Thanksgiving and Christmas are way too close to each other. One moment, you're shoving turkey down your throat, and the next thing you know, everything is red and green. It's almost disgusting. I don't even like Christmas that much, and yet it follows everywhere the second October hits. Way too early, there are carols playing, lights all over houses, stores swimming in merchandise. I could tell I was entering a dark phase, getting ready to go back home for 4 weeks; Sora wasn't helping the matter either. I had to almost physically force him to go back after the Riku incident. If it weren't for the fact that he was graduating early, I don't think he would've gone.

So once again I found myself packing. At first, I nicely folded my clothes but in the end I got so frustrated, I began shoving and shoving. More and more was thrown into the suitcase until it was a bulging mass of color.

"Damn…I packed too much.." I muttered, yanking some out and mindlessly throwing it back on my bed. Did I really have to go back home? It was much nicer here...

I give up. I crawled onto my bed, curling into a ball. Thoughts of my father surfaced, and of Sora, and of Sora crying and hurting and how he's with Riku and Riku isn't even good enough for him. Not that I spend a lot of time with him. But I had a pretty good feeling that Sora deserved better.

"Ughhhhh!" I waved my arms in frustration and heard a chuckle.

"You need some help there?"

A flash of red appeared in my peripheral vision and sure enough it was my roommate. "No, Axel," I said dryly.

"It's gonna be a long break, huh?"

I forced my way into a sitting position, watching as Axel tossed his keys from hand to hand. "Yeah," I sighed.

"How about you and I hang out sometime?"

"Over break?"

"Yes dummy." He stuck his tongue out at me and I tossed a shirt towards him. It flew through the air, landing right on his face.

"That's what you get!" I laughed as he threw it back, shooting me a look.

"So you in?"

"Did you have something in mind?"

"Not really. Your house, my house?"

"Both suck."

He laughed. "I suppose you're right. Well how about we go somewhere?"

I shrugged. "Whatever you want."

"Don't say it like that," he grinned.

Suspicious, I dropped the conversation, fixing my stuff up. A knock came, and Sora flew into the room. "Hey," I muttered right before he barreled into me.

"I came to pick you up!"

"Oh goody."

Sora let go of me, frowning. "My driving is pretty good!"

"I didn't say it wasn't," I replied, gathering my things together.

"Hi Axel!" Sora now flew across the room to wrap him in a hug.

"Hi," Axel kinda laughed, putting his arms around my brother for a few seconds.

"Let's go," I said, gathering my things and shuffling away. Sora bounded back out of the room, much like an excited puppy.

"Roxas, wait a sec," Axel called after me.

I paused near the door; my brother had already disappeared down the hallway. "Yeah?" For some reason, my heart skipped a beat, and right when I noticed I wanted to kick myself. Roxas, what are you doing? Seriously. He's probably just saying bye or something…

"Don't forget your phone."

My stomach dropped slightly, and my eyes drifted across the room. It was lying over on my desk, so I went and scooped it up while Axel grinned. "Thanks," I muttered.

Suddenly, his face fell. "…Roxas? Are you ok?"

"Huh?" I blinked, and something wet slid down my cheek.

…what?

In a panic, I turned away quickly and rushed out the door. "Have a good break."

Axel's voice drifted to my ears but I kept going. He was telling me to wait, but I was too embarrassed. Blood was rushing to my cheeks—I felt so hot and my stomach was rolling around uncomfortably. I couldn't understand why I was crying. Well, not completely crying but…tearing up. Why would I tear up? And out of the blue like that too!

I made it outside, where Sora was climbing into the drivers' side. I slid in next to him, asking, "Do you want me to drive?"

"No!" he insisted, starting the engine up.

"Alright." I slumped over onto my seat after throwing my stuff to the back.

We drove off and I heard my phone buzzing; I turned it off without looking to see who it was. It was probably Axel.

"Are you ok?" Sora asked suddenly.

"Yep," I muttered.

His eyes darted over to look at me again. "You sure?"

"Yes, Sora," I grumbled.

"You should've seen my graduation," he changed the subject.

"Oh yeah? How'd you graduate early again?"

"The honors track lets you." He waved his hand in a noncommittal fashion. "And then I had to pick up my diploma and that was it."

"Is Kairi graduating in the spring?

"Yep."

"Aren't you going to miss her?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "But next semester I'll be here with you!"

"You must have some crazy organization skills to pull this off."

"You know it!" Sora smiled at me and I returned it, which seemed to make him even happier. "Do you want some music?"

"No," I said flatly.

"Awwww, why not?"

"Can I play my music?"

"What, that weird scream-o metal angry stuff?" Sora wrinkled his nose.

"Not all of my music is that," I complained.

"I like my music more," he pouted.

"Whatever," I shrugged.

"Hmm. So how are you and Axel?"

"Fine."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Reallyyyyyy?"

"Yep."

There was a pause. "Really?

"Yes! Why are you asking?"

"I dunno, it just seemed like something was wrong."

