Adam opened the door and gasped. “TJ, what are you doing here? You said you went to visit a relative for Christmas.”
“I fibbed a little, my grandma actually lives near us. I just um, wanted to surprise you and bring you Christmas spirit, even though it’s uh, in a week.” TJ pointed to the roof of his car.
Adam glanced at the direction and gasped. “You brought me a tree? 
“Yep. You sounded so bummed out and homesick that you couldn’t come home. I know you’ve had it hard being off at trade school, and I missed you. Sooo I’m bringing Christmas to you, even though you’re now 150 miles away.”
Adam sniffled. “Goddammit TJ. You have no idea happy this makes me. I really wanted to come home, but with my car, and work making me do holiday hours, I couldn’t; and I really wanted to do a tree and stuff, but the cost of it and the decorations, and everything with my car…” His chest fluttered and his eyes spilled over.
TJ wiped Adam’s tears away with the sleeve of his hoodie pulled around his fist. “Aw, Adam. There, there, it’s ok. I’ve missed you so much too. Being apart is hard. I wish we could go to school closer to each other.” TJ gave him a gentle kiss. 
“I missed you more,” Adam whispered, sounding pitiful and tired.
“Not possible. But we’re going to spend the day together setting this up. I collected a bunch of extra Christmas decorations and lights from everyone, and picked up some stuff from the dollar store. And I got you presents, and I brought you the presents from your parents.”
“Oh dear, I got you a little something, but that’s all…”
“That’s fine, Adam. Your face when I opened the door was good enough of a gift.”
Adam chuckled. “Did I look surprised?”
“You did. It was epic. Now let’s get this tree off my car. I have no idea how they got it on there and it’s like six feet tall.”
Adam shoved his feet into his shoes and followed TJ outside. There was four inches of snow on the ground but he didn’t feel the cold at all. There was a red hot furnace inside of him fueled by loved.

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Captions are fictional.