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female Housemates: Merry Christmas, Parker


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Hey, everybody! I'm sorry the story a little late and unseasonal, but it's next in the overall arc, so I can't really skip it. I also think the wait was worth it: I now have three stories fully written and ready to go. I'm still going to put them out a little slowly, in part because I like teasing y'all (it's all about the anticipation), and in part because that will give me time to write the next few after that. I've been getting a lot of writing done and hope to continue that, so we're really gonna start getting somewhere with this storyline! 

This is entitled Merry Christmas, Parker because it's set during Christmas, and because Housemates: I Swear There's Some Omo Content In Here Somewhere or Housemates: No, I Haven't Forgotten Which Website I'm Posting This On seemed a bit... wordy. There's a LOT of buildup/character moments/plot in here, but I promise there will be some good ol' fashioned Meagan-gets-desperate by the end, once again in a new context. Just hope you like cute romance, too. 

If you don't, then you certainly shouldn't click on any of these: 

Road Trip

The Trouble With Housemates

Rainy Sunday

Flipping the Script

Moments

 

-----------------------------------------

“Why are your parents calling me?” Meagan said, looking at her phone.

“Huh, can’t think why.”

She hit the answer button. “Shit, I missed them.”

“Darn, now we’ll never know what they wanted.”

“Until I call back.”

We’ll never know!

She stuck out her tongue at him and dialed. “Uh, hi! This is Meagan… I’m good, thanks, yourself?… Yeah, he’s here. Hang on, let me put it on speaker.”

Donna Daniels’ voice, a bit distorted by the phone, filled the room. “Parker, are you there?”

“Hey, mom. What’s up?”

“This call is mostly for Meagan, but it’s good that you’re both hearing it. Meagan, dear, we don’t know your plans for Christmas, and we don’t want to assume. But we did want to let you know that without question you are welcome to stay with us.”

“Aww, Donna—thank you,” Meagan said.

“However, we wanted to warn you that it’s our year to host my brother and his family. So there will be four more people here than usual. We usually put Greg and Karen—my brother and sister-in-law—in the guest room. Corey, my nephew, has often shared a room with Parker; he’s in high school. My niece Maddie usually gets the couch. But if you’re going to be with us we’ll need to rearrange that a bit.”

“Well, if I’d be intruding…”

“Don’t even think it, Meagan,” Donna said warningly. “I said you’re welcome and I mean it. My current plan is to have Corey and Maddie on the floor in the living room and have you with Parker, since I trust you’ve got no problem sharing a room by now.”

“None whatsoever,” Parker put in.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Meagan said. “Better than fine. Donna—this means a lot. I was hoping I could crash with you again, but hearing you make the offer…”

“I understand, dear. You are welcome any time. Parker?”

“Yes, mom?”

“I love you, and I’ll see you in a couple weeks.”

“Love you too, mom.”

Goodbyes were made—and Meagan tackled him with a hug.

“Oof! What was that for?”

“Because I love your family and because I love you and because I can’t do that to your dad right now.”

“Not my mom?”

“I wouldn’t hug-tackle your mom. Your dad, totally. And you, obviously.” She squeezed him tight again, then parked herself next to him on the bed. “So what am I in for? What are all the embarrassing Daniels Family holiday rituals?” A note of trepidation sneaked into her voice. “Am I gonna have to watch It’s a Wonderful Life?”

“Nah, we’re strictly a Year Without a Santa Claus family.”

“Your family has exquisite taste.”

“And sometimes the Star War Holiday Special.”

“Your family has abysmal taste.”

“What? I mean, it’s bad, sure, but…”

“‘But’ what? The abomination needs to be wiped off the face of the earth. Kill it with fire. Seriously, this is making me reconsider our whole relationship…”

“Sheeesh. One embarrassing family ritual and she flips out,” he said lightly. As light as the banter required, but more lightly than he really felt after “reconsider our whole relationship” had gone by.

“It’s like I don’t even know you anymore, man!”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure I burned that tape.”

“Oh, okay.” She kissed his cheek. “All is forgiven.”

“In all seriousness, what you need to know is that my dad gets a little bit like the dad from Calvin & Hobbes. Always going out in the cold, turning down the heat… ‘It builds character!’”

“I’ll steal more sweatshirts from you.”

“Haven’t you squeezed me dry for hoodies already?”

“And cuddle up to you.”

“For the first time in my life, my dad’s thermostat habits are working in my favor.”

“How are the cousins? Carrie and… no, wait…”

“Corey and Maddie. They’re both enough younger than me that I never really liked having them around until a few years ago. Corey has got that sullen-teenager thing going, but he’s tolerable once he warms up a bit.”

“Forewarned is forearmed.”

“You’ll like Maddie—and she’ll absolutely love you. She’s a total tomboy. You’re gonna get along great.”

