Colton spent the majority of Christmas Eve at work. He worked a double shift after another employee called out, and since their deli did a lot of holiday catering, with platters and sandwiches, there was a lot of work to be done. He worked from nearly five in the morning to eight at night, but it paid off. Not only did he make good money, just in terms of the hours he had worked, but as usual, his boss didn't fail in being a good guy. He and his wife had always been wholesome people and did well by all of their employees, so though Colton was surprised when they handed him an extra hundred dollars as a holiday bonus, he knew that he shouldn't have been. Given their track record, the generosity really wasn't all that surprising. Aside from the nice payout from the day's work, Colton didn't mind working on Christmas Eve either, because it was something to do. Holidays tended to be a good reminder of how he had been disowned from his family. While Colton had been the one to leave the nest before he got kicked out, if he hadn't left on his own will, he would have been kicked out anyway, so disowned still seemed like a fitting word. His birthday was one thing, and Colton could pretend that now having no family didn't bother him much then, but it was a bit harder to do on the big holidays like Christmas. As a young kid, he had loved Christmas just as any child would, because it meant presents and toys. As a preteen and teenager, he had grow to dislike it a bit more, mostly because he became more aware of how he was being forced to attend church and go through all of the boring religious traditions that he didn't want to have to conform to. Still, even if at the time he wanted to act like he hated the holiday, there was no denying now, that the memories of his house smelling like delicious food, and the sound of his mother's sweet voice yelling at him and his brothers to stop stealing candy canes off of the Christmas tree didn't make him miss it.
On his walk home from the deli, those memories made him feel more out of place than he had ever felt before. For the first time in a while, he wondered what the hell he was doing in New York - and in his life in general. There were so many people in the world who didn't have family at all, and here he was, refusing to reach out to his own, over reasons that he could chalk up as being stupid and petty. They weren't stupid and petty, as he had a right to be whoever he wanted to be, but did he want to live this way forever? Did he want his mother to grow old without knowing that her baby was safe and doing all right and thinking of her? He liked to think, most days, that his family had forgotten him and moved on happily with their own lives, and maybe his father had, but he couldn't even pretend that his mother wasn't a great mother. Even if he didn't want her to miss him, she was sure that she must have worried about him at least from time to time over the past few years, and he felt guilty for that alone. He wondered what they were all doing tonight, and what their plans were for tomorrow. There was so much that he didn't know about his family now. His brothers could have gotten married and started families of their own, for all he knew. Hell, if he was being really somber and honest, his parents might have been dead. Thinking about that made him feel even more guilty, as anyone would, and today more than ever, he struggled with reminding himself that they were the ones who pushed him away.
That uncomfortable itch of guilt in him somehow led him through the snow that was slowly falling from the sky, to the nearest liquor store. He knew very well that it was stupid, but something in him told him that he could relieve some of the guilt that he was suddenly feeling, if he did something good. Thinking of Chanel, at the thought of that, was one more thing that he could add to the list of things that he hated about himself tonight, but especially knowing that Kacey was out of time, he felt like she would be the only other person who he could do something nice for. It was dumb of him to think that she would still be in town, given how normal she seemed lifestyle wise, but he didn't even consider that she would be with family as he scanned the aisles of liquor that the store offered, before considering that she probably was more of a wine type of girl. The only problem with that, was that Colton didn't know shit about wine, and he had too much pride to ask the guy behind the counter for any suggestions. Beyond the pride, he also didn't want to spend that much money, and he thought that admitting he wasn't knowledgeable about the products at hand would lead the guy to exploiting him for a sale. His confused look as he browsed the wine section led the store employee over to him anyway, and after some persistent questioning, Colton admitted that he was looking for a gift for a girl he knew. "A girl, eh?" the man asked, with a thick accent that Colton couldn't place specifically, though he assumed it was from somewhere in Asia. "You won't fail with this," he continued, leading Colton over to a display in the front that housed bottles of "White Girl Rosé". Again, Colton didn't think into it enough to even really read the label or process how it might be weird to give that to Chanel, who obviously wasn't white, and more interested in just being left alone from the worker, he paid for it and left.
The apartment wasn't a far walk, and although he considered that maybe he should have purchased a gift bag or something on his way home, he knew he didn't have one in his apartment anyway, so instead of stopping there first, he headed across the hall to Chanel's apartment. His knock was answered fast enough, but by Nick, and not Chanel. Colton wasn't sure if it was Nick or the apartment itself that possessed the potent smell of weed but either way, he wasn't surprised that Nick admitted to being stoned after mistaking him for the pizza delivery man. It wasn't like Colton interacted with Nick frequently, but he had seen him around enough to not be shocked seeing him high, and really, he felt better about himself, seeing that this was the state that this guy was in on Christmas Eve. At least he wasn't the only one who wasn't snuggled up in front of a fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate and a family singing Christmas carols. "Hey, don't give it a second thought, man. Gotta admit I'm pretty jealous that you're stoned, actually, but I won't keep you. I just wanted to see if Chanel was here. Brought her something," he explained, shifting on his feet slightly as he raised the plastic bag containing the bottle a bit.