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Post by Amber Jacobs on Oct 21, 2015 0:00:58 GMT
Christmas was one of Amber's favorite holidays, it always had been. As a young girl, despite the fact that the holiday season hadn't been so warm and full of tidings of joy wasn't important. She had window shops on Fifth Avenue and apartments of friends to visit and become a part of their holiday cheer. Perhaps the only thing that made her love it even more now was her family. Brandon had proposed on Christmas Eve, which had perhaps been one of the top three happiest moments of her life, save for their wedding and the day Brody had been born. Christmas then, in the Finn household, had become something to behold, making sure that Brody had the sorts of Christmases she never did in her own home growing up.
Her arm linked in Brandon's, she surveyed the hotel ballroom and all of its guests. Another charity function was typically nothing to get excited about, but the fact that it was a holiday party made her eyes sparkle a bit as she looked around and took in the scenery. She beamed, greeting people as they passed and pleased with the family outing for the evening. Letting go of Brandon's arm, she crossed to her son with a warm smile. She quietly brushed off the shoulder of his suit jacket and straightened his tie. "That's better," she nodded.
Part of her missed the days when her son had been young enough to make Christmas lists and ask for toys from Santa, but at the same time she was still immensely proud of who he had grown into.
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Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 21, 2015 0:40:02 GMT
Over the years, Christmas in the Finn household had become a more and more serious ordeal. Brandon and Amber had been in the middle of planning for Brody's arrival during their first Christmas together, and on their second Brandon had proposed to her and introduced a puppy to their family. It was a little strange to think that by now they were eighteen years past that first Christmas and things still felt relatively the same. And just like it had been in the past, Brandon had found his family starting off the holiday season with a charity function. He smiled at Amber as she detached herself to fuss over Brody. That was one dynamic, he was sure, that was never going to change.
Brody looked at his mom and shook his head, "Mom, it's fine," he dismissed as she fussed with his tie. As much as he knew that his parents loved the holidays, Brody was having a slightly more difficult time with it this year. With everything that had been going on this year, unfortunately, Christmas now just signaled that they were getting closer to Morgan leaving. He hated to admit it, but he wasn't fond of the idea that she was leaving and it had caused him to be a little more short tempered than normal. He had recently taken it out on his mother, and while he was apologetic about it, he couldn't promise that it wasn't going to happen again. He looked around the room, hoping to spot Melanie or another distraction somewhere.
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Oct 21, 2015 1:10:25 GMT
Amber shook her head at her son, smiling at him. "Now, I bought you this tie and I brought you into this world. I'll decide when it's fine," she teased and beamed at him. The fact of the matter was, she had less than a year now to make sure any lessons she had to impart as a mother were well articulated before he went off to college. She smoothed out the lapels of his shirt and nodded at him. "You look so handsome," she nodded before turning to Brandon. "Does anyone really like the ballet? Or is it one of those things that people pretend to like to make those who know nothing about the ballet feel inferior?" she asked. "I only ask because I live in a constant state of making people feel inferior, but I know very little about the ballet." She pursed her lips for a moment. "I know I dislike the opera."
Morgan Tyler was observing something very interesting about society as a whole. People were damn fake. She'd been greeted by several former classmates who barely had acknowledged her existence their entire time as classmates who were all wishing her well on her trip. A few people who approached her had even been downright mean to her. She didn't quite know what to make of it, so she gave polite nods and smiles and muttered thank you's - not at all enjoying this much attention. It was only when she turned and found herself face-to-face with Brody Finn that she wondered if she could go back to talking to that cheerleader who used to knock over her lunch tray. She turned her attention to his parents briefly, nodding at them. "Mr. Finn," she greeted him politely. "Mrs. F, you look stellar," she complimented. She turned to Brody and offered him a weak smile. "Hi, Brody." She fidgeted awkwardly, looking around before glancing down at her shoes. "Merry Christmas."
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Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 21, 2015 1:51:25 GMT
Brody shook his head at his mother, brushing off her compliment. When it came down to it, it wasn't that he didn't appreciate the way that his mother tended to fawn over him, nor was it that he didn't love her in his own way, it was just that he could feel her becoming more and more attached to him as the reality of the situation began to sink in. He was less than a year away from college, and while he still wasn't entirely sure of where he was going to go to school, the acceptance letters kept rolling in and he was faced with the opportunity that he didn't have to stay in the city if he didn't want to. He knew that it was starting to effect his mother and he tried not to let it get to him.
