Home for the Holidays

“What about this? Do you think he’ll like this?” Michelle asked, holding up a T-shirt inside Rue21. Chory looked up from her cell phone and gave the shirt the once-over before scrunching her nose and shaking her head at her best friend. With a resigned sigh, Michelle forcefully hung the shirt back in its previous position before raking her fingers through her long blonde hair. “I give up. I have no idea what to get him.”

Chory stuffed her phone in her back pocket and took a moment to actually pay attention to her friend and not her phone. “Shellie, you and Matt have been dating for two years; this isn’t the first time you’ve had to buy him a present. It shouldn’t be this hard,” Chory insisted.

Michelle threw her head back on her shoulders and groaned. “The holidays make me so stressed. I can’t be doing this right now!” Bringing her head back down, she stared straight into her best friend’s brown eyes. “What did you get Cameron? Maybe that’ll give me an idea.”

Chory tried to ignore the tug at her heart at the sound of her boyfriend’s name and answered Michelle’s question. “I bought him a bunch of DVD’s and a few board games. He’s always complaining how he and the guys are always so bored when they’re out on the road, so I figured I’d entertain him,” Chory replied.

Her boyfriend was a musician. A musician who was actually becoming quite famous. Cameron was in the band Allstar Weekend. Yes, Cameron Quiseng was her boyfriend.

The summer after her senior year in high school, her parents had surprised her with plane tickets to San Diego. Her aunt had moved out there just a year before, along with her favorite cousin/best friend. So she had been thrilled to go spend a month in California. There her cousin introduced her to the guys in the band; she and Cam had instantly hit it off. At the end of the month, however, she had had to fly across the country back to Virginia. They still talked on the phone, but remained friends. Neither was ready to partake in a long distance relationship—especially Cameron who was so focused on his band and making it into the industry. But after they were discovered by Hollywood Records, things changed. One night Cameron just showed up at her door, asked to take her on a date, and on that date he told her that he was tired of just being her friend and that he wanted them to be more. They’d been dating ever since.

But long distance relationships were hard. Chory told herself that she could handle the long periods of time where she didn’t see him, working around his schedule for phone calls and video chats, ignoring all the rumors of him dating girls like Selena Gomez, and him saying he was single. She said she could handle all those things because at the end of the day, before he went to bed, she was the one he called. She was the one he called when something exciting happened with the band or when he just wanted someone to talk to. So while it was extremely hard and the time they spent with each other was brief and far between, she had been handling it for the past two years.

But lately she had been feeling discouraged. The band was becoming more popular and even though she was happy for Cam and the rest of the guys, she couldn’t help but feel like she was losing more time with him. Allstar Weekend had been touring since the summer and though they had a short break, they were back on the road in the fall and would continue to tour through the spring.

“Is everything okay between you guys?”

Michelle speaking to her brought Chory out of her deep thoughts. She smiled at her best friend and said, “Yea, things are fine.”

Michelle gave her a dubious look. “We’ve been friends for too many years for you to think I’m going to believe that lie,” she said, crossing her arms across her chest.

Chory sighed and raked her hands through her brown locks. “We’re fine. We’re not fighting or anything it’s just…I’m not sure how much longer I can handle this long distance crap. I mean, I haven’t seen Cam in months…he’s so busy.”

“I thought his schedule didn’t bother you,” Michelle said, leading her friend out of the store to sit on the couches in the middle of the mall hallway.

“Of course it bothers me! I mean, why in the world would I be okay with seeing my boyfriend four times a year for no more than a few days every visit?!” she balked, tears welling in her eyes.

“Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry you’re going through this,” Michelle said, rubbing her best friend’s back sympathetically.

“It just sucks Shellie. We stayed friends for two years and that was hard enough. I care about him, you know I do, but I’m only human. How would you feel if you only saw Matt in person every couple of months and had to see him hanging around with all these gorgeous girls on blog sites?”

“I’d be pissed,” Michelle answered truthfully. “Have you talked to Cam about this?” she asked.

