Author's Note: I got the idea for this and got really excited, so please review and more will be on the way soon! Also, this is my version of an AU, wherein this COULD have happened, but didn't. I didn't do too much to change the TWW universe here, other than create a situation that didn't actually take place.

The Unexpected Holiday

Chapter 1

"Abbey, honey, your father and I are really looking forward to meeting this new boyfriend of yours. I do hope you've managed to hold on to this one."

That subtle criticism made Abbey Barrington want to rip her hair out of her head. But instead, she just kept her frustration inside. She moved the telephone from one ear to the other. "You know, I don't think he'll be able to join us for the holidays, Mom."

"Oh no, you haven't broken up with him already, have you? Abigail, you can't keep letting men slip away like this! You're getting to the age where dating around just won't be tolerated. What kind of nice man wants a woman who's been passed around between everyone he knows?"

Abbey didn't think that was a legitimate concern for a woman to have, not anymore. And furthermore, it was none of her mother's business who she chose to keep her company with! But it was easier to just agree. "No, Mom, we haven't broken up. But he has his own family to spend the holidays with."

"So why aren't you spending Christmas with his family?"

"Because I'd rather come home and see you and Dad and Kate, and I don't think you'd approve of me inviting myself to spend the holiday with his family," Abbey pointed out, feeling her patience dissipating with every millisecond. "Listen, I'll talk to him again and see what I can do. But will you please get used to the idea that it might be just me?"

Abbey's mother sighed. "Of course it's fine if it's just you, but I do worry about you, dear. Please tell your boyfriend that we would really like him to join us. What's his name again? Jed?"

At this point, Abbey was on the verge of slamming the phone down into the receiver and hanging up on her mother. She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Yes, Jed. Anyway, Mom, I have to run to class. I'll talk to you soon. Bye." She didn't wait for a response before she hung up.

She slumped down onto the sofa in her apartment and ran her hands through her hair. A loud groan escaped her lips.

"Well that didn't sound very fun." Abbey's roommate, Millicent Griffith, poked her head out of the hallway.

"It wasn't fun. Ugh, what am I gonna do, Millie?"

Millie shrugged. "I have no idea why you told your mother you have a boyfriend when you clearly don't. What good does that lie do?"

"You didn't hear her, Mill. She is relentless. I did a pretty good job sneaking around in high school. But ever since I got to Notre Dame, she's been expecting me to date. So when I told her I was dating, she got worried what people would say if I didn't actually 'go steady' with any of them, as she said. I just told her I had a boyfriend to get her off my back. But that was months ago. Now she thinks it's serious and is practically begging me to bring my fake boyfriend home for the holidays next week," Abbey explained.

"Why on earth did you tell her it was Jed?" Millie asked, sitting down in the chair beside her friend.

Abbey groaned again. "I told my dad about Jed, because we're friends, and Jed is such a great guy. I guess she just assumed that the one and only guy I actually talked about must be my boyfriend."

Millie regarded her skeptically. "You didn't tell them that he's studying to be a priest?"

"I think I probably said he was a Theology major. I don't know. I try to keep it pretty vague." Abbey put her face in her hands. "God, what am I going to do? If I tell them that my 'boyfriend' can't come to Christmas, they're just going to assume that we broke up, further confirming my mother's suspicion that I can't keep a man and I'm going to die an old maid!"

Millie couldn't help but laugh a little. "Abbey, you date a new guy each week. You're the one who refuses to go out with them. Not the other way around! Holding onto a man is not your problem. Choosing a man is your problem."

"Well I'm not really going to tell my mother that I'm basically whoring around college, am I?" Abbey replied acerbically.

"I know that's not what you're doing. You're young and you're having fun. Stop trying to make things look like they're supposed to and just enjoy yourself!" Millie stood up and patted the top of Abbey's hair. "Now I do have a real boyfriend, unlike you, so I'm going to go get ready to meet him. Are you going to be okay?"

She nodded. "Jed's picking me up a little later to go to the library to study. I'll be fine."

"You should talk to him about your dilemma," Millie suggested. "He's smart and creative. He might have ideas."

After Millie left the room, Abbey was left alone, thoroughly wishing she were dead. As far as she could discern, she had a few options, none of which was very feasible. She could go home alone and tell her mother that she had been lying about having a boyfriend and live the rest of her life reliving that shame every time she saw her mother. She could ask Jed to come to stay with the Barringtons over Christmas and New Year's and act a complete fool in begging him to pretend to be her boyfriend and risk losing his friendship, whether he said yes or no. She could similarly beg him to let her go to New Hampshire with him for the holidays, again risking alienating him with her rudeness. The most likely situation would be that Jed would decline any and all of her requests, all of which he would be perfectly in his right to do, and Abbey would go home and tell her parents that her 'boyfriend' couldn't come. What did it matter if she spent yet another year humiliated in front of her whole family? Abbey sighed to herself. What else was new? She'd just stomach it for another year.

The phone rang, jolting Abbey from her thoughts. She answered it on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Abbey, dear, I'm glad I caught you before you left for class. I just got off the phone from your grandmother. She wants to knit a sweater for Jed. What size does he wear?"

After the unpleasant realization that she had to speak to her mother once again, Abbey answered, "I'm not sure. I think a medium. He's not very tall, but he has a broad chest."

"Are his arms particularly long?"

Abbey rolled her eyes. "Not that I've noticed, no. His arms are a normal length." She had noticed that his hands were rather large and strong, and she'd thought about those hands more often than she was willing to admit, even to herself.

"Alright, I'll let your grandmother know. Thank you."

After hanging up again with her mother, Abbey couldn't help but feel like she needed a big hug. And now there was no way she could show up at home alone.