Jingle Zell

(I know. It's a pretty short chapter but please do review.)

Move it along Grandma!

Trying to get out of heavy traffic in the bustling commercial district of the city with more miles to go to reach the bridge, a shiny black Audi sat trapped in between an armada of taxis and a few other commuter vehicles. Christmas lights sprinkled over the names of stores and the giant tree display in the plaza as last minute emergency shopping caused pedestrians to overfill the sidewalk. Gift bags hung from many hands. eyes in awe panned over the sight of the busiest city atmosphere ever witnessed. It was even busier than a typical workday, and there was hardly any business pressing. Too many people procrastinated during gift shopping season.

" LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR!! LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR!!" Two voices sang along while banging their heads inside the car much to the annoyance of the cab driver behind them. Tidus stopped to imitate the shouting man's accent, and almost felt like rewarding such an artistic usage of curse words with his middle finger. Him and a nervous Vincent bundled up in their winter suits and scarves after a long day of office work to forget about obligations with a little radio music. A ritual that they had just begun to celebrate after putting off for the longest time. After all, there was coming home and the party to think about. It was Christmas Eve.

" Hey shouldn't we be a bit more considerate?" Vincent suggested looking behind him and wondering if the cabbies anger would push to another level.

" He can scream all night for all I give a care." Tidus mumbled as he pressed the button for his window to come down and turned to shout back to the unsatisfied cabbie behind, still yelling for him to move it along despite the fact that it was the traffic far up ahead that was keeping the taxi from continuing on his extensive holiday trips.

"Must be a new driver. He probably doesn't get it." Vincent suggested

" Hey Osama! Shut the hell up!" Tidus yelled much to Vincent's surprise

" Okay now SOMEBODY went a LITTLE too far." He diverted his eyes in another direction as if to signify that he had no part in what his friend had just said. " Oooh detour!" He motioned to Tidus as he turned back up in his seat.

" Let's take it then."

"Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!"

Tidus stepped on the gas much to Vincent's nervous encouragement in their escape attempt from a pissed off driver that was almost about to step out of his car and give the two a piece of his mind. They burned rubber as the shiny hubcaps spun up a rainbow of colors reflecting from the environment of Christmas lights around them pulling out on the rough pavement. All the driver could see was an in your face license plate that read 'U R MI BTCH' Such youngsters usually failed to understand that you didn't drive up and talk trash to such people in the streets.

He rubbed his eyes minutes later while still stuck in traffic and ended up falling under the curse of horn honking his impatience with hundreds more drivers up ahead that had begun long before him. taking a few seconds to stare out at all of the holiday shopping rush made his stomach turn with guilt, but he hardly mentioned his failure to live up to his half of the bargain to anyone. The shame was too great. Every single person that he could see out in the cold mist was holding bags from one store or another. His mind flashed back to all of the fights. The most recent on stuck in his head deeper than anything he could remember. The loud sound of her banging her fist against her perfectly set dining table as her demanding eyes peered him down, but he refused to back down at all. He was much too thickhead to ever do something like that. She even had the chandelier trembling above their heads when he finally told her of his weekend activities. A football game and an after party at Hooters was not what she considered to be the greatest idea for a substitute weekend rather than quality time with a person who he said he loved but hadn't even seen in a week. What the heck were all those phone conversations with her for?

He was finally beginning to see it all from her side. Scratching his hair as he tried to block the rest of her haunting pouts echoing throughout his mind, he switched the station looking to catch the sports headlines.

" And the Marlins seem to come up short as-"

" YES!"

" Also the Yankees haven't brought any strength out of-"

"DAMN!"

Vincent looked upon his comrade with the most fearful eyes he had given him yet.

"...See, the thing that scares me is that you're sober-"

" I know, I know I'm acting weird it's just that I've been trying to find something else to get my mind off of-"

" There's no way you can do it." Vincent shook his head with assurance as he breathed out steam from the cold." Absolutelay no...friggin...way. I know you were lying when you said you got her a present too." He told him straight up with an accusing finger. A shocking revelation that sent Tidus far up in his seat with his eyes bulging as though a creature had bit him in the ass.

" HUH!? THE HELL? How'd you-"

" Calm down turkey. There's still time to make up for it. Victoria's Secret on your left." He pointed. The heavenly white and valentine color effect of the store reflected off of his face as he pointed to it.

" No. No." Tidus shook his head vigorously

" Last chance man. You know that you haven't a clue what this girl really wants from you."

" It's just that...I always feel like such a pervert going in their store. Had I been in there any longer I probably would've been wearing a thong on my way out. Odd I tell you."

Vincent couldn't help but laugh at that one. He knew the exact answer to Tidus's problems as he had heard Yuna complain many times with her girlfriends behind Tidus's back.

" Okay. I understand perfectly m'man. Check this out. This is top secret info from the spy man yours truly. All you gotta do is go to.." He whispered while Tidus listened carefully.

" Perfect! That's genius!" Tidus slapped Vincent's back and they waited for another break in traffic then he got his car going with a little roar of victory but sadly they were kept a bit short of their goal because of a stubborn Cadillac that failed to speed up.

" Great." Vincent sighed as he lowered his head

" Hey move it along Grandma!" It was a pretty obvious guess that he made concerning who was in the car ahead of them. They could barely see that crooked middle finger rise up just above the window to greet him back.