[ E V A N S ]

"I'm sorry, Evans."

     Three words. Three words that I've been so accustomed to hearing my whole life now that I've become desensitized to it. Three words that hold so little meaning to me.

      I heave a long sigh. Why do I keep letting them do this to me? You would have thought that I'd figured it out by now and keep my distance. But like a fool, I believe them. Like a fool, I've continued to hold up hope that this time, they'll really let us in.

      "It was your dad's decision," my mother tells me over the phone. Rage coils inside of me, burning at the core. I'm so angry that all I want to do right now is to put a fucking fist through my wall. Angry at at them, but rather, myself. For letting them swindle me of my pride yet again. I clench my phone tightly. I can't tell if she's sorry or not. Besides, she's done this too many times for me to even care. "All your father's and my friends will be there. If you go, they'll start talking. About you and Brent. About us. And—and—I just can't deal with that right now."

Of course she says that. She hasn't wanted to deal with it ever since Brent and I got married two years ago. She hasn't even told anybody that her son was bisexual. Apparently, it would 'destroy' our family's reputation.

"It's so typical of you." I roll my eyes. "I don't know if you're really trying to make an effort to accept us into the family or you're trying to humiliate us even more by uninviting us from your social gatherings."

"We're really trying—" My mother attempts to defend herself but I'm not hearing any of it.

"Well, try harder," I snap at her. "Merry Christmas, mother. And tell dad to go fuck himself."

She gasps, horrified. I've never used any swear words in front of them before, but I'm too angry to withhold my tongue any longer. "Evans!" She cries.

"Goodbye."

And then, I hang up.

Brent emerges from our room, pushing his glasses up the crook of his nose as he glances at me, worried. Damn, he looks real fine today. He just got up and his hair is all ruffled and messy, the dark tufts curling and falling past the frames of his glasses. He says that he's going to get it buzzed tomorrow morning but I beg to differ. I quite like his hair like that. It's super fucking sexy.

"What happened?" He asks, half-yawning.

I don't even know how to begin telling him this. He's been looking forward to this Christmas party with my parents ever since we've received the invitation card in our mail a few weeks ago. Since we didn't get invited to last year's one, we were pretty pumped because it felt like my parents were finally starting to accept us getting married.

Fuck, I wish my parents weren't like this. I wish they'd stop worrying about their damn reputations and for once in their life, put me first. I've always been their golden son—why should my sexuality affect that?

It's been almost two years, for fuck's sake. You would have thought that they'll be ready to accept us with open arms by now. But every time I'm convinced that they're trying, they suddenly retreat and slam the door shut at our faces instead. 

"My parents just uninvited us from the Christmas party," I say, placing the phone down on the kitchen counter and scratching the back of my head. "They said that they didn't want people talking if we were to make an appearance."

"What?" Brent says incredulously. He crosses the hallway and saunters towards the kitchen, taking a seat on one of the island chairs. He faces me, his eyebrows furrowed with confusion. "What kind of bullshit excuse is that?"

"I know, B. I know. But there's really nothing I can do," I say, sighing, resting my arms on the counter. "I'm sorry, Brent. I know how much you wanted this."

"Yeah..." Brent says, "But honestly... I'm not all that surprised that they did this." He rolls his shoulders, shrugging. "They've been pulling stunts like this ever since we got married last summer."

     It's true. And I detest them all the more for it.

He huffs out a laugh. "Is it weird that I have never even met my husband's parents?"

Fuck, I feel even worse now. I almost forgot that my parents and Brent have never even met. The Christmas party would have been a great opportunity for them to get to know each other and for them to love him just like I do.

Well, not exactly like how I do. The kind of loving that me and Brent do are only subjected in the bedroom.

"I wish they would put their fucking pride aside to meet you," I murmur at him, my hand sliding over he cheek. He leans into my caress, inhaling deeply. "So they can see what I see in you: funny, charming, cute and wonderful."

"I am really all of those things," he says, nodding. I chuckle softly. I feel like the narcissist in me has rubbed off on him. "So what are we going to do for Christmas now?"

"We could have dinner at your parents place, if that invitation is still open."

Brent makes a face. "Uh, I don't think so. My dad called last week to tell me that they're spending Christmas in the Alps this year. Just the two of them. Not that they wouldn't like it if we crashed their Christmas but..." He presses his mouth into a thin line. "I'd rather not. It would feel kinda rude."

That's true. Brent's parents are the coolest but there's a reason why they've decided to spend the holidays so far away this year. They need their alone time; I wouldn't want us to jeapordize that.

"We could just stay at home and order Chinese or something. Netflix and chill," I say, grinning wickedly as I lay my hand on Brent's thigh. Color tints his sculpted cheeks. "I'd be totally down for that."

"We do that almost every night already, Evans." Brent brushes my hand away from him while shaking his head. "We need to do something special tonight."

"I could make a reservation at a fancy restaurant—"

Brent snorts. "I highly doubt we'll be able to get a table anywhere tonight. The best restaurants would have been booked out months ago."

"Fuck," I swear under my breath. I really want this Christmas to be special for the both of us. Last year, we had such a great time with Sienna and our friends at a ski resort. The best memories were made there. I've been trying to top that ever since. Something clicks inside of me. Sienna told me that her, Kayden, Clarissa, Cara and Simon were going to be flying over to LA to spend Christmas with their friends, Jax and Blaire. Grabbing my phone, I quickly place a Facetime call for Sienna. She picks up and her exhausted face stares back at me through the screen of my phone.

"Hey, Evans," she says, offering me a half-smile.

