Kayden spent Thanksgiving day in his dorm watching Bojack Horseman and moping, but in the days following that, he slowly began to piece his life back together. He had to accept the simple fact that his mother would probably never love him or respect him and he would have to be okay with that. He couldn't change the truth, he'd just have to hope it would get easier to handle.

During the long weekend off, he went into town a lot. Luke and El lived in the area so they hung out most of the time, though Milo was back home on break. He saw Elias a few times, whether in the cafe or reading in the library, but they didn't talk more than normal, just if they bumped into each other or at night on the steps. It was always a short exchange, nothing much came of it. He expected that though from Elias.

A week later, everything was back to normal. It was December, it was the Christmas season, and midterms were looming now more than ever. Kayden had sixteen days to prepare for six different tests. He'd done the math. He had 2.6 days to fully prepare for each test and then he'd just have to hope that he passed. He knew he'd probably push it off anyway until Elias forced him to start studying or the due date got a little too close for comfort.

Right now though, he was decorating the dorm with Christmas lights and covering their window in little stickers designed to be put on glass while Theo hung up artificial leaves and holly. They'd both gotten up early to do it because Theo wanted to make sure he'd be able to get his homework done and have enough time for a few hours of studying in the day.

"I know we don't have anywhere to hang stockings, but I was thinking, maybe we could just put some nails in the wall and then cover it up with posters later," Kayden suggested with a smile and Theo looked at him as if he couldn't be serious.

"No nails, we're not putting holes in the wall."

"It would just be little ones."

"No."

"Fine," He sighed, taping up lights over the windows. "It was a good idea though."

"I was not." Theo laughed quietly and Kayden grinned. He liked making Theo laugh, the kid just seemed so uptight most of the time, and he knew it probably wasn't Theo's fault either, he'd mentioned once or twice that he went to therapy and Kayden assumed it was for his anxiety.

"I love Christmas."

"It's okay," Theo said. "I like seeing my family, but it's always kind of...a lot. They have a big party every year and there are all the traditions."

"Not a fan of parties?"

"Not really."

Kayden nodded, untying the curtains to make sure they wouldn't knock down the lights when they were closed.

"It'll be nice to be back in Lakeview though, it's small but I've got a few friends there," Theo said.

Kayden looked over at him. "I live in Lakeview too, who are you friends with?"

"Oh, just this girl Sophia, I used to go to school with her at St. William's until I switched to Antisto. My mom didn't really want me to go to a co-ed school but St. William's was cheaper for younger grades. I'm also friends with this guy Tyler, he goes to Lakeview high. They're both family friends so I see them sometimes at parties."

"Ah, cool. I went to Lakeview high before coming here, but I never knew a Tyler. I didn't know most people in my class honestly, just Connor and his friends."

"How big was your class?" Theo asked.

"Almost two hundred students," Kayden said as he retied the curtain open. It was much bigger than his class of forty-three at Antisto, but he honestly didn't mind going to a smaller school.

He finally plugged in the lights and watched with a grin as the room lit up, it was beautiful, Christmas lights strung up everywhere they could be and little decorations scattered about.

"Wow," Theo said softly, looking around.

"Hell yeah, now we just need Christmas music!" Kayden said excitedly, turning the volume on his phone all the way up and blasting a Frank Sinatra song. He grabbed Theo's hand and they danced around the room until a knock at the door was heard a minute or so later and Theo stopped, looking over to it in what Kayden could only assume was slight panic. Theo scrambled to grab the phone and turn off the music while Kayden opened the door, smiling when he saw it was Grant.

"Tone it down, Walker might think there's a hint of Christmas cheer on his campus and God forbid that happen," Grant said and Kayden laughed.

"Have you guys decorated your dorm yet?" The redhead asked.

"Yeah, but it's not done. I think we're gonna decorate the halls next, maybe you can get Brooks and Elias to decorate their awhile."

"They're not decorating?" Kayden asked.

"They're not planning to as far as I know. I think they're sleeping in."

"Well, I guess I've gotta change that then."

So at 8 am on a Saturday, Kayden marched over to the dorm at the end of the hallway and loudly rapped against the door until it swung open a few seconds later to a tired and somewhat annoyed-looking Elias looking down at him in pajama pants without a shirt on.

"Yes?" Elias asked and Kayden absolutely did not even briefly glance at his evidently toned upper body before he looked back up at his eyes, that would be ridiculous, although he did kind of wonder when Elias had the time to work out because he must find it somewhere with abs like that...

"You're not planning on decorating?"

"No, I'm not spending Christmas here, and even if I were decorating, it isn't for another twenty-one days."

