Page 41 of A Very Addicted Christmas

Guess he hurt his ankle or hamstring.

Alright, I need to go to bed. So I turn to blow out the candle that’s surprisingly still lit, and I hearanotherset of footsteps.

“Please not him,” I mutter under my breath, expecting the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

I rememberA Christmas Carolfrom school. I liked whenever teachers played the movie. School was my favorite part of the holidays. Was the only thing that really felt festive. Classrooms were decorated. Sometimes there’d be hot chocolate.

It’s going to be Tony.The third person on my list is coming to haunt me. I jinxed myself or something by thinking about those three guys. I know I did.

Tony is coming to pick a fight. Well, guess what—I’ve already had a cupboard knocked in my skull and been cursed at and sat in silence with my past.

My future can’t be any worse than that.

Can it?

I’m tense, about to blow out the candle and not linger to see him.

“Oh…” Her voice stops me cold. “Hi, hey, howdy.”

Slowly, I twist my head over my shoulder. I must be dreaming now.

Luna Hale throws up the Vulcan salute, wearing three layers of clothes and a knitted beanie with two poms. “What’s up? Or down…you kinda look down.” Her voice is soft in the quiet.

I shake my head. “I thought you were Tony.”

“Oh. Definitely not Tony.” She comes forward, noticing my sweater she knitted but says nothing. Now I’m glad I let Beckett patch the hole for me. “Did you wish I was him?”

I laugh. “No.” I breathe in deeper and knot the sweater around my waist, the knitted arms long enough to tie. “I’m glad you’re not.”

She smiles a little and then touches the back of a chair, the breakfast table cozied up against the windows. “What are you doing awake?”

“Couldn’t sleep. You?”

“Same.” She stares at the cupboards behind me.

“Need something?” I wonder, taking the candle over to the table. I set it on the surface.

She frowns. “I don’t know…maybe later. I know we don’t have a lot of resources…I’ll just wait.”

“Watcha looking for, Luna?” I wonder, seeing her wrestling with telling me.

Her cheeks redden. I haven’t thought she’s shy, but she looks away from me. Must be personal or somethin’. Resources imply food or medication.

“Medicine?” I throw out there. “You in pain?”I hope not.

“It’s not that bad yet,” she mutters so quietly. “Just cramps.”

“Bad enough for you to come down here is bad enough for me to steal shit for you.” I open the same cupboard O’Malley did, and I find the limited supply of pain meds. “If anyone asks, I took them for my headache.”

Once I come over and put three pills in her palm, Luna looks a little overwhelmed. “Thanks.” She smiles over at me, and I fill her a water from the tap while she sinks down at the breakfast table. “Why couldn’t you sleep?”

“The wind.” I place the water beside her, and I take a seat at the other end of the table. The candlelight between us. “You missing home?”

She downs the pills with a big swig, then nods. “I keep thinking about Xander. It’s not even that we won’t be there tomorrow. It’s that we can’t even call him to wish him a happy birthday or let him know we’re thinking about him.”

“Yeah,” I nod back. “I get that.” I eye the empty chair beside her. “We could pretend.”

She smiles over at the chair. “Pretend everyone is here?”

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