West Coast

December 24th had rolled around far faster than Scout anticipated. It had been a week since the semester ended and Vengeance University had its party at Johnny’s Bar. Since then, the brunette had spent most of her time sleeping, at the beach, or sleeping at the beach. Despite growing up a beach bum on the beaches of New Jersey, there was something to be said about being able to sit on the beach in the middle of December with just a bathing suit on.

On several occasions, Brian had joined Scout on her beach excursions. They never spoke as to what they ‘were’ and quite frankly Scout was fine with it. They were having fun and that’s all that really mattered. He even had the privilege of meeting Scout’s baby.

Scout stood in front of her apartment door, slightly tipsy from the wine she had with dinner and giggled as she felt Brian’s hands wrap around her waist. She managed to unlock the door without too much trouble, but before opening it, she turned in Brian’s hold to face him.

“Are you ready to meet my baby?” She asked through a small fit of giggles.

Brian couldn’t help but frown slightly. Sure, he was having fun- what guy his age wouldn’t want to be hooking up with someone as young as Scout? But meeting a baby, her baby, was something way beyond what the guitarist was looking for. He liked Scout of course, she was gorgeous in her own special way with a personality to match. The guitarist felt his palms get sweaty as he stepped into the tiny apartment.

“Wait here.” She whispered, kicking off her heels. Scout disappeared down the hallway before returning with a golden retriever hot on her heels.

The guitarist felt his mouth drop open, “That’s your baby?”

In between all the beach and sleeping festivities, Scout had managed to scrap together a new portfolio, making some of the changes suggested by her professor, and sent it out to a few companies. Of course there was the hope of being offered one of the full time positions at VU, but better safe than sorry. With only a year and a half left in school, establishing a name for herself and having at least an entry level position with a notable company was critical for post-grad success.

Scout groaned as her cell phone began vibrate against the wood of the bedside table. She rubbed her eyes as she answered, not bothering to look at who it was that was calling, “Hello?”

“Scout, Merry Christmas! Well… Christmas Eve!”

The brunette rolled her eyes at the sound of her sister’s voice on the other end, “Harper… hi.”

“Oh shit. I totally forgot you’re three hours behind. Fuck, do you want me to call you back? I’m so sorry.” Harper always meant well, but was easily lost amongst the clouds.

Scout laughed more so at the sound of her sister cursing than the fact that she forgot about the time difference, “It’s fine… I can talk. Merry Christmas to you, any plans with Mom or Dad?” She swung her legs out from under the blankets and searched for a pair of shorts to put on before heading into the kitchen for coffee.

Harper huffed, “I’m cooking at Dad’s tonight. He’s got like fifteen people coming over and didn’t tell me until two days ago.” Deep down, Harper enjoyed cooking for large groups of people, but the holidays were always a sensitive time for the Hawkins family. “He’s got a new girlfriend, so this is sort of like her big introduction to everyone.”

“Lucky you…” Scout poured herself a cup of leftover coffee from the day before and popped it in the microwave for a minute, “Maybe I’ll Skype you during the party so I can meet her too. Who else is going?”

She moved over to the fridge to pull out the half empty carton of half and half as her sister began rattling off a bunch of names, most of the familiar. Scout smiled to herself as the microwave let her know the coffee was done heating up. She snatched the mug and added a splash of half and half before throwing it back in the fridge and moving into her tiny living room. Just as she sat down, there was a knock at the door. Scout cradled the phone between her shoulder and her ear, listening to Harper continue to ramble on about the menu she had planned for the evening.

“So then I wasn’t sure if we should have pork or turkey and then Dad was like ‘Half our guests are Jewish; why would you make pork?’”

Scout opened the door, expecting a package from UPS but instead was met with the smiling face of none other than Brian. “Harp… I love you, but I’m going to have to call you back.”

“What? I… uh, alright. Love you.”

The brunette hung up her phone and took a sip of her coffee as she raised an eyebrow at her visitor. She motioned for him to come inside and kicked the door shut behind him. “Nice shorts.” Brian laughed, making himself comfortable on the couch.

Before sitting down, Scout looked down at the shorts she had thrown on and blushed. Of course she had on a pair of Brian’s boxers she had stolen from his house after he threw her in his pool fully clothed. She took a seat on the opposite end of the couch and pulled her knees to her chest, ignoring Brian’s comment. “What brings you here? I thought you were spending the holidays at your dad’s.”

Brian nodded as he looked around the tiny apartment, “It’s not very festive in here.”

