Broken Jingle Bells

It wasn’t unusual for them to see each other. Although they were already away at school, the holidays brought them back to their dense town that now reeked of smashed pumpkins and freshly-cut pine. Their families used to buy their Christmas trees together. The girls were close, but not as close as their mothers and fathers. And not in the same way. They looked at each other in the supermarket, surrounded by bells and thistles, and at the same time remembered the night of the holiday party when a pair of parents got too close, ending all three relationships.