Home for Christmas

"You're not coming home for Christmas?" Zane Weston's mom asked her over the phone, laying on the sad voice thick.

"I'm too busy this year, mom. I don't think I can squeeze it in," Zane told her, and she heard her mom scoff through the line.

"'Don't think you can squeeze it in'? Come on, Zane. You haven't been home for a year now!" her mom told her, and it became clear to Zane that she had no other real option but to say yes. Her mom was likely to come to Salt Lake City and drag her back home to L.A. herself if she didn't agree.

"You know what, fine. But I'm going to kick and scream the whole time," Zane told her mom, and she heard her chuckle on the other end of the line.

"Deal."



A month later, Zane was on a plane and well on her way to her least favorite place in the world. Growing up in L.A., she'd never quite understood what the appeal was to the place for most people, and she still didn't know. The place had brought her nothing but misery. Her father was an effects director and had worked on tons of films throughout the years, so her family had had a decent amount of money when she was growing up, but she'd never quite fit in with that whole crowd. Come to think of it, she'd never really fit in with any crowd. As soon as she'd turned eighteen, she'd moved out of the state altogether and had been all over the country since then, avoiding California as much as possible.

As the plane got nearer and nearer to her hometown, the inevitable pit of anxiety started growing in her stomach. In theory, L.A. was such a huge town, but her family had always lived in a smaller suburb right out of the actual city, so it wasn't rare for her to run into someone she used to know, and when she did run into them, they always either acted like they'd been best friends, or a specific few she'd run into had just picked right back up on their old bullying of her like they were all still in high school.

The plane landed and Zane wandered through the airport that she knew like the back of her hand, not really wanting to go down to baggage claim to meet her parents because she didn't want to be where she was at all. Finally, her mom called her cell to ask where she was, forcing her to suck it up and get on with it.

She saw her parents instantly. Her mom was waving wildly, a huge smile on her face. Her dad stood there, the exact opposite of his wife, casual and detached, like he didn't even recognize Zane as his daughter.

"Hi, guys," Zane said quietly as she approached them, just to be tackled into a hug by her mom.

"Feels like it's been ten years," her mom told her, holding her at arms' length to look at her.

"Sure," Zane told her, trying to ignore her mom as she rolled her eyes at her.

She and her dad hugged quickly, and then he turned to lead them out of the airport. Her mom talked non-stop all the way back to her childhood home, asking her questions about absolutely everything she could think of. Zane was only half paying attention. As they got closer and closer to their destination, Zane got more and more nervous. She had a bad feeling about this whole thing.