Suddenly finding himself face to face with Morgan, he smiled back at her in response. "Merry Christmas to you too." He paused, not really knowing what he could say to her at this point. It seemed like whatever relationship they had had in the past had quickly deteriorated and he wasn't sure if there was anything he could, or should, do to repair it. "Excited for your trip?" he asked casually, trying to just make conversation with her.
Brandon sidled up to his wife, pressing a kiss to her lips quickly. "I'm sure someone likes the ballet," he told her, allowing their son to have a brief moment with Morgan Tyler. He knew that their relationship had been strained recently, and he knew that ultimately Amber enjoyed the redheaded young woman around Brody, and so he figured that anything they could do to help the two teenagers to repair their friendship would help. "Come on," he nodded in the direction of the bar. "Let's give them a minute or two to catch up while we grab a drink."
Ellie sighed, wishing that she was old enough to grab a drink off of a passing tray while still in a room with her parents and all of their friends. She spotted her sister speaking to Brody and smiled a little, hoping that they could at least get over whatever problems were still plaguing them. At the very least, she hoped that they could be on speaking terms by the time that Morgan left. Ellie frowned thinking about the fact that her sister was going to be leaving soon and eyed a tray of champagne enviously.
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 21, 2015 1:59:47 GMT
Morgan fidgeted a but but then smiled at him. "Yes. I have a passport now," she informed him. "I'm very worldly now, Brody. Or I will be," she smiled softly. There was a lot of excitement that she wished she'd been able to share with him. While she'd never thought about traveling instead of going to school until recently, she knew that it was a new adventure and one that she wished she was talking to her best friend about. She tucked her hair behind her ear, looked at him. "How are you? How is school going? You're close to graduating, that's exciting, right?"
There relationship had been so strained since she'd left school and while, to a degree, it had become easier for her to make some peace with what happened she missed their study dates. What she found even more troublesome though, was that standing in front of him for the first time in a while, she missed everything about him and briefly allowed to think of their short time together as more than friends. "Uhm," she started slowly. "Could I come by sometime soon, before I leave?" she asked hesitantly.
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Post by Everett Quinn on Oct 21, 2015 2:06:44 GMT
Everett usually didn't get very invested in the holiday season, he'd been sent to the event in place of his parents. His father was apparently otherwise engaged and his mother was under the weather. That was the story. His father was with his secretary and his mother was sleeping off a hefty amount of vodka. But their family needed to make an appearance, or so he'd been ordered.
Roaming the event, he spotted Ellie Tyler and made his way over to her, grinning at her. "Well, fancy seeing you here," he greeted. Not often attending these events on his own, he wasn't sure if this was common occurrence for her or not. "So, walk me through one of these things. Is it as horrible as it seems?"
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 21, 2015 2:20:09 GMT
Brody smiled at her, wanting to be excited for her and the adventures that she was about to go on. But the truth was that he wasn't. He didn't want her to leave and he didn't want to admit to her that he wanted her to stay. When he had thought about it in the past, Morgan had always been a constant in his life, both as he best friend, but also in terms of reliability. When he had thought about what his senior year of high school was going to be like, Morgan had been there. But now the reality was that she wasn't going to be there, at least not for a while. "Well, I'm excited for you, I'm sure it's going to be really great."
But in terms of questions of his own life, he felt like he had even less to say. His life had consisted of a weird combination of feeling much more short-tempered while also taking it out on Melanie in a way that seemed to always end up with them having sex. He had fought with his mom in a way that he had never had before, and it was taking a toll on him in some way. "I'm doing well. Just looking forward to graduating now."
She asked whether or not she could stop by and he nodded at her. "Sure, I would like that."
Ellie grinned at the sight of Everett, someone she was quickly coming to think of as being a friend of hers. With Morgan leaving, the reality that she was going to need a friend or two of her own was drawing in on her. Despite feeling as though Everett wasn't necessarily a suitable boyfriend for her, she did hope that he would be a suitable friend. "Yes," she said decisively. "But generally some really great company can help. Willing to keep me company tonight?"
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 21, 2015 3:41:28 GMT
Morgan observed Brody for a minute and noted that something was different. She wasn't sure if it was because she had gone from seeing him every day to barely at all, but it had her quickly forgetting that she was excited about her trip and much more concerned about how he'd been since they last spoke. Chewing on her lip, she reached out, touching the side of his face gently as though she couldn't help herself. "You look tired," she observed gently. "Is everything okay?" Realizing that she might be overstepping, or at the very least falling into a dangerous grey area, she dropped her hand down to his arm, rubbing in gently and looking at him curiously.
