A new take on a familiar holiday classic. Ned Matthews is a college student haunted by his last boyfriend's infidelity. Ned would rather wallow in self-pity than spend Christmas with Bobby Cratchett, the boy next door and Ned's old high school crush, despite the fact the two of them are the only students left on campus for the holiday.<br><br>Amid memories of Christmases past and the emptiness of the present evening, Ned realizes he isn't the only one alone this wintry night. Can Bobby somehow break through Ned's defenses to show him Christmas is better spent with someone you've always wanted to love?

This Christmas

Get real,Ned thinks, staring at his shoes and Bobby’s


You want true love? Sing about calling up the


guy back home you’ve been dating forever and having another dude


answer the phone. Sing about stumbling upon your boyfriend’s weblog


and finding links to amateur porn sites where he’s posted pictures


of himself fucking someone else. Sing about confronting him only to


be cussed out for snooping. Sing about sitting in an empty dorm


room on Christmas Eve, eating ice cream by the gallon and trying


not to cry because men suck and life’s so damn unfair. Sing about


that in your Christmas carol. That’s my grown-up Christmas


At the end of the aisle Ned turns, hoping to


shake Bobby. But a hand on his arm stops him. “It’s really too cold


to wait for the bus.” Bobby watches Ned with those blue blue eyes,


waiting. When Ned doesn’t respond, he tries a different tactic.


Ned shakes off Bobby’s hand. So that’s


Chapter 2