"Hey, baby doll," I muse.

"Is that Sienna?" Brent points to my phone. I nod and tilt the phone to his direction. "Hey, Si!"

"Hey, Brent! What's up?"

"How was the flight to Boston?" I ask her. She scrunches her face.

"It was bad. Clarissa cried the entire time. But I can't blame her—it was her first time on a plane. Must be terrifying for her."

"That sucks," I note. I really do feel a pang of sympathy for her. Sienna and Kayden have been up to their eyeballs taking care of their daughter. It's not easy, especially when they have to juggle studies and work along with that. If Clarissa was crying during the entire flight, Sienna and Kayden probably didn't get any sleep. "Where is she?"

"Oh, I just put her to sleep," she says. "I'm going downstairs in a minute to help Blaire out with the cooking. Something tells me she hasn't got a clue what she's doing. I already smell smoke."

A small chuckle escapes from me. I haven't had the opportunity to meet Blaire before, and Jax, well, let's just say both me and Brent still hate his guts for what he did to Kayden during Alyson and Sienna's dad's wedding and the finals where he beat the shit out of our friend and almost killed Sienna in the process. But if Sienna and Jax are on good terms now, I'm willing to give him a shot.

I can't say the same about Kayden though. He still holds a major grudge on him. I don't think he really hates Jax anymore—I think that he's been so used to that feeling for so long now that he can't quite let go of it just yet.

I find it ironic, really. That his girlfriend, who's known for holding grudges, can learn to let go of her grudge against Jax, whereas he's still holding onto it like his life depended on it.

"How are you guys though?" She asks. "Excited about the Christmas party?"

"Uh, we got uninvited," Brent tells her.

Her eyes widen with shock. "What the fuck? Why?"

"Long story," I say, shrugging. "The thing is, we don't have anything to do for Christmas now. And we were kind of wondering..." My eyes drifted to Brent, who is starting to understand what I'm asking of Sienna. "If you have room for two more?"

"You guys wanna come to Boston to spend Christmas with us?" Sienna asks and we nod. A smile breaks her face. "That's so exciting! Of course we have room for the two of you. This is going to be amazing!"

     A smile forms on my lips. At least someone wants us for Christmas.

     "I can't wait!" Sienna exclaims, shaking the phone slightly. "Oooh! Do you realize that this is going to be Clarissa's first Christmas with her two godparents?"

It is pretty exciting. Just the thought of having my goddaughter in my arms already makes me feel even more determined to go.

"It's going to be her first Christmas, ever," I say, grinning.

"Do we even have time to catch a plane though?" Brent asks me, worried. "It takes seven hours to get from here to Boston. By the time we reach there, we'll miss dinner."

"Nah, don't worry about it!" Sienna says, waving her hand. "We'll wait for you guys! Besides, I don't think we'll be done preparing the food by seven anyway. Not with me, Blaire, Alex and Cara doing all the cooking."

"Why not get the guys to help?"

"Kayden's only good with omelettes. Daniel's only good with pancakes. Jax is good at, well... nothing, really. So I'd rather not take my chances with them."

Good call.

"There's a flight to LA in an hour," Brent nudges me, waving his phone with the flight details listed on it. "We'd better hurry now if we want to catch it."

"Right," I say to him, then he nods and hurries into our room to pack. "I gotta go, sweet-face. I'll see you in seven hours." I blow Sienna an air-kiss. She catches it and places her hand above her heart.

"I'll be waiting for you," she murmurs.

"I'll be thinking of you." I wink at her and she laughs.

After saying our goodbyes, I slide my phone into my pocket and head for the room to pack with Brent. Excitement thrums in my body, knowing that we'll celebrate another Christmas with our friends.

Though a small part of me feels heartbroken that it's not going to be with our parents, I pretend not to let it bother me. I want nothing more than to celebrate my favorite time of the year with them and for once, pretend that everything is normal, but that fantasy is out of reach for me. Especially after that phone call this morning.

But regardless, I'm going to have fun. I have my husband beside me and I'm going to see my friends—people who, even if they share the same state as me, I haven't seen in quite a while. I can't blame them; all of us have lives to life now. I'm married now. So are Daniel and Alex. And for fuck's sake, Kayden and Sienna have a baby.

Life's getting crazier each day; I wish time would just slow down.

And I hope it does. At least for tonight. I want to make new memories and enjoy the little time I have with my friends and my loved ones.

Clutching unto the handle of my luggage, I set out of our apartment along with Brent.

LA, here we come.

* * *

A/N: Dedicated to @randomsweetstuff for just killing it in the Fiction Awards! YOU ROCK GIRL!

Anyways, it's not much, this chapter, but things will pick up in the next one! This is just a transition chapter tbh haha.

How we feeling about Evans right now? I've always depicted him as this super chill, super happy and cool guy, but I feel like we never get to see this side of him before. I thought it'll be cool to explore that a little for this story. 

HEHEHHEHE

Also, just letting you know that WE STILL NEED PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR THE FICTION AWARDS! Come on guys! Let's help DALEX and the Perfect series get their award! Vote for Perfect Illusion for best Chick Lit story and the Perfect series for the Best series/trilogy!

All you have to do is search for Fiction Awards > voting open > spam '+1' comments under Perfect Illusion by claudiaoverhere (under Chick Lit category) and under Perfect series by claudiaoverhere (under best series/trilogy)!

I'll be giving dedications to people once this contest is over so don't miss out on a chance to get a shout out from me!

Stay tuned for Sunday! Next chapter is gonna be a real treat!

Love, Claudia.