Riley Tyler stood beside her husband, making small talk. It was almost hard to her to believe that not too long ago she'd felt out of place in situations like this, whereas now they were something she had grown accustom to and honestly really the only life her children had ever known. Her eyes briefly stopped on Morgan and Brody and she worried about what her daughter was getting into right before leaving. She was none too thrilled about Morgan leaving to travel for a few months, but was trying to come to terms with it. However it was when her eyes landed on Ellie that she touched Adam's arm. "Isn't that Eliot Quinn's son?" she asked stiffly.
Everett grinned at Ellie, nodding his head. "Great company, huh? Yeah, I could use some of that." A waitress with the catering staff walked passed with a tray of champagne, pausing as though to offer him one. He shook his head politely at her and turned back to Ellie. "So, what should I expect? Anything entertaining or just high society getting high on their own charity?" he asked with a chuckle.
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 21, 2015 4:11:41 GMT
Brody tried not to read into Mogan's actions, trying not to make it seem as though her touching him ultimately meant much of anything at all. It probably didn't, he argued. It was probably just habitual from all of the time that they had spent together. Still, he froze a little at her touch, relaxing only when her hand fell to his arm. "Tired?" He wasn't sure if he would have chosen that particular word to describe the way that he was feeling, and he hoped that he wasn't showing any signs of being tired either. Though, it was probably true, he realized. Tired did seem to sum up a lot of the way that he was feeling. He was tired of fighting with his parents, he was tired of playing Melanie's games, and he was tired of making it seem like he didn't actually care what Morgan did or said. "I'm fine," he said with a nod.
Adam knew that in no small part he was part of the reason why Morgan was going to be leaving at the end of the month, but it didn't stop him from feeling as though he wanted to do whatever he could to hold on to her for just a little longer. He watched her engage in conversation with Brody and he hoped that the young man wasn't making things more difficult on his daughter than they already were. He had begun to wonder how much of a role in Morgan's decision to leave that Brody had been, and a small voice in the back of his head wanted to tell Morgan that he told her so. The fear that he had over his daughter becoming involved with the Finn boy had unfortunately seemed to be at least a little justified, at least considering the sudden lack of study sessions and dates he had observed. He followed Riley's gaze and nodded, "It is. Now, why would he be talking to Ellie?"
Ellie frowned at another tray of champagne, feeling as though the bubbly drink was now just mocking her. Four years suddenly felt like an awful lot of these sort of functions to make it through without a drink in hand. But she turned her full attention on Everett and decided that she was going to use his company to make the best out of a boring situation. "Mostly it's just a bunch of boring old businessmen and their socialite wives, girlfriends, and mistresses gossiping and pretending that they like each other's company. But every now and then drama seems to erupt and it makes everything a little more interesting." She smiled at him, intrigued by the fact that while he seemingly fit into this world, he didn't seem to have any idea of the interworkings of it all. "So you've really never really been to one of these things before?"
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 21, 2015 4:22:20 GMT
Morgan nodded at Brody, unsure of what to do or say. There were so many things that she knew she wanted to say to him, that she hoped to when she went to see him and give him his Christmas gift before leaving. It was something she'd played out over and over again in her head for the past couple of months. Now though, standing in front of him and realizing how strained things were between them, her chest constricted and she blamed herself in part for avoiding him for so long. "Okay," she said softly. "If you're sure," but she didn't believe him in the slightest. "Have you picked a school yet?" she asked him curiously, sure that his acceptance letters were likely coming in.
Riley shook her head and frowned at Adam. "I don't know, but I think we should go find out," she suggested, even as she deliberately led her husband over to their daughter. She greeted Ellie with a bright smile, "Having fun?" she asked before turning to Everett as though she was only just noticing him. Plastering on a polite smile, she nodded at him. "Hi," she greeted. "You're Eliot's boy, aren't you?"
"I try to avoid them," he admitted. "My mom was never a fan, she and I would usually stay home...watch a movie or something and get pizza," he smiled softly at the mention of it. Much of the bright parts of his childhood were when Eliot was gone and he and his mother were able to live peacefully in their own world. Part of him thought his life might have been easier if his father had never felt compelled to marry his mom, and the two of tem were on their own - even getting by on minimum wage jobs in a shoe box apartment seemed better than life with Eliot Quinn sometimes. Everett tried to push aside the sinking feeling in his stomach when Ellie's parents approached. Unlike his former classmates and those in his age group, their parents all seemed to know all too well where Everett came from. He cleared his throat, nodding at the older couple. "Everett," he offered. "And, yeah...It's nice to meet you both," he attempted, offering his hand out at them.
