{{Dedicated to @randomlydancing for being lovely}}

Rhea's eyebrows were pulled together in concentration as she secured the back clasp of her earring. It was an early Christmas present and she'd decided to wear it to school on the last day before Christmas break.

Right before they'd parted ways after their impromptu shopping trip, Xander had procured a small velvet box from his coat pocket and passed it to Rhea with a smug smile on his face.

She'd opened the box to find silver snowflake-shaped stud earrings that looked like they cost her entire shopping budget. "Merry Christmas," he'd said as she'd inspected the earrings with an awestruck look.

She couldn't figure out when he'd gotten these when they'd been together for the entirety of the shopping trip but then she'd proceeded to procure the gloves she'd bought for him from the store they'd bought Luke's sweater while he was trying the sweater on to get feel of whether it would fit Luke or not. "Merry Christmas," she'd said as she passed the shopping bag to him. "I didn't have enough time to get them gift-wrapped, because someone was calling out my name from the dressing rooms like an impatient toddler."

They'd both chuckled.

***

School was so slow that day, Rhea felt like ripping her own hair out. She was so ready for a week long break from everything that she was practically counting down the minutes.

She sat in Chemistry class and listened to Mr. Martin talk and talk and talk.

It was the last period of the day, as well as the last period before Christmas break, so one would expect Mr. Martin to go easy on them, but no, he'd dumped an experiment on them, expecting a report by the end of class, complete with a diagram and all.

She pulled her hair up in a ponytail to get it out of her face, like she always did whenever they were assigned an experiment. She started copying the instructions on the board down to her notebook, her eyebrows pinching together in concentration while Caleb went towards the cabinets to retrieve the necessary equipment.

Just as she was writing down the last words, Caleb returned with one of his arms full of equipment. With the other, he threw a goggle at her, which she managed to catch without effort. This had become a thing for them—sort of a challenge—after the first time she'd hit him square in the face with a pair of goggles to see who would succeed in catching the other off guard. For now, the score was 3-1 in Rhea's favor but Caleb always chalked it up to him being sleep deprived and distracted because of it. Rhea had recently begun calling him out on abusing his sob story to get out of being a loser with no hand-eye coordination. He'd chuckle every time.

Caleb sat down next to her with an exaggerated sigh and said, "If only I got to sleep eight hours every night."

"Please, you still wouldn't know what hit you half the time."

He let out yet another chuckle. "New earrings?" he asked. Then he picked up a graduated cylinder to start measuring the chemicals.

"Yeah," she said, smiling to herself slightly. She felt bad about feeling good that he'd noticed. "Christmas present."

"Yeah? From who?"

"Xander," she answered matter-of-factly.

Upon her proclamation, Caleb looked up from the equipment in his hands with raised eyebrows. "You guys are hanging out?"

"I don't know... I guess?" she said unsurely. Even though Caleb's tone had been casual, Rhea felt like he wasn't entirely pleased with the situation.

"Cool," Caleb said. He then turned back to the task at hand, making it clear he wasn't interested in discussing the topic further.

They worked together in silence after that, completing the task merely minutes before the bell.

After the class was over, Rhea asked Caleb if he could hang around for one second. They left Mr. Martin's class together and made their way towards Rhea's locker where she was keeping Caleb's present.

She retrieved it with slightly trembling hands. She was nervous all of a sudden.

"Merry Christmas," she said as she passed it to him. She'd wrapped it herself in sparkly wrapping paper.

What he did next surprised her. He reached inside his bag and retrieved a gift himself. She hadn't expected him to buy her a present, which was the main reason why she was so nervous about her own gift. "Merry Christmas," he said with a smile.

"Let's open them at the same time," she proposed, that way they could avoid all the awkwardness of watching each other react to their presents for the first time. They did a count of three and ripped open the wrappings at the same time.

A moment later, they looked up at each other and burst into laughter; they both had the same thing in their hands, albeit in different colors.

"Because it's winter and you walk back home from work late at night," she explained herself.

"Because it's winter and you insist on walking yourself home from places late at night," Caleb countered.

They'd both bought woolen scarves—Caleb a dark red one for Rhea and Rhea a grey and white striped one for Caleb.

"Thank you," she said with a smile ever present on her face. "I love it." She wrapped the scarf around her neck to prove her point.

"I love it too," he said, wrapping his own scarf around his neck. Then he did yet another thing that surprised Rhea.

He pulled her in for a hug.

It was winter now and they were bundled up in layers and layers of clothing, which meant there was little to no skin to skin contact but being in his embrace still felt like ripples of electricity on every inch of her skin.

She realized that was something that she'd missed in her brief relationship with Floyd. Sure, it was hot when they were making out in his car but it was never electric. She'd only hugged Caleb and her whole body was responding to him in a way it had never done to Floyd.

As she was having these thoughts, something happened. First, Caleb's arms tightened around her body just the slightest bit and then he let out a sigh and his grip became somewhat sluggish.