Chory shook her head. “I can’t bring myself to do it. He and the boys have been working so hard for this…it’s been their dream for the longest time and now he’s living that dream. I can’t bring myself to shatter it all for him by telling him that this long distance thing is killing me.”

“So what are you going to do? Be miserable around the holidays? This is your favorite time of year, Chory!”

Chory released a long sigh. “I know. But I guess I’ll just have to suck it up. I know he has a little bit of a break for the holidays. Obviously he’ll be spending Christmas with his family, but he said he’d fly out to see me afterwards.” Christmas was Cam’s favorite holiday and she could recall the day he told her ‘Christmas is a time for being where the heart is’ and he loved his family, so he would no doubt be celebrating big time with them.

Michelle smiled sympathetically at her friend. If she was in Chory’s shoes, she didn’t know what she’d do…but sitting idly while her boyfriend toured the world wouldn’t be it. “Alright, I really need to find Matt a present. At this rate he’ll be getting one of those cheap snow globes that dude is selling over there,” she said, pointing to the snow globe cart in the middle of the hall. Chory chuckled and shook her head, standing up to follow her friend to the next store.

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Cameron brought his phone down from his ear, a frown on his face. He and the guys had been hanging out, ready to go out to lunch together when he got a call from Chory. He hadn’t expected her call, they had just been texting each other and he told her he was going to lunch and she said she was shopping with Michelle, but he was pleasantly surprised that she was calling him regardless. However, a conversation with his girlfriend was not what he got. Instead he heard a conversation she was having with her best friend. He figured she had butt dialed him and was going to hang up and call her back later on when he heard what they were talking about.

“Dude, are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost,” Michael said, shoving him slightly. Cameron didn’t say anything back. “Who was that? Is everything okay?” Michael asked, now genuinely curious.

“That was Chory,” Cam replied.

“What did she say?” Nathan asked, coming up to the group.

“She didn’t say anything. Well, she butt dialed me but she was talking to her friend about me. She’s not happy.”

“With you?” Zach asked, also joining the group.

“With our relationship. She doesn’t want to do long distance anymore,” Cam said, still in a state of shock.

“Wait, so is she breaking up with you?” Nathan asked, shocked. Cam and Chory had been dating for almost two years now…he didn’t know there was anything wrong between them.

Those words snapped Cameron out of his state. “She didn’t say she was planning on it, but I can’t let that happen.”

“Dude, what are you thinking?” Michael asked.

Chory wasn’t happy with seeing him for only a few days at a time, so he was going to do something about that. “Change of plans guys. I’ll see you all later. I have some things to take care of.”

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A week later, Cam was waiting impatiently for the airport security line to move. He tried to peer over all the heads of people in front of him and to the front of the line. This was ridiculous. He was going to miss his flight! He looked down at his watch and saw he had 15 minutes until his flight was supposed to leave. He let out a frustrated sigh when the line moved only a few steps. By the time he cleared security, he figured he had five minutes to get to his gate. Grabbing his backpack, he adjusted it on his shoulders, put on his shoes, and started running through the terminal. When he got to his gate, he saw many people sitting outside it, none of them looking all too happy. The screen next to the gate let him know why—red digital letters told him his flight was delayed.

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” he said under his breath. He walked up to one of the attendants and smiled at her. “Excuse me ma’am, why is our flight delayed?” he asked as calmly as he could, even though he was slightly frustrated.

“They’ve got a pretty bad storm out East. We’re waiting a few hours until things clear up for the planes to take off,” she replied with a fake smile.

Of course Mother Nature was behind this. “Do you think we’ll be leaving today though? I really have to get out to Virginia by tonight,” he stated.

“Not sure kid,” the lady replied, clearly fed up with having to deal with similar questions. Cam let out another frustrated sigh and barely mumbled a ‘thank you’ before walking away. Shrugging off his backpack, he sat down at one of the chairs facing the window.

