Out In The Cold

All he needs is a Christmas miracle.

After his deepest secret is unexpectedly revealed, Topher Richards is callously cast out of the family home by his intolerant parents. Struggling to survive, he is soon faced with a series of increasingly difficult choices. Will Topher be able to build a new life for himself in an unfamiliar city and find the second chance he so desperately deserves?

Topher Walker was truly and utterly miserable. It was just after lunchtime on Christmas Eve and even Ebenezer Scrooge would’ve been able to conjure up more of a festive spirit than Topher in his current mood. The day was bitterly cold and the biting winter wind tore through his crimson winter coat and straight into his bones, as Topher trudged his lonely way from his car, through the flurries of snow and back to his townhouse. His arms were laden down with shopping bags, full of last minute purchases for his family. Jostling with the frantic crowds had felt something akin to an approaching apocalypse, as people desperately scavenged the rapidly emptying shelves.

I can’t believe how nuts it was. Why do I leave it so late? Never again…didn’t I promise that last year too?

Without warning, Topher suddenly found himself flying backwards through the air, after his feet encountered an icy patch of sidewalk, and then landed firmly on his ass. A sharp pain ripped through his left side and the fallen snow rapidly began to dampen his clothes, ensuring that his frame of mind remained firmly black.

I was nearly home dammit! Of all the days, you’ve got to be kidding me!

Picking himself up off the frozen ground, Topher winced as he got to his feet and then limped the short distance to his front door. Once inside the warmth of the townhouse, Topher put off wrapping the presents in favor of taking a long, hot shower. Catching sight of himself in the hall mirror, Topher noticed that he appeared rather festive with his snow-dusted clothing, although the ominous look in his brown eyes clearly broadcast his foul frame of mind. Discarding the shopping bags just inside the front door, Topher stripped his clothes off in a messy trail, as he traipsed upstairs to his en suite bathroom. Within a minute, the bathroom was full of steam and Topher was slumped against the cerulean-blue tiles, letting the hot water defrost his extremities and sooth away his aches and pains.

Christmas had long been a conflicted time of year for Topher. While the holidays made him appreciate how fortunate he’d been over the past few years, it also stood as a bleak reminder of all he had lost. To be fair, this year had been going particularly well until just yesterday, when the relationship with his long-term boyfriend, Eli, came to an abrupt and unexpected end. Suffice to say, Topher was feeling very Grinch-like indeed.

Bah fucking humbug!

The throbbing in his left hip and buttock began to subside as the heat of the shower enveloped him completely. Topher’s mind began to wander and his thoughts turned towards his biological parents, as they were wont to at this time of year. As happy as Topher was with his adoptive family, the Walkers, he couldn’t help but dwell upon his previous one, no matter how callously they had acted towards him on that fateful day a little over three years ago.

Do they even miss me? After what they did I shouldn’t care…but I do.