Chapter 54: The 5 Days of Christmas
Hey everyone. Thanks for coming back for another chapter, and for all of your lovely reviews on the last one. I know this chapter is a bit shorter, but there is an important announcement at the end of the chapter, so it'd be great if you could read that when you're done. Enjoy!
Clary's POV
"So, you've all been called into this meeting to discuss your social media presence," one of the marketing executives tells us.
"What about it?" I ask. I'd been asked multiple times to post more across all social media platforms, but I hadn't given in yet, and I wasn't about to.
"Well, you all have a large following across all platforms, but particularly on instagram, which is where we want you guys to share more. Now, Kit and Simon are quite good at posting, and we encourage you to keep it up, but-" the exec begins, but is cut off by Simon.
"Cut all the professional talk. Alec and I have a flight to New York in two hours that we're not missing - what do you want us to do?"
"Well," our publicist says, standing up and walking over to a screen with some graph on it, "data shows that fans respond best to instagram live videos. It gives them a chance to communicate directly with whomever they look up to, and they see it as a more relaxed and open way of communicating."
"So you want us to do some of these instagram live things. Great - you could've sent that in an email," Alec says, sounding deeply annoyed. The last thing Simon and Alec needed was to be called into the office on a Sunday morning.
"There's a little more to it than that," she smiles, and moves onto the next slide on her power point. "We'd like you to do a 'five days of Christmas'. Starting tomorrow, one of you per day will go on the bands instagram page and do a live video, that should last for at least half an hour. In the video, you should answer some fans questions, talk about what you're doing that day… maybe show them something Christmassy in your house. It's really up to you, but we want you to discuss who is doing what days so there is no confusion."
"Whatever, let's get this over with. I'll do tomorrow," Alec says, already standing and walking over to his suitcase.
"I'm good to do the day after," Kit says, meeting Alec next to the door.
"I'll go after," Simon quickly says, flashing me a smile.
"Guess I'm going last," I say, knowing there's no way I'm getting out of this.
"Great, that wasn't too hard at all!" she says, obviously thinking we'd resist more. "There's just one more thing. I heard that you're all spending Christmas day together - we'd like you to do one final video on Christmas all together. It doesn't have to be too long or anything, just something to let your fans know you're thinking of them."
"Is that all then?" Kit asks, eager to get out of the meeting.
"Just one more thing," the publicist says, walking over to us. "You need to post on your personal instagram that you're going on the band instagram a little bit before you do. We want people to be ready for it!"
"Whatever, sounds good," Simon says, clearly bored and ready to leave.
I nod at her before heading out to my car. I'd said I would drop Simon and Alec at the airport, so everyone piles into my car.
"What'd you think about all that, Clary?" Simon asks, knowing how much I hate making a big spectacle of myself on social media.
"I think they forgot you're Jewish, and don't really celebrate Christmas," I say, smiling at him in the rear-view mirror. He just rolls his eyes, clearly hoping to get a bigger reaction out of me.
"Look, the album is selling well - really well actually, and if this is what it takes to say thank you for that, then whatever," Kit says.
"My thoughts exactly, Christopher," I say, quickly looking over at him just in time to see his over the top reaction to the use of his full name. It never gets old.
I pull into the drop off area at the airport. "We'll see you at Kit's on Christmas," I call out as Simon and Alec get out of the car.
As I'm pulling out of the parking spot, Kit asks "and why does it have to be at my house again?"
"I've explained this one hundred times already!" I say. When he just shrugs I explain it one last time, "because Simon and Alec will be in New York until Christmas day, so it can't really be in their house. My house has already been sold, so I can't host a big ass Christmas party in it, and you said you wouldn't drive out to Malibu for a Christmas party, so we can't do it at my new house. Jace's apartment is too small for the amount of people coming. Naturally, that leaves your house."
"Whatever…" Kit says, playing with the radio.
I slap his hand away, "it's not like you're even planning any of it. I've ordered all the food, decorated our whole house and will be doing the majority of the cooking. You even said you like baking! And that's all you'll be doing anyway."
"I said whatever," Kit says, drawing out each word like a moody teenager.
"What's up your butt?" I ask.
"I don't know. It just doesn't feel like Christmas," he says.
"And what makes you say that?" I ask, waving to some people through the window. Thankfully, the light turns green before they can take a picture. The last thing I need at the moment is rumours that I'm cheating on Jace with Kit.
"I don't know. We're just working so much more than normal. And we're usually all together around Christmas."