“’Kay!”

“Oh, and you’ll get to eat the secret-recipe family cookies.”

“Oooh. Something else to look forward to.” Her face fell a little. “I’ve got no cash for presents, though.”

“Everybody knows we’re broke college kids. They won’t expect much from us. We might need to get Maddie something to keep her happy, but if you show up, help out, and sing along, that’s all you need to do.”

“Sing along…?”

“To the Snow Miser song!”

“Have you heard me sing, hon?”

“Aww, you’re not that bad…!”

 

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

“Hey.”

“Hey what?”

“I was thinking.”

“Uh-oh.”

She bopped his shoulder.

“I may have deserved that.”

“You surely did. I was thinking about Christmas break.”

“Yeah?”

“That’s almost a whole month. And we’ll have nothing to worry about. I did all my applications; all I can do about that is wait. Classes are done for the semester. So we are totally worry-free.”

“I guess so.”

“Except I know you’re worried about the future.”

“…Yeah. That’s what why I didn’t say ‘yes’.”

“I’m worried too. But here’s what I’m thinking: let’s just enjoy the break. No matter what happens, we’ll have that time together. And no matter what happens, no one can take the memories from us.”

“Well, when you say 'no one'…”

“No one who isn’t a fictional supervillain can take the memories from us,” Meagan said, with admirable calm.

“Okay. I hear what you’re saying.”

“So let’s have some fun. And not just the kind in bed. But let’s have lots of that too. So we’ve got good memories. Come what may.”

“Come what may.—If this turns into a Moulin Rouge singalong…”

“Well, so what if it does?”

“Then it’s proof that you can sing after all!”
 

 

--------------------------

Darn it, now I have Christmas songs stuck in my head again. 

I'll get more up later today or early next week. And I really really really promise there'll be some desperation. Someday.

Edited by Weasel
fixed links (see edit history)
Link to comment
8 hours ago, Ranpalan said:

For whatever reason, the links don't work. ?

I'll read this when I catch up on the whole series.

Thanks for letting me know! I've fixed the links. But if you'd really like to start at the beginning (a human being after my own heart, I always have to start from the top), PM me and I'll send you the first two books. 

Link to comment

Here's some more. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

It was snowing when they got to Parker’s hometown, coming down in small flakes very lightly. When the welcoming hugs had been made and the celebratory supper had been eaten, they looked out the window and saw the snow had piled itself up a lot higher.

“Wanna go for a walk with me?” Meagan asked Parker.

“Do I ever.”

“Shall we all go?” Will Daniels asked. “After we clean up, of course…”

“That sounds nice,” Donna said, “but Meagan, you and Parker should go now. No need to wait on us. We’d only slow you down, after all.”

They suited up against the cold—it was dry snow, not likely to get them too wet until they came back inside—and tromped out into the night. The clouds were very low, and faintly lit up by the city lights, so it was much brighter of a night than might have been expected. It was quiet, though, with most folks home and staying there. They walked, gloved hand in gloved hand, out to the park where they’d passed a memorable night the previous summer, and then further, across the street to the empty old school, and up the little hill beyond. There were lights and Christmas decorations everywhere, but no people. The fresh snow was crunchy beneath their feet.

“This is nice,” Meagan said.

“Yeah.”

“Our first Christmas together.”

“Mmmhmm.” And maybe our only one together.

“Christmas is really special to me, y’know,” she said.

“I didn’t know. You haven’t talked much about it.”

“My family is… well, you know about my family. But Christmas was special. Especially Christmas Eve. For one night a year, at least, my dad would sober up, switch to hot chocolate, and be a real father. He’d light the fire, and put up the tree if he hadn’t already, and generally—well, generally be a dad. I think it helped that he would have been home from work that day anyway—if he’d been working, I mean. And there would be presents. I think because she was worried about the next day, when I was about ten my mom started the tradition of opening one present for each of us on Christmas Eve. So we’d drink hot chocolate and open a present and hang up the stockings and turn out all the lights and watch the fire until I fell asleep. It was always the best time.”

“That sounds really lovely. And I imagine it was even more lovely since you didn’t get a lot of moments like that.”

“Yeah. Fewer and fewer each year. At first my dad would stay pretty sober until a day or two after Christmas. But as the money got tighter and the presents got smaller and cheaper, he got madder and madder. At himself, you know. For not being a provider. So he’d start drinking on Christmas Day, too. By the time I came home for Christmas my freshman year, he wasn’t happy about it, but he still stayed sober on Christmas Eve. The next year, he couldn’t even manage that much. And last year was just bad.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.”

They crunched on through the snow for a bit.

“I miss my dad.”

“Your real dad,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“Your dad when he’s not drunk and depressed.”

Meagan sighed. “I think that’s who he really is now.”

“Underneath, though? I mean, you said it yourself. He was angry because he couldn’t do right for you. So he missed being your real dad, too.”