"Are your parents here tonight?" Riley asked, eyebrow ticking up before she surveyed the room.
"No, my mom is under the weather and Eliot had a...previous engagement with a colleague," he explained, suddenly feeling ten times more tense.
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 21, 2015 16:16:19 GMT
Brody hated that even small talk had become so strained and uncomfortable with her. Morgan was the person that he used to tell everything to, from the fact that he had failed a test at school, that he had walked in on his parents in a precarious situation, and even what schools he had been planning on applying to for college. A few of the schools on his list he had actually applied to at her urging. "I've heard back from Columbia, Dartmouth, and Cornell so far so I just have to start figuring out which one makes the most sense." He didn't want to admit it, but part of his decision probably would have once weighed on her. He had assumed that he would have tried to stay close to her while she was still in high school and then in a year she would have joined him at whatever school had been chosen. But now he was starting to think that he should just pick something further away and give them some time and some space to grow up.
Adam hadn't even had time to respond before Riley had led them over to their daughter and Eliot Quinn's son. While he had to admit that he wasn't fond of the idea that any of their girls would associate with him, he didn't feel as though making a scene of it in the middle of an event was the right time to say or do anything about it. He was much more open to the idea of discussing it with Ellie when they got home. Though hearing the way that Everett spoke about his relationship with his father, Adam wondered whether or not Everett knew exactly what his father was capable of. If that was the case, he wondered whether or not he was similar in any way to the man that Adam and Riley had gone to law school with. "Well, it's nice to meet you too, Everett."
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 21, 2015 16:50:28 GMT
Morgan beamed up at Brody when he listed his college acceptances so far. Everything else forgotten, she smiled at him. "Brody! That's great!" She wanted to hug him but resisted and nodded. "I started getting letters, too," she nodded. She had started applying immediately after deciding to graduate early. "I got into Columbia, too, and into Georgetown, George Washington University, and my safety school." She paused and bit her lip, "Princeton came in earlier today actually. I haven't opened it yet. It's...a regular sized envelope," she explained softly, knowing that as someone else going through the acceptance process, Brody would know it meant it was a rejection. And while Princeton had been her dream school for over a decade, she was trying not to beat herself up over it.
"Honestly, though, Brody. I'm so happy for you. I know it's a big decision, but you have so many options," she nodded, grinning at him.
Everett shifted slightly under Riley and Adam's gaze. He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and nodded at them. "Maybe I should let you spend some time with your family, Ellie," he acknowledged gently. He placed a hand on her arm and looked down apologetically at her before turning back to her parents and nodding. "I don't want to intrude," he said deliberately.
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 21, 2015 17:14:57 GMT
Brody frowned slightly, he knew how much Princeton had meant to her. He wanted to tell her that this didn't mean that she could never go to her dream school, it simply meant that they had probably handed out all of the acceptance letters they could already for the year, but he didn't. In a small, selfish way he still thought about the idea of them both being at Columbia in the fall, but he had to keep reminding himself to just let it go. She deserved to go to whatever school would make her happy, regardless of whether or not he was going to be attending there as well. "I'm sorry," he told her, not wanting her to feel as though he didn't feel any sort of sympathy for her at all. "Do you know where you might like to go then?" He refrained from adding in something like "with Princeton off of the table" as he was sure he had already rubbed enough salt in her wounds over the last several months.
"And thank you," he added, "I'm happy for you too... Not just with everything for school but with the trip and everything too." He wasn't happy for her, though, he just didn't want to let her see that.
Ellie shook her head, "No, it's fine." Giving her parents a look that she hoped conveyed to them that they should move on and mingle with their own friends, she turned to Everett. "You're not intruding. I'm sure my parents have plenty of other people to go say hello to." She wasn't exactly sure why they had seemingly swooped in to interrupt her conversation with Everett, but she didn't like the way that both of her parents seemed highly skeptical of him. It didn't bode well and she wondered if she was missing something entirely.