"Well," I say. Honestly I agreed with him - it didn't feel like Christmas this year, but I wasn't going to let him know that. "We're still here because someone had to stay in L.A. to deal with anything that might come up, and we didn't think it was fair to leave just one person behind. And we're working more because we're about to go on tour - I last tour I might add. It'll feel more like Christmas when everyone gets here."
I pull up to Kit's house. "I'm sure you're right," he says, getting out of the car.
"I always am!" I call after him.
"Besides," I say, dumping my keys on the kitchen counter and taking a juice out of the fridge, "is there anyone you'd prefer to spend a week with? If you have to work all week with just one person, I think you should be pretty happy it's with me!"
"First of all," Kit says, grabbing a bag of chips, "it's only five days. And second - I really don't think you want me answering that question!"
"Okay well, I was about to suggest we go out and buy a Christmas tree after rehearsals today, but maybe I've changed my mind now!"
"You know I was kidding!" Kit says, suddenly realising what is at stake. "Who else could I possibly want to live with, alone, for five days? Come on, you're my best friend!"
"I'm really your best friend?" I ask, turning to face Kit quickly.
"Well I mean… sure. You're definitely one of them!"
"Fine… fine. We'll go shopping after rehearsals - but just because I'm your best friend. You coming down to the gym?"
"Yeah, I'll be down in a minute. I've just got to get changed," Kit says, heading off to him bedroom.
"Oh yeah, me too," I say looking down at my outfit. I clearly was ready for my workout, but I head to the bathroom anyway and slowly take my hair out of its bun and brush it. I then split it into two sections and begin slowly braiding them, taking my time to make sure they are tight and neat. After about ten minutes, I head down to the gym, where Kit is already stretching.
He looks up and nods, acknowledging me, before continuing to stretch.
After our workout, we head to the stage space we'd rented for rehearsals and work with the choreographer for a couple of hours, before just going over some of the covers. It wasn't as helpful without all four of us here, but Simon and Alec were meant to be rehearsing in New York, and any practice is better than none. I had also missed a day of rehearsals when I went to meet Jace's parents, so I have to get all caught up on that.
After that, as promised, Kit and I head to a shop that is selling Christmas trees. Naturally, Kit picks out the biggest tree he can find, and it takes a little while to strap it to the roof of my pick up truck, because it doesn't fit in the tray. It then takes us about twenty minutes to figure out how to get inside with just the two of us, and another little while to actually get it standing and in a nice position.
After that, Kit starts blasting Christmas music, and gets out the eggnog for us to drink while we decorate the tree. After we've got lights and ribbons and everything on it, we step back and look at our handy work.
"I think this is the prettiest tree you've done yet," I tell Kit.
"That would be the eggnog talking," Kit says, and then makes a point of draining his glass.
"I don't know if I've said it, but thanks for letting me stay here," I say. Maybe it is the eggnog talking; Kit makes it pretty strong.
"There's nowhere else I'd rather you be," Kit says, putting down his glass and grabbing my hands. Kit is a good dancer at the best of times, but once he's had a bit of alcohol, it really seems to loosen him up. He dances me around the house, spinning me and dipping me, until he accidentally drops me, and we both end up laying on the ground, with our stomachs hurting because of how hard we're laughing.
We eventually end up back in front of the tree, sitting on the floor and looking at the lights.
I look over at Kit who is staring dreamily up at the tree. I nudge his shoulder and he looks over at me with a tired smile.
"What would you usually do at a sleepover?" he asks me.
"You know as well as I do that I've never really had any girl friends, so if your asking what Simon and I used to do when we were younger… it was all pretty basic. We'd read Manga, watch movies… choreograph dance."
"Well I don't know! I'm bored," he says, laying on his back and crossing his arms.
"I could paint your nails? I was going to mine tonight anyway," I suggest.
He sits back up and looks at me, a small smile forming. "What colour are you going to paint yours?"
"I was going to do green - for Christmas. But I have a bunch of colours. I could do black or red or a sparkly one… it might just be easier for me to go get the bag," I say. I go to the bathroom and come back to the bag filled with all my nail polish and empty the bag in front of Kit.
He carefully sorts through all of the colours, before deciding he wants me to alternate between red and green, "so I can really get into the Christmas spirit."
After I paint both of our nails, we decide we should just go to bed early, because we have to rehearse all of tomorrow.
"Night Clary," Kit yells, as he goes into his bedroom.
"Love you Kit," I yell back with a smile on my face.
Hope you enjoyed that. Now for the announcement: just like in the story, I will be doing a five days of Christmas, so come back each day for a new chapter on what each person is getting up to. The POV will be in whose ever go it is to do the Instagram live that day, so come back tomorrow for the Alec chapter! Hope you like the idea, and hope you have a great day.