you say babe”

I suddenly remembered the envelope Nyx had given me and pulled it out, showing it to her.

“What’s that?” Cass asks, setting down her soup to examine it for a moment before handing it back to me.

“According to Nyx, our Christmas present”, I responded, opening it up quickly and pulling out what was inside, now holding a Christmas card I opened it up, a few dollar bills falling out and I ignored them for now as I read the writing inside the card.

“Merry Christmas Jason and Cassidy, while I am usually a hard ass and seem uninterested in whatever personal bullshit people have going on I have enjoyed watching you two over the last year since you began working for me, and especially so watching you stress over becoming a parent, you’re handling this a lot better than I’d expect a couple of high schoolers to and it makes me proud. So here’s some extra cash to help you with the process of taking care of that little girl you two made.”

A smile spreads across my face after reading out her message, Cass counting the money as I had done so and gasping afterwards.

“This is fifteen-hundred dollars!”, she exclaimed excitedly.

“Wait, are you fucking serious?” I responded as I snatched the money from her and counted it myself to be sure, and Cass was right, fifteen-hundred dollars for the two of us. “What the fuck Nyx…” I pull out my wallet and put the cash away, still feeling confused but uplifted by the gift from my boss, unsure of how to exactly react.

“Well uh, this is a great start to our date huh?” I say after a moment, trying to recollect my composure. Cassidy nodded excitedly with a big grin across her face before I asked her a question. “And uh … you think you’ll have time to swing by my house before going home, Jess misses seeing you around, and I think she wants to see the baby too.”

She smiles more and nods “I can try, but you’re gonna owe me.” She gives a slight wink and leans forward to kiss me again, gently cupping my face before pulling away, leaving a slight blush on my face.

“And, what exactly did you have in mind, Cass?” I say with a sly grin, looking her over for a moment before returning to making eye contact.

“What do you think, lover-boy?” She gives me another wink and a quiet chuckle.

I grin more at her before pushing her onto her back and leaning over her, looking down as she blushes deeply. “Why don’t we get it done now?”

“It’s b-been a while since I’ve done this Jason, so I’d rather we do it properly, in a bed and such.” I nod, feeling a bit disappointed but accepting her request, getting off of her and sitting back down on the blanket while helping her up at the same time.

“You’re no fun Cass, but I suppose you should have your way. You just gave me the greatest person in my life afterall, aside from Jessica.” I tease, smirking at her.

“Oh, so your baby sister is more important than me, thanks a lot jackass.” She gives me a somewhat hard shove as she chuckles, faking some anger at my comment.

“What if she is? I’ve known her for longer.” I push her back, Cassidy letting out a yelp as she falls onto her back.

“Oh you’re gonna get it!” She gets up and tackles me, pinning me to the ground by my wrists. I fake a struggle to escape and smile up at her while she leans down to kiss me again, however we are interrupted by the sound of snow crunching under approaching footsteps.

I look over and see a trio of men watching us from about 30 feet away, I gently move Cassidy off of me and try to collect our things to leave, but am interrupted by one of them calling out to us.

“Hey, where’re you going, we were enjoying the show!” The largest of the men had been the one to call out.

I stop what I’m doing, looking over at the three men as I toss our things onto the ground, now getting a better look at them. They all seem to be in their late 20s to early 30s. The large guy is Caucasian with dark brown hair that’s cut short and some stubble. The next largest being of a darker complexion and a shaved head while the last is fairly scrawny with neck length blond hair, and paler than the first man.

“Jason, let’s just get out of here”, Cass takes my hand, already knowing what was about to happen, but I pull away from her grasp.

“No, I wanna know why these assholes think they can talk to us like that and watch a couple teens like a bunch of creeps.” I stood up, feeling my deep well of anger rise as I began approaching them and stopped once I was about five feet away. I was at least a couple inches shorter than the large guy, a few taller than the darker man and about the same as the scrawny man. “So, why do you think you can be a bunch of asshats like that?”

The large man responds while looking down at me, “Because we can, and seems like you’re just a little punk trying to act like a big man, so you deserve i-”

He is cut off as I slam my fist into his jaw with a quick left hook, making him stumble back as his two buddies move to grab my arms to restrain me. I struggle out of their grasp, elbowing the scrawny guy in the nose while headbutting the darker man before shoving the two of them away. The big guy tackles me to the ground and pins my arm as I try to punch him with it before slamming his fist into my cheek, the pain washes through my face as I try to hit him again. However I feel something impact the side of my head, dazing me enough to make me drop my fist before I can take the swing.

“Fucking punk!” The large man spits blood onto my face as I now realize one of his friends, the scrawny one, kicking me in the head was the impact from a moment ago. “I’ll teach you a lesson for fucking with me!” He goes to bring his fist down onto me again when a boot slams into his face, knocking him off of me. I see Cassidy standing over me as she dodges a hit from the scrawny guy, grabbing his arm after and throwing him to the ground before he can react.

I slowly get up to my feet, still a bit dazed from the kick and barely manage to dodge a punch from the darker man, slamming my fist into his gut once I’m in the clear. He takes the hit rather well and pushes me onto the ground, trying to get atop me like the larger man had, but I manage to flip it so I end up on top and begin to mercilessly pummel him as I see Cass dominating the scrawny guy in a chokehold. I deliver one last punch to the man below me, knocking out a few teeth and sending him into unconsciousness. As I stand I feel a sharp, stinging pain in my knuckles, looking down at them I see my flesh cut in some places from the brawl, and covered in blood from these cuts and from the man I just beat down.

I’m trying to shake off the lingering daze when I suddenly feel white hot pain in my abdomen. I look down to see the handle of a knife sticking out of the left side of my abdomen, the hand of the large man wrapped around it before he yanks it out. In my shock I noticed that the blade of the knife was very large before I saw the blood begin to pour from the wound, staining my clothing and the snow below me red. I feel my knees wobble before my legs give out, falling into a kneeling position and the man boots me in the face, sending me sprawling to the ground. I move my hand to put pressure on the wound as I watch Cass turn and see me, yelling out my name as she gets up, rushing to help me.

“Jason, hold on!” I hear as my vision fades … and I wake up…