A Crazy Unexpected Christmas (After A Whole Lotta Drama)

Note, this short story contains swearing

“I fucking hate this” I said to nobody in general as I sat in my apartment looking outside seeing couples lovey doveying on the streets. I used to be like, happily singing and dancing up and down the streets of Connecticut as I breathed in the Christmas Eve air. I attended parties where I hunted for solo partiers to pair up together. It usually ended up with them kissing each other outside, the snow tickling their noses. I was called the Cupid Christmas. Fuck that. 

I look at my phone to see several messages and texts from my friends. I sigh as I open my phone to be bombarded with messages asking if I was going to the Annual Christmas Party. Hell nah. 

“No,” I say sternly as I pick up the next call from my friend.

“Oh come on, please?,” 

“Your gonna escape with your boyfriend anyway,” I say not bothering to listen to her pleas. 

“But-” 

“No Liz I am not coming,” 

“Come on, this party needs their Christmas Cupid,” 

“I’m not-” I sigh, “Fine will you shut up if I go?”  

A squeal follows along with a series of random rants about dress code and what not. I quickly hang up after, looking at my ceiling already regretting my decision. 

“It’s just a couple hours,” I mutter as I look through my closet to find something to wear. After minutes of digging through my messy closet, I decide to wear a strapless black dress that ends around the middle of my thighs, a black leather jacket, thermal tights so I don’t freeze. And leather boots. I then proceed to rip my hair tie out of my hair as it falls into long thick waves. 

“Not bad,” I say posing in front of my long mirror after I finish my makeup, “Not bad at all,” 

I quickly rush outside to catch the elevator when I bump into someone. I sigh, of course. 

“Where are you hurrying off to?” My neighbor Aaron asks me as he smirks, his black hair falling slightly over his eyes messily. 

“What do you want?” I ask him pressing the down button for the elevator. 

“Are you deaf or are you just stupid?”

I ignore him as the elevator opens and I step in. I hoped he would just go back to his apartment and leave me alone only to stare horrified when he steps in with me. 

“I didn’t just come out to say hi to you darling,” He winks, “I have a party to go to.” 

“Of course you do,” I sigh, “Couldn’t leave me alone for one night could you?” 

“Nope!” He says grinning widely. 

The rest of the ride is silent as we make it down to the first floor when Aaron suddenly breaks the silent, “Hey, uh” I look at him as he puts his hands in his pockets, “Sorry for uh, you know Nick you know-”

“I don’t” I say my eyes piercing into his, “Want to here it,” Before he can say anything else, I storm out of the elevator and into Liz’s car which was waiting outside for me. 

“Hello grumpy,” She says as I slam the car door shut, “Nice to see you too,”

“Uh huh,” I say as I put my seat belt on. 

“Let’s go party shall we?” 

We arrive at the party twenty minutes later where I can see the disco lights from outside club. We both get out and I finally am able to see Liz’s full outfit. 

“Nice fit,” I say to her as I look her black trench coat, red mini dress and converse, “Interesting shoe choice though,” 

“Can’t sprain my ankle tonight, I must dance!” She says as she wiggles in a small dance as I laugh.

Katie greets us at the door and leads us to the basement where plenty of people had already gathered inside. The bartenders are busy at work making cocktails and drinks for their customers. 

I look to a corner to see Nick and his new girlfriend Sarah kissing in a corner. I roll my eyes before looking away ignoring the jealously brewing in my chest. That used to be you Minju, until he cheated on you with your enemy, the one you used to spend your entire life competing with

“Shut up,” I murmur, my teeth clenched. 

“Huh?” Liz asks me looking over to see my annoyed face before looking over to the corner to see them, “Oh shit,” 

“It’s fine I don’t care.” I say fighting my frown. 

She eyes me for a bit before dragging me over to the bar. We both get coke cause we hate having hangovers, though other people seem to not have similar tastes to us as they are already getting a little wobbly on the dance floor. 