Adam hesitated, taking Riley's hand and giving it a small squeeze. Perhaps as long as they kept a careful eye on their daughter, everything would be fine. And Ellie made a fair point, they did probably have plenty of other people they could chat with instead of hovering around their children. "Should we say hello to a few more people? We can circle back and check in on Ellie and Morgan in a few minutes," he added the latter sentence as a way of reassuring to Riley that he wasn't going to give Everett much of an opportunity to start any sort of drama like Eliot had often done for them.
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Post by Morgan Tyler on Oct 21, 2015 19:10:47 GMT
Morgan smiled softly at Brody, shaking her head. "Well, Columbia was always second on my list based on their curriculum, but I haven't made a definite decision yet." A few months ago, if you'd asked Morgan how she would feel at the opportunity to go to college with Brody and even start their freshman years together, she would have had them both in Columbia sweatshirts trying to plan how they could schedule their days so they could always take lunch together or study or even share a class or two each semester. But now it was different. She looked up at him and nodded, "The trip is going to be different, I've never been away from home before." She'd never really been away from Brody before. She licked her lips nervously and shrugged a shoulder up. "That's kind of why I want to come by later this week before I leave, but actually if you wanted to..."
Amber stood socializing with Brandon at her side. Still out of the corner of her eye, she kept an eye on her son. Touching her husband's arm gently, she smiled at him and gestured. "I'll be right back, I just have something I wanted to tell Morgan," she stated casually, but with a tone that implied she could not be talked out of interjecting herself into the conversation. She cleared her throat upon approaching them, smiling softly. 'Hi, sorry, I just wanted to tell Morgan to have a safe trip and to tell you that if you forward me your itinerary, I could reach out to a few contacts I have there. There's this little boutique in Milan..."
"There you are," a new voice cut into the conversation and Morgan looked up just in time to see Melanie Benson approaching, her eyes fixed on Brody. Morgan tried to hide her frown.
Everett looked hesitantly at Ellie's parents before nodding slowly at them. He waited for Riley Tyler to break eye contact before relaxing a moment while her husband led her away to greet more friends. Everett cleared his throat and looked down. "Well, that was...that was a good first impression as far as first impressions go," he muttered.
"I don't like it, Adam," Riley said once they were led away. "I don't trust him and I sure as hell don't want him around my daughter. This is punishment for us thinking that Brody Finn was as bad as it could get. Now we've got a Quinn."
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Post by Brody Finn on Oct 21, 2015 19:47:36 GMT
Brody hadn't been sure exactly what he was going to say to Morgan about leaving for the next couple of months, but a small part of him was almost feeling as though he should ask her to stay. It wasn't fair, and he knew that, and they still had a lot that they needed to sort through and put behind them, but it just felt like such an impossible task with her no longer around. It didn't seem to matter that he knew that she was coming back, it was just the fact that she was going to be gone at all that made him wonder whether or not things were going to change while she was gone. He wondered what was going to happen at school, or with Melanie, or how Ellie was handling the entire situation herself, but still he chose to say nothing. With everything going on, he was sure he was the last person she wanted to hear any of those things from, regardless of the fact that she still seemed to want to talk to him, at least once more. There was just a good possibility that that conversation was going to make him feel worse about the entire thing.
He was almost relieved when his mother cut in. He smiled appreciatively at her kindness toward Morgan, but it faltered at the sight and sound of Melanie approaching. "Melanie," he greeted the woman with whom he had fundamentally been having a strictly physical relationship with since Halloween. "I'll come and find you in a second?" he offered, at the moment preferring the idea of finishing his conversation with Morgan, but also wanting to avoid anything that Melanie might say or do in front of his mother.
Ellie sighed softly as she watched her parents finally walk away. "Their bark is worse than their bite," she advised, hoping that it was true. All she was certain of at the moment was that when she went home this evening she was going to be sure to ask her parents what all of that had been about.
Adam turned at looked at his wife with a frown, "We don't even know if he's anything like Eliot." Brody, on the other hand, had been around long enough for him to begin to see the similarities between the young man and his father, and that had made him concerned for Morgan. Perhaps it wasn't fair to draw the comparisons, and perhaps it was why he wanted to give Everett the benefit of the doubt, but he also knew both of his daughters well enough to know that they wouldn't purposefully place themselves into situations that were bad for them. He wasn't naive enough to think that that desire to get away from problematic situations wasn't a part of the reason why Morgan was getting ready to go to Europe for the next couple of months. "And even if he is, what can we do? If we tell Ellie that she can't see him anymore, it's just going to make her want to do it more. I tried that with Morgan and you saw how well that worked out."
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