"Okay on three," Len prepared himself and Rin for some heavy lifting. "One… two… three ," He expected the box to the heavy, judging how the kid at the store had trouble lifting it, but it was surprisingly light; it was about forty pounds at most.
The box was laid down on the living room floor and was finally opened, revealing a white artificial Christmas tree. Len thought it was a bit tacky, opting in for a real tree, but Rin really wanted the fake tree. It was something new for the both of them as both their families always had a real tree for Christmas, so Len would be lying if he said he wasn't curious about the idea of an artificial tree.
"Isn't it pretty?" Rin asked when the tree was assembled.
"Yeah, but why white? We could've went with green." Len mumbled.
"Because white is a pretty color." Rin pointed to her hair bow, "See? And plus everyone has a green tree; we can be different."
Len still wasn't too sure about it. To him there was a reason why everyone gets a green tree: because it looks natural. He must've of been making a sour face because Rin told him to wipe the look off his face.
"You'll see, once the ornaments and lights are up, it'll look really pretty. I promise." She opened of a box of new ornaments and handed him one.
"At least it'll be better than last years tree." He hung the bulb.
Rin rolled her eyes, "It had charm okay?"
Len laughed for a second, "If by charm, you mean ugly."
"You're ugly," She stuck a tongue out at him to which he returned the favor. "But I remember last Christmas, it was fun." A smile formed on her face, remembering Christmas from the year before.
….
The door to the dingy studio apartment swung open, allowing a young couple to enter the apartment. If someone was trying to be nice they would describe the apartment as humble and modest when in reality, it was barely bare bones. The queen size mattress, that doubled as a couch, was neatly made with a patchwork quilt, sat on the floor across from the portable black and white television. The mismatched table and two chairs served as the dining table that sat next to the door. Another source for entertainment was the cassette player/radio combo, that sat on the floor along with the TV. The rest of the apartment was bare.
"Nice of the guy the give us a hefty discount on the tree." Rin hopped into to room.
"Well it is Christmas, everyone else already has their tree and not to mention that this one is kinda… ummm… not so great." Len followed her, holding the small tree with one hand.
"It's got some charm to it. It's like a Charlie Brown tree." She took the tree from him and placed it in the corner. "I even got a red bulb for it!" She took the small Christmas bulb from her purse and placed it on the tree, causing it to tilt just a bit. "Oh well, it's still nice." Len just made a noise, acknowledging what she said. "Are you okay dear? It seemed that your mind has been wondering all day." She looked worriedly at him.
"No, I'm okay." He tried to convince her, but she raised a brow at him. "Okay, okay. It's just that my feelings are conflicted." He sat down at one of the mismatched dining chairs.
She proceeded to sit on his lap, "Is it about Crypton?" He nodded. "It's okay to be nervous, but you shouldn't let something like this cloud your mind from having a good Christmas."
He wrapped his arms around her, "I know, I know, but I'm just so nervous."
"Well maybe if we say good things about this new job maybe you'll feel better. For me, I honestly can't wait til we start at Crypton. No more having to deal with angry customers," Rin happily sighed. "That's one good thing; now you."
"I'm just excited to actually get paid good money to sing. Think about it, we'll be singing in front of thousands of people, not in rinky dinky bars and clubs." Len smiled at thought of finally getting to perform in front of crowds of people. But even a pleasant thought such as that could not stop him from being nervous. "But even still, my nervousness is eating at me."
"Well maybe talking about our new coworkers will help ease your mind. What do you think of them? I really think that Miku chick was really rude. Like I was trying to be friendly and then she tells me to go to the gym? Like what the hell?" Rin threw her arms in the air
He pondered for a second. Miku did seem to be a rude person. "I think it'll be best if we just avoid her, but it seemed that you and Luka got along."
"We did! Actually we're going to the hair salon at the beginning of next year and getting perms; the best part is that Crypton's paying for it." She brushed her hair with her fingers. "I'm going to look so pretty."
"You're already pretty and you always will be." He patted her back. His compliment didn't go unrewarded as she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Perm or no perm."
….
Rin found herself still smiling even though his comment was made a year ago. "Poor Luka, that perm burned right through her hair, "She shook her hair as she was placing ornaments around the tree.
"It think it was for the best, pink hair really suits her. And plus you two would've looked like sisters if you both had perms." He shrugged.
"Do you really think that we look that alike?" She raised a brow.
"At first glance, yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if she was some long lost second cousin of yours, considering how big your family is."
"You know people say that we like alike," She looked at him and studied just how similar they were. "Like we're clones of each other."
"That'd be freaky if we were… Say… If we were clones, which one of us would be the real one?" He looked at her with a bizarre look on his face.
"Me of course, I'm older."
"Yeah by like twelve hours." Len became defensive; she would always tease him about being younger than her.
"Still older," She sang out.
Len decided to change the subject as he could feel his face heating up because of her. Not to mention their very close similarities was always an awkward subject for him as it did creep him out a bit. "I remember that you were so giddy about working for Crypton." He smiled at the memory, looking at the yellow corvette in the driveway. "You were so happy to not live paycheck to paycheck anymore. You were also happy that you could buy nice things."
….
"When I get my first check, I'm going to buy you something nice." Rin sat on the mattress, criss-cross applesauce style.
"Like what?" He sat on the mattress next to her
"Maybe a car for you. Definitely a car. It might take a few paychecks, but I promise to sing a lot of songs to get it for you?"
"You don't have to get me a car," He kissed her hand. "I'm fine with taking the bus and walking around."
"Yeah… but superstars shouldn't have to take the bus. They deserve to cruise around in fancy cars. You deserve a fancy car." She pretended to honk an imaginary car's horn. "What are you going to get when you get your first paycheck?"