I look over to see Liz smiling at a guy in the distance, “Hey Jay” She says smiling before looking at me. 

“Go, go,” I say laughing as I gesture for them to shoo, “Go have fun” 

She beams before walking towards the dance floor with her boyfriend dancing to “Shake It Off” by Taylor swift as it blasts through the speakers. 

The smile soon falls off my face as memories come back to me from the highs chool senior year party.

“I love this song!” I said as “Tomboy” by G-IDLE came on. I had started my G-IDLE phase last year and Nick new that. 

“Of course you do” He smiled as he twirled me around before ushering me to the middle of the dance floor to dance with the rest of the K-pop nerds. 

Yeah I’m F*** Tomboy 

Nick pretended to record it on his phone as I danced to the chorus with my friends, ruffling my hair when the song ended and I came back to him. 

“Forever my favorite k-star,” He would say as he kissed me as if the world were ending in moments. 

After than me and him snuck to the corner to see shy partiers stealing glances at each other but not daring to go ask. 

“This won’t do” I would say smiling before walking towards the target for the night. Few moments later, a new couple was formed and they would be dancing together. 

“You really are the Christmas Cupid!” They would shout as the walked away giggling. 

 Then One Direction fans would take over and start singing to “What Makes You Beautiful” at the top of their lungs while Nick would sing the lyrics to me softly. 

Baby, you light up my world like nobody else

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed

But when you smile at the ground, it ain’t hard to tell 

You don’t know you’re beautiful. 

“I do,” I would say, “You make me feel beautiful” 

A shake in my shoulder takes me away from my thoughts that make me want to sob, fall into a deep dark hole and never come out. 

“Yo, you’re Minju right? Come on sing some k-pop for us will you?” A random dude asks me. 

“Uh ok, I guess, I don’t know what to-” Before I can finish, he drags me onto to stage where I stand rigid next to the mic. 

“What song yall wanna hear?” I shout, shaking off my nerves, I’ve been here before. 

A large mass of the crowd (mostly girls) seem to be screaming “Enhypen” 

“Enhypen it is!” I say before motioning the band to play “Brough the Heat Back” Thankfully, since the band practiced with the k-pop club before they got the hang of it quickly. 

아까 인사한 저 앤 누구야?

(Yeah-yeah-yeah)

왜 그렇게 웃어 주는 거야?  

Before I knew it, I was enjoying the crowd as I sung the lyrics that had nothing to do with where I was with in life right now but it was fun to pretend. Easy to pretend I was a girl jealous of my crush talking to another girl, someone I wanted to impress. Easy to forget my first love standing in the corner with another girl.

I led song after song before ending with “Toxic till the end” by ROSE, it fit my mood I was in, I needed to let out of my anger. 

“Let’s go!” I shouted before singing my heart out with the words I wanted to scream for so long. 

I can’t forgive you for a lot of things

For not giving me back my Tiffany rings

I’ll never forgive you for one thing my dear

You wasted my prettiest years

The crowd claps happily before I let the normal singer back on stage before walking off the stage to see Liz racing towards me. 

“You need to be singing more at these parties I swear the crowd was so hyped!” She eyed me curiously, “That last song, if felt you were singing it to-”

“Hey Minju!” A familiar voice calls from behind me. I roll my eyes before walking away with Liz to the bar. 

“Hey!-” Nick runs up to me, smiling at me softly, “Hey that was really good-”

“Thanks now get out of my face,” I say to his face without flinching. 

He looks down at his feet, shuffling nervously, “I wanted to apologize for-”

“For what? For fucking cheating on me? Calling me a worthless piece of crap?” My voice starts rising, “Well apology not accepted, now get the hell out of here.” 

“Please-just listen to-” 

“No! I won’t! Now shoo, go kiss up your new girlfriend,” I say before storming off my bar seat. I spend the next hour simmering with rage in the corner while looking at little love sick couples giggling at each other. 