Realizing the hug was bordering on inappropriately long, Rhea disentangled herself from Caleb and gave him a shaky smile. Caleb's face, however, was devoid of a smile; he looked almost sad.

Rhea didn't have any time to decipher what just happened because Caleb mumbled out a quick "see you after the break," and left.

Rhea was feeling dazed after that exchange, in all the time she'd been Caleb's friend, they'd never had an exchange remotely like that one and it left her confused. She walked out of the school with a ten minute delay and found that Willa's car was parked and she was sitting inside, waiting for her. Rhea had let her know beforehand that she'd be giving Caleb her present after school.

"So, how did it go?" was the first thing that Willa said to her when she opened the door to the passenger side and got in.

"It was... I don't know, kind of weird." With that, she set off to tell Willa all about the presents, the hug and the way Caleb abruptly took off afterwards.

When she was done, Willa said, "Okay, that does sound kind of weird and I know you want to dissect the whole thing and overthink it to the point of exhaustion, but I think you need a break from Caleb. This whole thing has been messing with your head for weeks and you need to take some time off. So I say don't think about it for a while. At least for as long as we're on Christmas break."

"You're right, I do need a break." She sighed, rubbing at her temples. "Hey, do you want to get some coffee?"

"Can't," Willa said, taking her eyes off the road for a moment to shoot her an apologetic look. "I'm meeting Wade in an hour. But we're still on for pancakes tomorrow, right?"

"Sure." Pancakes on Christmas Eve was sort of their tradition and she wouldn't miss it for the world.

***

When Rhea made it through the door, she was greeted with the smell of cinnamon and fresh pine, which let her know her grandparents had finally arrived. She knew it instantly for two reasons: one, her grandma was famous for her cinnamon rolls and two, even though most people got their Christmas tree way earlier, they always waited for her grandparents to come into town to get a tree. That way, they'd get to decorate the tree together.

When she entered the living room, she saw that everyone was seated together. The first one to notice her entrance was Arthur, her grandfather, who stood up to greet her.

"Annabelle," he said, opening his arms to envelop her in a hug. He was the only one who called her by her middle name and Rhea secretly loved it. "You've grown up so much."

"Hey grandpa, it's so good to see you," she said. It really was.

Then, she went to give her grandma a hug as well. She sat down next to her, threw her arms around her and buried her face in her chest for a couple long seconds. Her grandma smelled like soap, just like she always did, and it brought a serene feeling to Rhea, as if she was a little child once again, spending the summer with her grandparents in their home.

"I've missed you guys so much," she said when she'd finally broken apart from her grandma.

"We could really tell by your nonexistent phone calls," her grandma said teasingly, though there was no bite or resentment in her voice. Rhea was still embarrassed though; she should have been a better grandchild and called more often.

"I'm so sorry, grandma," she said. "I've just been so caught up in things this year."

"It's okay sweetie. Believe it or not, we were young once." After she said that, she turned to wink at her husband, which in turn made Rhea snicker. Her grandparents never missed a chance to remind everyone of the fact that they'd had their own love story back in the day.

The night before Christmas Eve was spent eating a delicious dinner prepared with the help of everyone and decorating the Christmas tree. Just like every single year, the honor of placing the star to the top of the tree was given to Rhea. When she was really little, her father would lift her up to assist her, now she was a big girl capable of doing the task on her own, yet her father still insisted on giving her a boost anyway. Then, he made a joke about her getting heavier each year—it was sort of a Christmas tradition by now.

When it was nearing eleven, Rhea went into the kitchen to make everyone hot chocolate—yet another thing that had become a tradition over time.

Next morning, Rhea woke up around ten to see the streets had been covered with a blanket of snow overnight. She smiled to herself in delight; she'd always loved white Christmases.

She quickly hopped into the shower and then threw on a thick sweater, a pair of jeans and boots. She decided to forego makeup, seeing it would only be Wade and Willa anyway.

Half an hour later, she was sat across from her friends in The Chipped Cup. Despite being a coffee shop, this place served the best pancakes in town.

They ordered their food and drinks and while they waited, Wade spoke up with a teasing glint in his eyes, "So, Rhea... How's it going with Caleb?" He waggled his eyebrows. Rhea had known this was coming. In the past couple of weeks, Wade had never missed opportunity to tease Rhea about her crush on Caleb. Rhea had a feeling that if he knew her feelings might run deeper than a crush, he'd never let her live it down.

Before Rhea could open her mouth to respond, Willa lightly smacked Wade on his arm with the back of her hand. "Babe, no. No Caleb for a week. Rhea is in Caleb-detox."

"Really?" Wade asked with raised eyebrows. When Rhea gave him a nod in confirmation he said, "Well, good for you, Ree. But just for the record, if he wasn't taken, I'd 100% root for you guys, he seems like he would be good to you."