Scout rolled her eyes and took another sip of her coffee, “I’m half Jewish. What did you expect?”

As he opened his mouth to respond, Blue came bounding in from the bedroom and nearly jumped in the man’s lap. Brian smiled at the affection given to him by the dog, still ignoring the question from Scout.

“Brian!” Scout raised her voice just slightly to pull the musician’s attention away from her dog and back to her, “You never answered my question. What are you doing here?”

Brian shrugged, not pulling away from the dog, “You’re alone on Christmas; No one should be alone this time of year. Get dressed, I’m bringing you over to my parent’s place. You can bring Blue to my place to keep Pinkly company.”

Scout sighed, “You should be with your family, not retrieving me to spend time with your family.”

“I’m trying to do something nice, be grateful.” Brian groaned with a smile on his face.

With one more pleading look, Scout removed herself from the couch and retreated into her bedroom. “I don’t even like Christmas!” Scout yelled over her shoulder as she stepped out of her shorts and grabbed a towel.

Soon after, the water from the shower could be heard. Brian occupied himself by playing with the dog and flipping through a photo album that had been sitting on the coffee table before him. As he flipped through the pages, it seemed almost as if Scout and her sister were raised by their mother alone, which Brian knew was untrue as he had overheard many of Scout’s conversations with her father. There was a shift though, once he got to more recent photos, her mother was no longer in the images and replaced with her father.

He was about to return the album to its place on the coffee table when a loose photo slipped out. It must have been at least a decade old. Her father’s eyes were glued to an old Palm Pilot, her mother was fussing with her sister’s hair, and then there was Scout. She was staring straight into the camera with a sad sort of smile on her face.

“Alright, you ready to go?” Scout had finished getting ready and was walking back into the living room when she saw a certain photo in Brian’s hands. She sighed and took long strides toward him, snatching the photo out of his hands once in reach. “You have no right to be looking at that.” She growled throwing the photo on the ground, watching it slide beneath the couch. Brian shot her an apologetic look before standing and heading toward the door.

The car ride to Brian’s parent’s house, after dropping Blue off at his own place, was relatively silent despite numerous anxious looks from Brian toward Scout. She noticed each and every look, wondering was the hell his problem was but kept silent until they were about five minutes from their destination.

“What the hell do you keep looking at me like that for?” She huffed and ran a frustrated hand through her chocolate locks.

Brian bit his lip has he turned down his parent’s street, their house just on the horizon, “I should have told you sooner but my younger sister, well half sister, is bringing her boyfriend around for the first time.” He felt himself dropping his foot on the accelerator a bit harder, hoping to arrive before Scout had a chance to respond.

Scout had noticed the car picking up speed and furrowed her brow, “Ok, congrats for her. I still don’t get why-” Before she could finish her sentence, Brian pulled into an already crowded driveway. She watched as he nearly threw himself out of the Escalade as soon as the car was in park leaving Scout to actually kill the ignition before getting out of the car herself. She slammed the door shut behind her and was walking around the car ready to lay into him when she watched a flash of purple hair crash into Brian.

“Geez, McKenna… I missed you too,” Brian laughed as he hugged his sister back. Over her shoulder he could see a half decent looking guy standing in the door way beside his step-mother, Suzy.

Scout smiled to herself as she watched the siblings embrace one other before realizing they had pulled away and were staring at her. The brunette jogged toward them and offered her hand to Brian’s sister to which she was pulled into an equally enthusiastic hug.

“You must be Brian’s girlfriend! Mom and Dad are so excited to finally be meeting you and Chris- he’s my boyfriend.” McKenna eventually released Scout from her grips.

The brunette raised an eyebrow as the three of them began walking toward the house, “Brian’s girlfriend?” She shot a look beside her at Brian who offered a sheepish smile, “Yeah… I’m Brian’s girlfriend. That is me.”

Scout mentally slapped herself in the face. Of course there was a reason for Brian bringing her around. Brian shot her a look of ‘What the fuck kind of response is that?’ to which Scout responded to one of ‘Don’t test me.’ Suzy and Chris retreated back into the house with McKenna, Scout, and Brian not too far behind. Brian’s father, Brian Sr., was sitting on the couch helping himself to the platter of cookies his wife had just laid out.

“What does she look like?” He asked, crumbs falling out of his mouth and into his lap.

Suzy sighed, offering her husband a napkin, and sat down beside him only having one word come to mind, “Young.”