He honestly couldn’t believe how bad his luck was. The previous week, when he found out how unhappy Chory was with their long distance relationship, he had rearranged his schedule a lot in order to be with her. They only had a week and a half off for Christmas and New Years; then Allstar Weekend would be back on the road to finish and start a tour. Of course he had been planning on spending as much time as he could with Chory but also with his family. Instead, he had convinced his parents into letting him spend the entire time with his girlfriend. He had talked to her mom and gotten the okay from her, then booked a flight for Virginia. He had called Michelle and coerced her into helping him and keeping this a secret. But if he wanted Chory to be surprised, he needed someone to contact to know what she would be doing all day. With her on board, his plans were set.

But since then things have been going horribly. He had woken up late this morning with only a few hours to get his things in the car and to the airport. He had decided he didn’t need any security or anything and had just had Michael drive him to the airport. Of course Michael showed up late to get him and had had to speed the entire way to the airport, resulting in them getting pulled over by a cop that couldn’t care less if they were somewhat famous. He only brought his back pack and a duffel bag that he thought was small enough to be a carry on but airport security deemed too large. So he had had to go through the huge line to check in his luggage. Then the airport security line was a mile long. And now…now the flight was delayed.

It was only noon but with the time difference, that meant it was three in the afternoon where Chory was. He had planned to get there in time to go with her to her work Christmas party…he was pretty sure that wouldn’t be happening anymore. Pulling out his phone, he texted Michelle to update her on what was going on…she was supposed to pick him up from the airport.

Hey, my flight is delayed. Not sure when we’ll be heading out :(

He let out another frustrated sigh. So much for surprising Chory.

“Excuse me.” Cameron looked up and saw a girl maybe a year or two younger than him standing with her hand on a young girl’s shoulders. “Sorry to bother you but my little sister wouldn’t stop bugging me about coming over here to talk to you. She’s convinced you’re some guy from some band,” she explained, her tone clearly saying she didn’t believe her sister and that she was apologetic for bothering him with the ludicrous notion.

“He is! He’s Cam from Allstar Weekend,” the younger girl, who looked to be maybe 10 or 11 insisted to her sister. Then she turned to him and smiled brightly at him. “Do you think I can have your autograph?” the girl asked, holding out a magazine with Justin Bieber’s face of the cover.

Even though he was beyond frustrated, he couldn’t be rude to a fan. “Absolutely little one,” he responded, giving her and her sister a smile.

The girl let out a giddy squeal and flipped through the magazine until she came to a page with him and his friends on it. He took the marker she was holding out for him and signed the picture next to his face. “Julie, take a picture!” the little girl said to her sister. The older girl pulled out her phone and paused as if asking if he minded. He put his arm around the young girl’s shoulders and smiled for the camera. He heard it say ‘say cheese’ before a snapping sound was heard. “Thank you so much, Cam. I really love you and your band,” the young girl said.

“No problem. Thanks for supporting us. Have a safe holiday,” he stated, hoping they got the hint and left. The only thing that would make this worse was if he had a fan stick around to bother him. The young fan’s sister got the hint and dragged the little girl away.

Two hours passed by with a couple other fan encounters. He had thrown the hood of his hoodie over his hair and kept his head low to avoid being recognized, listening to his iPod while he sat idly in the terminal. Just when he was about to give up and have someone pick him up, an announcement came on stating that planes heading east would be boarding. He quickly shrugged his backpack back on and pulled out his plane ticket, getting in line with everyone else headed into first class. It was another forty-five minutes before the plane was ready to take off. Before shutting off his phone, he texted Michelle and let her know he was on his was and to keep him updated on Chory’s location.

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“Chory, will you hurry up already?” Michelle yelled through her friend’s apartment. She had agreed to go with Chory to her work Christmas party weeks ago. The plan had changed a bit when Cam called her and told her he wanted to surprise Chory—he was supposed to be here before she left for the party to accompany her. But since his flight got delayed because of the storm, Michelle ended up having to join Chory instead of canceling at the last second like she and Cam had planned.

“Okay, okay, I’m ready,” Chory stated as she walked out of the small hallway that led to her bedroom and into her living room where Michelle was looking at her phone. “How do I look?” she asked, prompting Michelle to look up.