"It's never too soon to decorate!" Kayden said. "Come on, we've got extra stuff, I'll bring it over and-"

"Kayden, it's a Saturday, I'm going back to sleep."

"Aren't you a morning person?" Kayden asked, slightly confused.

"I have no idea what gave you that impression."

"Well, you just...you seem like you would be a morning person."

"I get up ten minutes before breakfast and drink three cups of coffee every morning," Elias said, crossing his arms.

"You're a morning person today. Get Brooks up, we're getting lights in this bitch!" Kayden laughed, walking back to his room to bring over a box of extra decorations.

When he came back two minutes later, Brooks was just waking up and Elias was sitting at his desk with a white t-shirt on. "Alright, fine, but just a few. I'm not spending my whole morning on this." Elias said, running his fingers through his hair. "Shouldn't you be studying anyway?" He asked Kayden.

"Since when am I a responsible user of my time?" Kayden asked, dropping the box on the floor with a thump. "And besides, I've got sixteen days, I'm fine." He said, brushing the whole thing off.

"You also have homework."

"That I can do later. I'll get it done, don't worry." Kayden said, picking out a string of lights. "Come on, the faster we get the room done the faster I'll be out of your hair and you can go back to sleep."

"By the time we're done, it'll be breakfast." Elias pointed out.

"You can take a nap after."

"I have a student council meeting."

"Well, be tired, you can sleep later."

"I wouldn't be tired if I could just go back to sleep without you pestering me about lights and stickers."

"Will you two just be quiet? I'm too tired for your constant bickering this early. If you need your sleep that bad, you can get back in bed, I'll help him put up lights." Brooks grunted, rubbing his eyes. "You guys sound like my parents."

It was quiet for the most part after that. Brooks got up and helped them both hang lights around the room secured with scotch tape. They kept their bickering to a minimum, though Elias made the occasional comment about the lights being a fire hazard and Kayden would tell him to shut up because it was a pretty fire hazard.

Kayden reached up in an attempt to tape a string of lights over a shelf at one point and sighed when it was too tall for him. "Can someone grab me a chair?"

"No, you'll fall off and break an ankle," Elias murmured, though he couldn't keep a small grin off his face at the thought.

"I'm not that clumsy," Kayden said back, his face tinted pink.

"Here, just-" Elias sighed, taking the string of lights from Kayden and reaching over him to tape it to the top of the shelf. "Better?"

"Much," Kayden said, satisfied.

"Alright, I think we're done," Brooks said, looking over the room. "You happy now or are you keeping me from my breakfast longer?" He asked Kayden.

"No yeah, it looks acceptable, I think we're good to go."

"Wonderful, I'm gonna go get pancakes," Brooks said with a small smile, heading out the door.

Kayden glanced up at Elias, and he wanted to say something, he just wasn't sure what it was. "So...coffee then?" He suggested. Elias sighed but nodded.

"Yeah, I guess I'm already up." He said, holding the door open for Kayden and the two walked out into the hall which was now decorated with a string of little handmade snowflakes and painted snowmen.

They walked to the dining hall together, not too close, not too far away, just so that maybe another person could walk between them. Kayden wanted to talk, but he wasn't sure how to even start a conversation at the moment. They didn't talk all that often, at least not often enough for Kayden to call them friends, but when they did, they didn't tend to stop. Kayden thought sometimes that if they got into a conversation and there was never a particular reason to stop talking, they might go on forever conversing about different things, jumping from topic to topic like disjointed train cars. He eventually figured he'd just open a conversation with what he wanted to talk about, or ask rather.

"Are you actually upset about me waking you up early?" Kayden asked, picking at his nails as they left the dorm building. He didn't usually let on that things like that made him anxious sometimes, and if he never asked and just assumed that he'd truly annoyed Elias, he'd probably think about it all day.

Elias glanced at him. "Not anymore."

"But you were?"

"A bit," Elias said with a shrug. "I told you, I'm not a morning person." He said and gave a chuckle that made Kayden a little more comfortable with the whole thing.

"Okay," Kayden said and nodded once. He'd decided he probably shouldn't wake Elias up early anymore, even as a joke, though he wouldn't apologize for it, it didn't seem necessary. "You still seemed like you needed some Christmas cheer."

"And it couldn't have waited 'til nine?" The blond asked with a playful grin.

"Christmas cheer waits for no man," Kayden said as if nothing could be done about it.

"I think it can wait until the sun is finished rising," Elias said, walking close enough to bump into him and Kayden giggled, gently kicking his foot.