Tuesday, December 22nd. 3 days 'till Christmas...

When Meg arrived at the meeting spot at the lights maze and saw Odette with Proteus, she was not thrilled. She didn't necessarily have anything against Odette- she didn't even know her- she had just been expecting it to be only her and Proteus tonight.

"I'm really sorry about this," Proteus told her.

Meg was about to tell Proteus it was fine that Odette was there, when someone said her name behind her. Meg stopped cold at the sound of the voice. She slowly turned around to see Vanessa standing behind her.

Meg turned back to Proteus. "What the hell is this?" she demanded.

Before Proteus could respond, Ariel showed up.

"No freaking way!" Vanessa hissed.

Ariel's eyes went wide and she looked as if she was terrified Vanessa would pull out a weapon. "I'm s-sorry. I'm supposed to be meeting my boyfriend here."

Odette walked over to Ariel. "Actually, Eric's not gonna be here. Proteus and I set this whole thing up to get the three of you to talk to each other."

Vanessa crossed her arms over her chest. "This is low, Proteus."

"It's ridiculous, is what it is," Meg said. "I've already said all I'm willing to say to Vanessa. And, frankly, I have no idea why Ariel is here."

"Because Vanessa blames Ariel for the accident, the same way you blame Vanessa," Proteus explained.

Ariel looked at Vanessa. "Is that true? You blame me?"

"It is your fault!" Vanessa snapped. "If you hadn't called your parents, my parents would never have been coming to pick me up."

Meg shoved Vanessa. "If you hadn't gone to the party in the first place-"

"Spare me." Vanessa rolled her eyes. "I've heard all this from you more than once."

"This is a waste of time." Meg tried to walk away, but Proteus grabbed her. "No. No one's leaving until you three hash this out."

Meg yanked her arm free. "What's to hash out? Our parents would never have gotten in that accident if Vanessa had just stayed home like she was supposed to."

"If Ariel hadn't called her parents, our parents wouldn't have had to cut their date short and I would have been home before them!"

"I was just a kid," Ariel said. "When a bunch of people I didn't know showed up at my house and everyone was getting drunk, I got scared. I didn't know what else to do."

"You could have given me a head's up so I could have left before your parents got home."

"I'm sorry!" Ariel cried.

"'Sorry' isn't going to bring our parents back! And 'sorry' isn't going to make the image of our parents' smashed car go away."

Meg and Proteus both looked at Vanessa with wide eyes.

"You saw the car?" Proteus asked.

Vanessa slowly nodded. "The accident happened right on Ariel's street; just couple houses down from hers."

"Did... Did you see mom and dad?" Meg asked.

"No. Just the smashed cars."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Meg asked.

Vanessa narrowed her eyes at her. "Would it have made any difference?"

"I don't know," Meg admitted.

"Well, I didn't want to talk about it. I was afraid if our grandparents knew I had seen the accident, they'd make me go to therapy or some shit."

Ariel reached out and touched Vanessa's arm. Vanessa flinched away from her and Ariel retracted her hand.

"My dad saw your parents," Ariel said. "I overheard him later that night telling my mom about it and it has haunted me ever since. I tried to be there for you, but you just shut me out and never talked to me again. I thought maybe it was because I was reminder of that night and it was just too hard for you to be around me. I understood that. I had no idea you blamed me."

"No one here is to blame," Proteus said. "It was that kid's fault for drinking and driving; and he's gone now. There's no point in holding onto all of this anger. Our parents wouldn't want you fighting like this and taking it out on each other." He looked at Meg. "Meg, it would kill them to know you've shut Vanessa out of your life after how close you two used to be."

Meg glared at him. "Nice choice of words, Proteus; considering they are dead."

Proteus winced. "Meg-"

"No." Meg backed away from him. "I can't believe you tricked me like this, Proteus. I don't want to be around any of you right now."

Meg stormed off, letting her tears flow freely.

OOOOO

When Ariel and her family got home from the light maze, they were all solemn and silent. Everyone in Ariel's family avoided Eric's gaze as they hurried up to their rooms. Eric had been watching Christmas Vacation while they were gone; but, when Ariel joined him in the living room, he turned the movie off.

"I'm sorry about the setup," Eric told her. "I know I shouldn't have tricked you into seeing Vanessa, but it sounded like Proteus genuinely wanted to help the three of you work things out."

Ariel sat down on the couch next to him. "It's all right, Eric. But, I don't want to talk about that."

Eric noticed she was also avoiding meeting his eyes. "Was there something else you wanted to talk about?"

"I don't want to, but we need to," Ariel said.

Eric nodded. He had a feeling he knew where this was going. The two of them have barely spoken since their fight Sunday night.

"It's hard for me to be with someone who isn't emotionally or mentally there," Ariel said. "It's pretty obvious this relationship isn't working out for either of us."

Eric agreed, but he didn't say anything.

"The timing on this is terrible, with it being Christmas and all," Ariel continued. "But, it isn't fair to either one of us to keep going."

"I understand."

Ariel wiped her eyes and stood. "My family and I are going to stay at the Swan Rose for the remainder of their visit. I'll come by after Christmas to get my stuff."

"You don't have to do that." Eric got to his feet. "I'm not going to make you guys spend Christmas in a hotel; you can stay here. I'll get a room at the hotel and you can take as long as you need to move your stuff out."

"Thank you."

Eric hugged her. "I'm sorry, Ariel."

Eric packed what he would need for the next few days in a bag then, after wishing Ariel and her family a merry Christmas, he drove over to the Swan Rose hotel.

The hotel lobby was crowded with travelers coming to town to visit their families. As Eric got in the long check-in line, he hoped there'd be a room available for him.

"Eric?"

Eric turned at someone calling his name and saw Aurora and Phillip approaching him.

"Hey, guys," he greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"We just had dinner at the restaurant," Aurora replied. "What are you doing here?"

Eric nodded towards the line he was standing in. "Checking in."

Aurora furrowed her brow. "Alone?" Eric nodded. "Is everything all right with you and Ariel?"

"Not really. But, I don't feel like getting in to it."

"But-"

"We understand," Phillip interrupted.

"Thank you."

"Not to be presumptuous about your relationship status, but does this mean you're going to be free on Christmas to come see us?" Aurora asked.

Honestly, Eric hadn't even thought about what he was going to do on Christmas now. "I don't know."

Aurora gave him a sympathetic look. "Well, either way, I hope you have a merry Christmas, Eric."

Eric was beginning to wonder if he would.