“Whoa baby,” Michelle exclaimed. Chory was wearing a short black skirt over black rose-patterned tights and black high-heeled ankle boots. She was wearing a loose purple top with a large black blazer over it, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. “You look hot!” Cam would definitely be tripping over his feet when he saw his girlfriend later on tonight. “Is there a certain reason you’re going looking so smokin’ to this thing?” Michelle teased, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Chory rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, Shellie, you got me, I’ve been trying so hard to catch your eye,” she said in a monotonous tone.

“I know; it’s hard to resist all of this. Just know that I don’t put out that easily,” Michelle shot back with a wink.
Chory threw her head back and let out a loud laugh. “Oh Lord. Shellie, you’re too much sometimes,” she said with a shake of her head. “Now get your self-absorbed butt off my couch and let’s go.”

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While Chory and Michelle were at the party, Cameron was landing at the airport. He all but ran out of the plane and through customs, having only one more fan encounter when he was waiting for his duffel bag. Michelle obviously couldn’t pick him up, and with no other choices, he resorted to renting a car. He hadn’t realized the storm was still raging on until he stepped out of the airport and to the rental car parking lot. White fluffy flakes were whipping around furiously, the harsh winter wind making it worse. Tugging his hat down lower over his ears, he shuffled through the snow and to the car he rented, waited until it was warm enough and was on his way. He hadn’t ever driven in the snow before and it was extremely dark, making it impossible for him to see more than a few feet in front of him. He was practically crawling down the roads he had memorized the several times he had come out to visit Chory in her hometown. For the most part he had been okay, the rental car only skidding a few times at turns, but nothing he couldn’t handle. Then all of a sudden two deer ran out into the road. Panicking, Cam slammed on the break, making him really lose control of the car. The back wheels were skidding, turning the car around and into the opposite lane. Panicking, he tried to straighten the wheel and get back in control. That only made things worse. The car skidded back into his lane but instead of straightening out, it kept turning until the back wheels were in the ditch on the side of the road, the front of the car sticking up into the road.

Cam had closed his eyes when he felt the car skidding into the ditch but once he was sure it had stopped, he opened them. His heart rate was a bit accelerated, understandable for his current situation, and his grip on the steering wheel was so tight his knuckles were white. He released the breath he had been holding and threw his head back against the headrest, closing his eyes again. Thankfully the situation wasn’t any worse. At least he was still alive and no harm was done. Just as that thought went through his head, a ringing sounded throughout the car before an On-Star representative’s voice rang through, asking him if everything was alright. He responded that he was fine and gave them the details of the accident. They told him to hang tight while a tow truck made its way out there, then the car was silent.

Cam threw his head back once more and closed his eyes. Fuck. His. Life.

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Chory shuffled down her hallway, rummaging through her sequin clutch for her keys. She had been a bit resistant to going to this party—her situation with Cameron had had her in low spirits as of late. But Michelle had been a good companion, pumping her with drink after drink until she had a decent buzz going on. Since Michelle was the DD, she hasn’t drunken at all (especially since she would be driving in the snow…which hadn’t stopped her co-workers from showing up to the shindig). Michelle had just dropped her off. Chory ultimately enjoyed herself tonight, but now she was dreading having to spend the rest of her night alone. Nights like tonight were meant to be spent curled up under a large fleece blanket on the couch, sipping hot chocolate and watching a romantic comedy with the person you loved. She would have to be doing that by herself. Shoving her key in the hole, she released a heavy sigh as she pushed the door to her apartment open.

She stopped short when she took in the sight before her. Her small living room was covered in candles, creating a warm glow in what would have been an otherwise dark room. Closing the door behind her, she took a step into her apartment, her tipsy mind trying to make sense of why there were so many lit candles. When she took a few more steps into the apartment, she noticed there was something on the ground. Upon closer inspection, she realized they were rose pedals…and they were littered on the ground, creating a path down her hallway and to her bedroom.

Her heart leapt in her throat, her mind working on the implication of the scene. She threw her clutch on her couch as she walked down the hall, looking on cautiously. When she opened her bedroom door her breath caught in her throat and tears quickly welled in her eyes. There sat Cameron, his legs crossed underneath him on her bed, a giant smile on his face. The room had even more candles lit around it and her bed was also covered in roses. She stood frozen, too caught up in her emotions to say anything, let alone actually move towards Cameron.

