For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic

Drew’s point of view

Late afternoon and the five of us were all sitting in the back of the van once again. We’d tried to have Christmas dinner with the Yashin lads earlier but somehow if didn’t work out that way; did you know that microwaves are not that capable of cooking whole turkeys in ten minutes? Well, if you didn’t then there’s a heads up for you. But naturally that did mean we had to wait until slightly later so we could eat.

Regardless though, we were all still very festive; Laurence and Kier both had red Santa hats on their heads, Shane had tinsel wrapped around his neck, Laurence had a red nose on (which I was positive was for Red Nose Day rather than Christmas but oh well I wasn’t going to bring that up to him) and I had on a pair of trusty reindeer antlers. The van was decorated in the same cheap tinsel that Shane wore, and there were white fairy lights lining the frames of the doors and windows. Christmas for poor people.

“So,” Laurence smiled, his head resting in the palms of his hands which were tucked neatly behind him, “how has everyone’s day been so far?”

“Swell,” Shane beamed before eyeing the front seat of the vehicle; everyone’s presents were sitting there and damn was it tempting to go and open them but no, we had to wait until dinner with everyone to. “Luke and I went shopping for presents then there was some bloke that called me emo and spat at me, then Luke came out and scared him off which was fun. How about you guys?”

Luke beamed at the mention of this story and opened his mouth to respond to it, but not before Kier got in there first, “sounds awesome. Mine hasn’t been very interesting, but get this,” he set the flask of tea he’d been holding in his hands down between his knees and let his wrist fall forward in a ‘housewife-you’ll-never-get-this-oh-my-god-homosexual’ kind of way, “you know Harry and Kevin? They’re spending like the whole day together! By themselves! How cute is that?! Oh man that’s adorable, is that not adorable?”

I rolled my eyes at him, Laurence and Shane stayed silent and Luke just laughed, “Kier you are seriously the world’s biggest gay, wow.”

Kier’s face tinged red ever so slightly, “shut up,” he mumbled but the smile didn’t stay gone for long as it quickly returned before he leant into my side. “I think it’s cute.”

“So do I,” I lied, hey don’t judge me, I’m sure you humour your loved ones like that too when they’re being extremely stupid!

“Liar,” Shane chuckled under his breath before nudging my shoulder playfully. That’s when the happiness set in; everything seemed pretty much back to normal now, I mean, everyone was talking, no one was being awkward, Shane and Laurence weren’t pissed off anymore, Luke wasn’t awkwardly sitting in the middle, Kier and I were dating, going out, not fighting anymore. Everything was perfect just in time for Christmas (wow how gay is that?).

I think everyone was feeling the love today, everyone noticed it, even the Yashin guys noticed it considering that one of them (I’m not sure who) (probably Andy) came up and banged their fist on the side of the van without any awkwardness whatsoever. “Fags! Dinner’s ready!” the thick Scottish accent echoed through the metal walls, followed by multiple laughs. Dinner, thank good fuck. Dinner meant food and crackers and paper crowns and presents. Man I love presents.