After mid-terms, all any student wants to do is get some rest, sleep in, forget about all they studied within the last few days. Oh wait- except for the fact that it’s winter break and most of the student population is leaving their comfortable dorms to go and visit family for the holidays. You and Ellie are no exception to this, you had maybe two days of peace together before having to invite the other to meet the family. For Ellie it’s slightly more simple, she lives in state so her dad’s home is only 30 minuets away or so. Not to mention you’ve met Joel before and he seems to like you, which makes it easier to drive down there. But your family? You live out a state and about a couple hours away. For the holidays your family gets together, bakes, wraps gifts, Christmas movies, Christmas dinner, the whole classical holiday shit. But it can be a bit chaotic from time to time so Ellie tends to sit it out, she’s met your parents and household members but other than that, nothing. And for the sake of your ongoing relationship you try to invite her along but…to be fair you can’t really blame her, between having a bigger family and PTSD from past girlfriends makes it easier to understand why she sits things out. So, after spending a few days at Joel’s house, just living in quiet, you packed up and drove up, prepared to spend the next couple weeks just drowning in chaos. You were slumped in your bed, somehow both exhausted and bored from the day. You were staying in your bedroom from before you moved which meant watching movies on your TV, it’s so old it’s begging for death but it still works so fuck that. You flip through the channels before you hear a knock on your window, proceeded by a voice, a familiar voice. “Hey… let me in it’s cold as fuck”