So he took the initiative and got up from her bed, crossing the small space slowly towards her. Chory’s wet eyes scanned his face, her mind still not believing he was here; in front of her.

“Hey,” Cameron said once he had stopped in front of her.

“What are you doing here?” Chory couldn’t even manage to greet him properly.

Cam let out a low chuckle. “I wanted to surprise you. Surprise,” he said, his breath-taking smile widening.

“B-but tomorrow’s Christmas Eve. You’re supposed to be with your family,” Chory said, trying to rationalize through her drunken stupor.

Cam’s smile turned into a little smirk as he took one more step towards her, grabbing a hold of her wrist and tugging her until she was pressed close to him. He brought his hands up to her face and cupped her neck in both hands, rubbing the thumb of his right hand across her smooth cheeks. “Now why would I be all the way out in California when you’re here?” he questioned.

Christmas is a time to be where your heart is.

Those words ran through Chory’s head momentarily before everything caught up. Cam had wanted to spend Christmas with her…because she had his heart. She stopped trying to reason his appearance or fight it—she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his face down to hers, their lips connecting in a hard kiss. Cam brought one of his hands down to her hips and pulled her closer to him, his mouth working feverishly over hers.

All the sadness and frustration she had been feeling towards their relationship evaporated in that moment. This was one of the reason’s she put up with his crazy career—because at the end of the day, whenever she did see him, Cameron managed to drive her absolutely crazy. She loved him and she didn’t believe any other man would ever make her feel the way Cameron did.

“I’ve missed you,” she breathed against his lips when they finally pulled away from each other.

Cam pressed his forehead to hers, refusing to leave too much space between them. “I know. And I’ve missed you too. So much.” He pressed another kiss to her lips, this time much slower and gentler than the last. “I’m sorry things have sucked lately. I hate that we’ve gone months without seeing each other and that I’m never in the same place for a long period of time,” she stated in a whisper after he released her lips.

Chory looked up at him, momentarily confused. Michelle couldn’t possibly have gone to him with her complaints, could she? “Did Michelle say anything to you?” she asked.

He shook his head. He wasn’t going to tell her she had butt dialed him that day. “I know my career has put a damper on things between us and I absolutely hate it, so I can only imagine how much you must hate it,” he explained.

“A lot,” Chory clarified with a pout.

Cam nodded, her confirming what he already knew. “I thought so. That’s why,” he paused, taking a deep breath, the heaviness of what he was about to say weighing on him.

“That’s why what, Cam?” Chory asked, her brown eyes searching his for a hint of what he was getting at.

“Will you move in with me?” he blurted.

“What?!” Chory balked.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I love you, Chory, and I miss you like all the time. I want you by my side, always, and it may be selfish of me to ask you to drop everything and move out to California but I don’t care. I mean, well, obviously I care. You’d obviously have to stay and finish your semester, but then when you graduate you can go out to California and live with me. We’ll be done touring and back in the studio for a while so we’ll be able to see each other all the time and when we do tour again you can come on the road with us,” he rambled.

“Cam,” Chory breathed out, effectively ending his rant.

“Please, don’t say no,” Cam whispered as he dropped his forehead back to hers, closing his eyes in the process.

“Yes.”

“Yes?” he asked, pulling away and opening his eyes to search hers for any sign of jest.

“I love you, Cam. And seeing you every day sounds perfect,” she stated, bringing his lips down to hers. She felt Cameron smile into the kiss and smiled herself. “I still can’t believe you’re here,” she breathed against his lips.

“It was hell getting here, trust me,” he said, thinking back to all the things that had gone horribly wrong that day. “But it was worth it. You’re worth it,” he assured bringing her in for another kiss. "I love you too."

“Won’t your family be upset you’re missing Christmas?” Chory asked, hours later when they were snuggled on her couch under a large fleece blanket, sipping hot chocolate as they watched a romantic comedy, sneaking kisses every now and then.

Cameron shook his head. “You’re my heart; my home; I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be,” he responded, tucking her securely into his chest.