How I wish this night were over. 

How I wish I could go back in time 

How I wish I were still his girlfriend 

How I wish..

It’s 11 pm when I come out of my little corner to see a giant catastrophe in the middle of the dance floor. I’m not shocked to see a couple kissing, but I am shocked to see…IS THAT NICK??? WITH? HOLY SMOKES IT’S- 

Before I can react, I see a flash of blond hair rushing out of the club and soon, I’m following her. 

“Sarah!” I shout as I follow her down the street before she collapses in tears on a nearby bench, “Oh Sarah,” I say softly before sitting next to her. 

She looks up at me before a new wave of tears flow down her face, “I’m-” She sobs again, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t, I didn’t think he had a girlfriend, I thought, I thought he loved me” 

“You didn’t know he was dating me?” I ask him, guilty I’m ruining her misery with my selfish questions but I have to know. Did you fucking lie to her Nick?

“Yes, he said you guys broke up, that he wanted me,” She sniffles. At that moment, all my grudges for this girl in front of me disappear. The times she flirted with Nick right in front of me when we dated, GONE. The times she beat me in grades? GONE. Every single bad thought of Sarah disappeared from my brain to be replaced with pure anger. 

I stand up suddenly before running back into the club where I see Nick still kissing the other girl. 

“Seriously Nick?” I shout as I walk to the middle of the dance floor as I shove the two of them apart, “Is this a hobby for you? To just cheat on girls with every girl you look at? First me, and now Sarah? What the fuck?” I yell at his face “Is it fun to break people’s hearts?” 

His smile is wicked, “Oh hell yes,” 

I loose it. My hand balls into fists before flying towards his face when it hits his face. He jerks backwards before putting a hand to his face.

“You little-” He snarls. 

I just smirk before waving a little as I walk out of the club. Once I’m out, I walk towards Sarah. Her tears have stopped, leaving a trail of dark mascara down her face. 

“Hey,” I say awkwardly since I hadn’t really talked to her like this before. 

“Hey,” She says smiling looking at the sky, “I guess we are both single now huh?”

“Yeah, what a Christmas,” I murmur as she bursts out laughing. 

“Boys suck,” She said

“Hell yeah,” 

We laugh until make eye contact where Sarah looks back down and clears her throat, “You don’t need to accept ot but sorry for being so smug back in highschool. You didn’t deserve it,” 

My memory flashes to a year ago in senior year of highschool. We had competed for valedictorian, class president, leader of the dance club, and captain of the softball team. It had just been a normal rivalry right before senior year ended and we were all excited for college. Nick and I had gotten in to Yale (as well as Sarah) and were planning our college years together when Nick had gotten a text from Sarah. I remember what it said, clear as dead, “Hey baby you left your shirt at my house last night, when should I give it back?” 

I stared at Nick with wide eyes for minutes, trying to puzzle it out. I couldn’t take it so I ran away pathetically. That night I blocked Nick and spent the entire night crying and fuming with anger towards Nick, and especially Sarah. I blamed everything on her. Always thought that she made the first move, but no, it was Nick this entire time. He cheated on me, Sarah didn’t steal him from me, he left me. 

“I forgive you,” I say, shocking Sarah, “It wasn’t your fault.” 

Sarah stared at me wide eyed before hugging me tight, “Your amazing,” Her voice muffled against my jacket. I laughed before hugging her back. 

Soon, we went inside the club to grab a bottle of coke chasing off a stupidly apologetic Nick and walked the streets giggling and laughing so hard we almost collapsed onto the ground. We started singing random break up songs that came to mind all the way until we reached our dorms. 

“Merry Christmas bitch!” I shouted before opening my door. 

“Merry Christmas to you too you little rat!” Sarah responded back. 

What a weird night this turned out to be. Hanging with my enemy, that fiasco at the club, I sigh happily, best Christmas Eve ever. 

I look at my clock at it struck 12, Merry Christmas Minju.