"Well, nothing is wrong."

"Alright…" he said, unconvinced.

We drove in silence for a few more minutes before Sora reached forward and turned on the satellite radio. As expected, it was set to some popular station.

..and this is crazy, but here's my number so call me, maybe?

I groaned internally and my brother began to promptly sing along. "It's hard to look right at you babyyy, but here's my number, so call me maybe," he sang easily.

"Sora."

"Yes?"

"This song is annoying."

"What? But it's Carly Rae Jepsen!"

"Doesn't mean anything," I muttered.

"But Roxas…" he whimpered. "I like this song!"

"I noticed." I turned to look at the window and the feeling in the air was unsettling. Did I upset him? There's no way—Sora is a ball of optimism usually, and I had complained about his music tastes several times before. It never bothered him.

I watched the trees roll past as Sora, now more quietly, continued to sing. The melody bounced around in my head, around and around and around. Don't get me wrong, some pop is ok…just this specific song..bouncing around in my ears, repeating, repeating...

...

I leaned forward and with a jerking motion switched the channel to a rock/metal station I liked.

And it's been a while since I could look at myself straight. And it's been a while since I said I'm sorry.

"Roxas!"

"Sorry!" I exclaimed back. "I couldn't take it anymore!"

Sora looked towards the dashboard doubtfully, where the screen read "Staind—It's Been Awhile." He hummed quietly to himself for a few seconds, then bit his lip.

"This song isn't very happy," he commented.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah…" Another moment went by, then he changed the station back once I turned back towards the window.

Unfortunately for us, the song that was playing was referring to.."a stupid hoe."

I watched Sora for his reaction. His eyes widened as he frowned, listening. At the chorus, he glanced at me, and began to rock his head back and forth to the music.

He was clearly pretending to enjoy it, but something about it was very comical. Maybe because he was exaggerating everything, with his wide eyes, crude singing and harsh movements. I started to laugh, and he joined in.

We laughed for a while, and then the song changed to "One Direction—You Don't Know You're Beautiful." My brother, of course, loved this song and cranked the volume, merrily singing along. I still found it a bit annoying, but it was better than whatever was playing before.

"Isn't this song nice?" he asked while taking a breath.

"I guess," I shrugged.

"Everyone should know their beautiful!"

"You're strange," I shook my head.

He glanced at me again, sticking his tongue out. "You know I am right."

"Uh-huh."

His attention was focused on the road, as he mouthed along with the songs. For whatever reason, I found myself captivated. The sun was starting to set, and the yellow light was falling onto his face, catching on bits of his hair. He was smiling, looking so carefree and positive…

It was hard to believe. He's always so happy. What's his secret? Why can't I be like that? It's not that I'm never happy, it's just…I dunno. I am either ok or not ok, never better, sometimes worse…

Sora, even though he cries easily sometimes, is just amazingly optimistic and trusting.

I could never be like that.

I slouched further into my seat, feeling a little down. I always think things like this. I shouldn't compare us. We're different people.

That's right. We're different people. But we both have problems. And Sora's temperament is just different than mine.

"Hey Sora?"

"Yep?"

"Mind if I change the station just for a little?" I asked. My kind of music was sure to cheer me up, especially as we inched closer back to our home. Where our parents were waiting. Blehhh.

"What's in it for me?"

"Umm…a hug?"

"I'd just hug you anyway!"

"Well, uhh...I got nothing."

"You can change it."

I did so, and was very pleased with the result. Another victim dies tonight. Rah! Rah! Lie to me. Rah! Rah! Lie to me. Is she not right? Is she insane? Will she now run for her life in the battle that ends this day?

"…Roxas.." Sora said uncertainly.

"Yes?"

"This song is…" He trailed off as the singer went into half-screaming made up words over electric guitar. "Is this about beating a woman for lying?" he shrieked suddenly. "That's horrible!"

I had to work hard to keep my laughter inside. "It's by Disturbed. They do a lot of stuff like that."

"They should be singing about other stuff! Like…about…who they love or something!"

"Not everyone wants to sing about that or listen to it."

"They should," he muttered. "This song is scary…"

I finally let out a low chuckle and he shot me a look. The rest of the ride concluded with more of his pop music, because he apparently couldn't handle any more "negative songs."

I tried to point out that there are negative themes in every genre, but he just insisted that he had another station he could switch to when that happens. His other stations, of course, included 80's and Disney.

Eventually our car ride came to an end and we pulled up to the house. For a few minutes we sat there, staring out at it. Sora was no longer smiling.

"Um…how are things here?" I managed. I hated talking about these things.

"Fine," he smiled.

Using my Sora dictionary, I knew that fine meant horrible.

This was going to be a terribly long break.

A/N: Sorry if you have reviewed and I haven't replied! I am terrible at that. Thank you to anyone who has reviewed! Reading them make me happy. :) Also as a side note, I mostly write for fun so at times it can seem pretty random. ^.^'

~KeedaxEmry