Len laid down on her lap, his face facing the ceiling. "The first chance I get I'll be buying a house and getting us out of this dump." He sighed. "I just hope this new job actually helps us. If not, then we are in so much trouble." He couldn't help but to worry; this was a new experience for the both of them.
"Hey now," She stroked his cheek, in an effort to cheer up him up. "It's Christmas, so don't get down and plus we'll do just fine. We have to believe each other on this." She grabbed his hand and held onto it tightly.
While she did try her best; her efforts could not ease his troubled thoughts. Everything was riding on this opportunity being a success. They both are going to quit their jobs, with Riliane already quitting hers and his last day being on Friday. As part of their contracts if they don't follow through with Crypton's demand and have an album out by April, Crypton would end up suing the two. There was no earthly way they could afford lawyers to defend them and even if they could, the contract was iron tight. The lawsuit would be the worst case scenario for them as it meant that they would lose any and all money they had and be in debt to Crypton. Which means that they'd be homeless again and this time around they wouldn't have a car to sleep in. Len wasn't going to allow Rin to go through that again. He just couldn't. She deserved better than that.
Still holding on to his hand, she whispered to him, "No matter what happens, I'll still love you. I always will."
He smiled; she was too good for him. That reminds him: he needs to give her his gift. Maybe giving her his gift will help ease his troubled mind for now. "Oh I made you something." He sat up to crawl over to a backpack on the floor.
"You made me something? What is it?" She was puzzled, he rarely makes her anything. He was always to type to buy her presents that didn't had to do with music, so this was going to be interesting.
He nodded, "I didn't wrap it, so you'll have to close your eyes." She closed them and felt Len grab one of her hands and placed a rectangular object in her hands. "Okay open them!"
She opened her eyes and saw the cassette tape in her hand. "You made me a mix tape?"
"Yup, It's got all your favorites like Fleetwood Mac, Duran Duran, and your boyfriend, George Micheal," he teased her and her teenage-like crush on George Micheal.
"George Micheal isn't my boyfriend," She stuck her tongue out at him. "How many calls did you make to make this?" She asked as she stuck her finger through one of the holes, trying to rewind it.
"Dunno, I never counted. But boy, was I on hold for the longest time. But umm, just to let you know, the last song got cut off about halfway, so just a warning." He scratched his head in embarrassment.
"Thank you so much Lenny," She wrapped her arms around him, giving him a kiss on- the cheek. "But, ugh, Damn you Len." She buried her head into his shoulder, "This is the second year in a row that I didn't get you anything." She groaned.
"Don't worry about, you can always get something for our birthday, which is in two days" He teased her once again.
"I'll think of something." She mumbled into his shoulder.
….
"What happened after you gave me that cassette tape?" Rin handed Len, who was on the ladder, the star.
"I think we went out to eat, or did we just had packaged ramen?"
"No, we ate out, because I remember us coming home again." She moved the string of lights by an inch and paused. "Yeah that's right, because I remembered that we ate in the park, but I can't remember what we ate."
"Does it matter?" Len got off the ladder and was ready to plug in the lights, "Prepare to be amazed!" He proudly stated before plugging the cord in. The plug went into the wall, but there were no lights. "Huh?" He tried removing to plug out and putting it back in. "No, no, no, no, no, no, this can't be happening. Dammit!" He threw the cord on the ground. "One of the bulbs are out. And these are brand new too; What the hell!" Rin couldn't help but to snicker. "Hey!" Len's head snapped towards her. "What are you laughing at? You have to help me find out which bulb is burnt."
"I'm laughing at you; you're just too funny." Her giggling winded down as she started to help him find which bulb was burnt.
They were about thirty bulbs of trying in when Len decided to pipe up. "Do you remember what happened as soon as we got home? Because I do." Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the smirk on his face.
"I remember," she couldn't help but to smile. "It was "my gift" to you. I came up with it on the spot though."
"I'm not complaining, it was great. But you know what I will complain about? Those damn nosey neighbors. How dare they come to our door, complaining that we were "too loud"," He rolled his eyes, remembering how stupid and annoying his old neighbors were.
"Well now we can be as loud as we want and no one is going to stop us." She cocked her head side to side.
"Yeah, take that stupid neighbors. We're famous and you're not." Len tried another bulb, still nothing. "Ugh stupid lights."
"Let's try the last bulb to see if it works." Rin suggested.
"Hey, you're smart." He got up to try the very last bulb at the end of the string. Surprisingly enough, it worked and Len gave her a pat on the back. "Good job Rin, thinking outside the box."
In order to get a good view, the duo took a step back. The red, green, and white lights. It was spectacular and helped filled with the air with Christmas cheer.
…
"You know, maybe next Christmas we should ditch L.A and go up north and enjoy some snow on Christmas." Rin piped up while they were staring at the Christmas tree. With the both of them growing, up in a warmer part of the country, it was rare for snow to fall, so the idea of it snowing on Christmas was only a dream.
"It'll be our first ever white Christmas." Len stated. "Yeah… let's do that. Because the chance of it snowing here in the next..." He did some counting with his fingers, "twelve days is zero; I mean it's like seventy degrees right now."
"So is it a yes?"
"It's a duh, of course." Len crossed his eyes, causing Rin to laugh.
Rin took a deep breath, "You did good Len."
"On the tree? It was your decision."
"No," she shook her head. "I mean you. Like at what you managed to do in a years time; its phenomenal."
He smiled at her as he brought her closer, arm wrapped around her "I couldn't have done it without you." He smooched her temple.