Bad Ideas (First & Forever 4)

He loved the holidays more than anyone I’d ever met. His wardrobe had become all Christmas, all the time, and this morning he was wearing red and white striped leggings and a green T-shirt with a picture of a nutcracker on it. The caption said, “Put your nuts in my mouth,” which made me snort-laugh.

I asked him, “Are you shaking your gifts again?” Then I almost sat on Kel. I hadn’t seen him at first, since he was buried under a pile of blankets on the couch.

As I circled the coffee table and sat down on one of the chairs, Lark looked at me with wide eyes and nodded. “There are so many,” he said. “I don’t know where they all came from.”

I’d decided to play Santa for the three guys I lived with and had been buying them silly little things every time I went out to run an errand—toys, games, candy, anything I thought would make them smile. All three needed some cheering up this holiday season.

“What does the tag say?”

“This one says, ‘to Lark from Rudolph.’ There are others from the rest of Santa’s reindeer, too.”

“I think you and Kel should both open a gift today,” I said. “Rudolph would want it that way.”

Kel sat up and blinked a few times. His pink hair looked like it hadn’t been combed in a week, and he was clutching the half-bald chinchilla to his chest. The rodent blinked too, as if neither of them had seen the light of day for a while.

Lark’s eyes grew huge as he asked, “Which one should we open?”

“You both have a gift from Rudolph. I think that’d be a good one to open early,” I told him.

Lark dove under the tree and rummaged around until he found Kel’s gift. Then he handed it to his friend. Kel put the rodent on his shoulder, and both guys tore open the brightly wrapped packages at the same time.

The boxes contained the stuffed goats Theo and I had found at the craft store. Lark burst into tears as he hugged the toy and whispered, “Thank you, Casey. I know you’re really Rudolph.”

Kel murmured, “I love it, thank you.” Then he started crying, too.

Lark threw his arms around my neck and almost strangled me in a hug, and I asked, “Are you okay?”

He sat down on the edge of the coffee table and dried his eyes while he clutched the stuffed animal to his chest. “We will be. Christmas is just tough, you know? Kel misses his dumb boyfriend, and I miss my family. I try not to, but it’s just hard sometimes.”

Kel held his arms out to Lark, who quickly moved to the couch and grabbed his friend in a hug. “Lark got disowned by his parents when he came out,” Kel explained, as he rubbed Lark’s back. “It happened when he was fifteen.”

Lark sniffed and murmured, “I went to live with my grandma after that. She was great, but she died four years ago, and it’s just been me ever since. I do okay most of the time, but Christmas stirs up a lot of feelings.”

“But you have us now—your whole family here at the pink Victorian,” I said, as I pulled my phone from the pocket of my gray hoodie. “You also have family you haven’t even met yet.”

I sent my brother a text about my depressed roommates as Lark turned his dark, soulful eyes to me and asked, “What do you mean?”

“Just what I said. Hang on, I’m waiting for some Christmas magic.”

Seth soon texted back with the following message: I’m glad you reached out. We’re pulling together a conference call. Give me one minute. I just knew my brother would come through. He always did.

A video call popped up a few seconds later. When I answered, Seth was on the screen. A little old lady named Nana Dombruso, her great-grandson Josh, and Josh’s fiancé Darwin were clustered together in a second window. Seth’s friends were in a kitchen, and Nana was wearing a Santa hat.

I smiled at the screen and said, “Hi everyone. I have two people I want you to meet. This is Lark, and sitting next to him is Kel.” I flipped the camera around, and my roommates waved.

As soon as I explained about Lark’s estranged family, Nana leapt to her feet and disappeared from the screen. We heard her cussing, and then she exclaimed, “That’s not what family is all about!” She darted past in the background with a tray of cookies and yelled, “Don’t just sit there, Joshie and Darwin, we’ve got a holiday 9-1-1! Help me grab some Christmas cheer!”

Josh and Darwin both got up too, and Nana reappeared and stuck her face in the phone as she yelled, “Sit tight, boys, the Christmas cavalry is on the way!”