"Babe, you're not helping," Willa mock-whispered and they all chuckled.

"Thanks, you guys," Rhea said, touched by the way her friends were both looking out for her in their own ways.

A moment later their food arrived and everyone fell silent as they stuffed their faces with pancakes.

***

Christmas Eve at the Myers household was pretty much similar to the day before. They ate delicious food, sat together and talked until late at night. Rhea lost count of the number of cinnamon rolls she all but inhaled and she was pretty sure she'd be putting on a good couple of pounds before her grandparents left town.

"You still haven't told us about your soulmate, Annabelle," her grandfather said as they sat together.

Rhea had been waiting for that comment ever since her grandparents had arrived. Frankly, she was surprised they'd lasted as long as they did without asking.

"It's sort of complicated at the moment, grandpa," she said.

"It always is," her grandmother said, patting Rhea's knee. "Tell us about him!"

"Well, his name is Caleb," she said. "He goes to school with me."

"Is he... how do the kids say it these days... fine?" her grandmother asked with a teasing raise of eyebrows.

First, Rhea's face flushed red and then she burst into laughter. "That's not at all what kids say these days, grandma," she said. When Clarice kept on giving her an expectant look, she caved. "Yes, he is quite good looking."

"Well, that never hurts. Now tell me, why is it complicated?"

"Because he has a girlfriend of three years."

"That's quite the complication. Did you know your grandfather was engaged when I met him?" Rhea's jaw dropped at the information. In all the times she'd listened to her grandmother regale the tale of how they'd met, she never remembered hearing of such a thing.

"You never told me that," she said disbelievingly.

"You were too innocent," her grandmother responded with the same teasing twinkle ever present in her eyes.

"Did you break them up?" The thought was scandalous in Rhea's eyes.

"I guess that's a secret we'll be carrying to our graves, isn't it my love?" she said, turning to her husband and winking at him. Arthur shook his head, amused at his wife's antics.

***

On Christmas morning, they had an amazing breakfast followed by Rhea's favorite event of the entire holiday—opening the presents.

She'd gotten a silver bracelet with little star-shaped charms on it and a blue sweater from her grandparents. She immediately put both on.

Her parents' present was the best thing she could have asked for—they had gotten her a bike. One of those cute ones with little baskets attached to their handle bars, no less. Rhea had wanted one ever since her old bike was stolen. She liked the freedom of riding to the school by herself in spring when the weather was nice.

"The next one could be a car if you'd just get your driver's license," her father said after she'd given them both hugs. Rhea refused to get her license until the last possible minute, which would be the summer she'd leave for college. Her father, on the other hand, wanted her to do it as soon as possible, so he'd made it a habit to remind her of all the possible perks of having her driver's license.

As she sat huddled up between her mother and her grandmother, listening to them chat back and forth about what was the best way to make cranberry sauce, Rhea once again realized how much she'd lucked out in the family department.

***

Mission Christmas without Caleb had mostly been a success, except for those times her mind would do as it pleased and start bringing up all sorts of memories, dreams and expectations involving Caleb. Those times were rarer than they'd been and Rhea managed to tolerate them as best as she could. She devoted most of her time to her family, spent as much time with her grandparents as she could and had a marvelous Christmas in general. But then it all changed when her phone rang on New Year's Eve.

She'd refused to go out with Wade and Willa and was curled up in her bed with a book, ready to spend the last day of the year in peace and quiet, so she felt a strong urge to just ignore the call but when the caller wouldn't hang up she caved and reached for her phone. The call was from an unknown number, which was strange. No one ever used their phone to call someone anymore when there was an easier and less socially awkward way to communicate—texting that is.

"Hey Rhea," a familiar voice said. She couldn't instantly place who it was.

"Hi. I'm sorry, who is this?"

"It's Xander."

"Oh. How did you—"

"Get your number? From Caleb's phone. Look, I need your help." She sat up in her bed at the urgency in his voice.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Caleb's sort of drunk off his ass right now and I don't think I can handle him by myself for much longer."

She took the phone away from her ear for a second to check the time. "It's only nine."

"I know. We're at Last Call. Can you come?"

"Where's everybody else?" she asked. She wasn't quite ready to abort Mission Christmas without Caleb, much less come face to face with the drunk Caleb for the first time.

"They're all spending the New Years with their girlfriends," Xander explained.

"Isn't Caleb?" She wracked her brain for it but she just couldn't remember ever discussing their plans for New Year's Eve with Caleb. She'd just assumed he'd be with Yasmine and she wasn't eager to have her suspicions confirmed.

"No," Xander responded.

"Why not?" she prodded.

"I'll tell you if you come. Please?" He sounded like he was pretty desperate for her help. Rhea took a minute to respond. Did she want to see Caleb? Admittedly, yes. Should she go out to see him when he was drunk and probably upset? Probably not. Would she do it anyway?

She let out a long sigh and answered, "I'll be there in twenty."

***