text: Ever since Evan grew up, the holidays had lost much meaning. When he was younger, there was the excitement of gifts, food, and movies. Now the most exciting part was being able to make fun of the weird holiday cards he got. It was Christmas Eve and he didn’t have anything better to do than go into work. Some may call it sad but work was like a second home to Evan. As trashy and bare-bones Neonprisim was, it had a lot of memories. Since it was a bar the memories were mostly making and drinking alcohol, but they were memories he held dear to his heart. There wasn’t much he had to do anyways. It was a small town and adding the crazy cold weather meant mostly desperate people would show up. First, he headed to his locker to put his stuff away. He put away the thick clothes and put on a white button-up shirt and black pants. Next was his appearance. Even though he was born with dark caramel skin, he seemed to be getting paler on the daily. He had dark circles under his brown eyes and weird scratches he didn’t know about were scattered all over his face. He looked like he was half dead. Regardless of how bad he looked, he still needed to start preparing the bar for customers. He was able to hustle last minute luckily before the customers started rolling in. It was the same typical 5. Billy, Sara, Bobby, Ramona, and Grandmama Nielson. They typically would make some small talk, order, drink, and leave. Gah, they were fun. Later, snow started to fall. Most of the 5 had already left so Evan started to get ready for early closing. Abruptly the door slammed open. “Party!” The person who slammed open the door screamed. A large crowd of people followed the screamer in, one carried a boom-box that was blasting pop songs, and a couple of others already carried large bottles of alcohol. Evan stood in a mixed state of shock and confusion as he watched the group grew more and more chaotic. One of the group grabbed a chair and stood on it. She was tall and pale, her big auburn hair covered most of her face from Evan’s angle but he knew she was probably just as wasted as the rest of them. “Alright, everybody! Let's finish this Annual Romane Family Pub Crawl off with a bang! If you need a ride, let me know, and come again next year!” She exclaimed to the room. Evan was even more confused than before. What pub crawl? He wormed his way through the crowd over to where the lady was. Somehow she found him first. “Hey! You work here right? Do you know where Michael is?” She asked loudly, trying to be heard over the loud noises. “I do work here, who’s Michael?” Evan responded, matching her volume. “Doesn’t Michael work here?” She questioned. “I don’t think so, no. Why is a pub crawl here?” Evan questioned back. “Wait. This is NovaPrision right?” She asked, confused. “No, this is NeonPrisim,” Evan clarified. “Oh shoot, we were supposed to go to NovaPrision,” she paused to glance at her watch with a frustrated sigh, “there is no way we could make it there in time.” “Well I’m sorry but there is no way I can help with all these people. It’s just me on tonight’s shift,” Evan stated. The lady paused for a moment. “I could help.” “What?” Evan asked confused. “I can help. I used to be a waitress and I’ve been ushering my family my entire life,” she offered. “That could work,” Evan said. The two spent the next couple of hours making sure everyone and everything was well maintained. In the end, the night went well. The lady called everyone rides home and now they were working on picking up all the trash. “You know, I don’t think I’ve introduced myself yet. I’m Rose, nice to meet you,” Rose said, holding out her hand. “I’m Evan,” Evan informed, shaking her hand. “So,” Rose started, “why are you working on Christmas?” “Oh, well I didn’t really have anything better to do and I needed the hours anyway. Why a pub crawl on Christmas?” Evan asked. “Well, it’s the one way where I’m able to see my family, keep them entertained, and able to dodge their awkward questions in one event. My family is pretty far spread out so it’s one thing they can all save up to do. What about your family?” Rose responded. “Well, my family is made of a bunch of busy people so holidays don’t typically happen with all of us together. The pub crawl seems pretty cool though. Well on the other side of it of course,” Evan teased as he finished up with the trash. “Holy smokes,” Rose exclaimed. Evan turned to see what she was looking at. “Holy smoked,” Evan agreed. Outside the snow had fallen so hard that it turned everything white. There was no way either of them could go home. “Um, I think there might be some sleeping bags in the back. You could take the couch I could take one of the booths if you’d like,” Evan offered. “Erm, yeah. That would be good, thank you,” Rose said. Quickly, the two went to the back to grab the sleeping bags and set up their sleeping arrangements. They both ended up setting their stuff down on the floor since they both wanted to see the snow more. The two whispered goodnights and fell asleep quickly. When the morning came, the snow had melted just enough so they could get through the door. “Morning, I think I’m going to head out in a bit,” Rose said softly. Evan yawned with a stretch, “Morning, I think I’m going to, too.” Evan got up and started to make some coffee while Rose checked her phone for messages. She stood up and ruffled her hair in an attempt to tame the bed head and walked over to Evan. Together they drank coffee and chatted about random movies and books they liked. They talked for about 30 minutes before Rose realized the time. “Gah shoot I have to be at work in a few hours,” she muttered, “Do you have a pen?” “No, I think we only have pencils,” Evan responded. “Why do you guys have pencils?” Rose asked. “I think just ‘cause they're cheaper,” Evan responded. “Well,” Rose started before grabbing a pencil from across the bar, “You should call me sometime. Maybe we could go out for lunch or something.” She slid him a napkin with her cell number on it. “Like on a date?” Evan asked softly as he took the napkin, blushing softly. “Yeah, like on a date,” Rose responded with a smile. She gave him a small wave before quickly running out the door. Evan looked at the napkin with a smile. He had had a lot of memories at NeonPrisim, but this was definitely his favorite.