“You know, I never thought of it that way?” She crunched on for a moment and then added, “Thank you. That helped.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I’d be there right now,” she said, “if not for you.”

“You’re welcome again. I hope.”

“What do you mean, ‘hope’?”

“I wasn’t entirely sure if ‘if not for you’ was a good thing. Since you miss your real dad, and you’re worried about your mom.”

“Let’s put it this way,” Meagan said after a moment. “This year with you won’t be the best Christmas ever. But it’ll be the best Christmas since I was… uh… twelve.”

“I’m honored.”

“You’re welcome. Definitely welcome. And I am so grateful to you and to your parents. I wouldn’t trade my parents for anybody, no matter how bad it got—but I am so grateful to be with the Daniels family today.”

“Good.”

“Christmas could be real important, y’know,” she added. “For next year, I mean.”

“You’d want to come here again?” he said, gesturing for them to turn down a different block.

“I’d absolutely want to.”

“I think you could come no matter what,” he said carefully. “Even if we’re not…”

“If we’re not together anymore?”

“Yeah. I mean—you’d need a place to go.”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t do that to you.”

“Oh.”

“And grad students don’t live in dorms, y’know. Wherever I end up, I’ll have my own place. Or a room of my own, anyway. Which means you could come to visit—if.”

“Yeah. If.”

They crunched.

“Weren’t we gonna not talk about the future during the break?”

“I didn’t say that. I said we should enjoy the break—which I guess means we can only talk about the future if it’s enjoyable?”

“Mmmkay.”

“Sorry, though. We were talking about the past, and then that just sorta naturally flowed into the future…”

“As is so often the case with time.”

“Hah, yes. And, well—here’s the honest truth, Parker. The only thing I’d ever give you up for is my future. But I really really hope you’re actually in my future. That I don’t have to choose.”

“That’s nice to hear,” Parker said, his heart suddenly feeling a bit lighter.

“Enjoyable, even?”

“Really.”

“Good.”

“So you wanna stay together after you graduate?”

“I absolutely wanna try.”

“Good,” he said. “That 'try' isn’t super-enjoyable, though.”

“It is for me. It’s maybe not blissful,” Meagan said, “but keeping you in my life as long as I possibly can seems like a darn good idea.”

“I just wish we could say we’d stay together for sure.”

“Oh, lover, nobody can say that,” Meagan said. “So much can happen. Nobody can know what’s coming.”

“That’s true."

“I mean, I might get hit by a bus. Or you could die in a freak gaming accident.”

“Fair enough!”

They had circled back around and were coming up to the little park from a different angle.

Parker said, “So we’d be long-distance for sure to start with.”

“Well, I’ll try to work at camp again, so yeah. And then off to—wherever.”

“Yeah. You’re right, Christmas would be a big deal. But I’d rather not wait for Christmas. Or even Thanksgiving. I’d wanna go visit you for weekends and so on. Maybe we can work out our schedules so we can take some time off on Fridays. Or one of us could, at least. I’ll try not to sign up for any Friday afternoon classes. A lot depends—I mean, everything depends on where you end up. There’s just so much we don’t know right now. …Meagan?”

He stopped and looked around. She was nowhere to be seen.

“Meagan?” he called.

Whack!

The snowball hit him right on the shoulder.

“Hah, yes! Direct hit!”

He spun around. She was already packing up her second snowball, and before he could gather one of his own, she hurled hers. He ducked and blocked it with his arm, but it still splattered all over him.

“Oh, now you’ve done it,” Parker said, and finished his own ball. But Meagan ducked behind a tree as he threw, and his snowball shattered harmlessly against the trunk.

Laughing, kicking up snow with their toes as the ran, scooping up a double handful where they could, packing it as they ran, throwing on the fly… they darted between the trees, discovered the snow was too light there for efficient ball-making, ran out onto the basketball court to gather up more—but risked exposure and lack of cover as they did…

Before long Meagan was standing atop the play structure, scooping up and hurling balls as he came on in pursuit. Hurry threw off her aim, and she missed more than she connected, but still got him hard in the face as he began to climb up. He roared with fury, brushing off the snow with the back of his hand so he could see again, only to get hit in the arm by another snow-missile. He finally could see her, somewhat, and flung the snowball he’d been hoarding. She had to duck to avoid it, and in that moment he clambered up the kid-sized ladder to the top of her fort. She made one more throw—it went wide—he rushed her, tackled her—kissed her—

“Time called on account of makeouts,” he said breathlessly, after they broke.

“Mmm, not a time-out, I think,” Meagan said. “We’re talking a full-on weather-related cancellation.”

“How could a snowball fight be canceled for weather when the snow’s still coming down?”

“What, you don’t think it’s getting awfully hot?” she said, and kissed him again.
 

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