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"Yo, Posey, get your ass out here! I'm not bringing this shit in all by myself!" Dylan yells from his car, hands full of dishes.
Posey turns around on the porch, shooting Dylan a bird. "I'm coming, bro. But I had to give JR the gift I got him for hosting."
Dylan looks over at JR, still in the doorway, who is laughing as he holds up the ornament Posey picked out for him. It was Santa using a Chimney as a toilet. When Posey had seen it in the store, he laughed his ass off for about ten minutes. Then he bought five. It was one of his gifts of choice this year.
Posey runs back down the stairs and grabs the two dishes Dylan is holding. "Thanks, bro. All that's left is the beer."
Dylan turns around and grabs the two cases of beer from the back seat and closes the door with his hip. He follows Posey up the stairs and into the house.
"Hey boys. Late like usual, I see," Melissa calls from the couch, Linden at her side.
"You know how it is trying to get Posey anywhere on time." Dylan rolls his eyes and laughs at Melissa as he walks by them into the kitchen.
Dylan has always loved the cast Christmas party. They started it right at the beginning of filming season 2, when they were still in Georgia. They were all going to go home for Christmas, but they all wanted to have a Christmas party with the whole cast before they left set.
The whole cast had squeezed into Posey, Dylan, and Hoechlin's apartment, even the new people who'd only been around for a few episodes. They'd sat around, eaten food, and drunk all night long. At one point it got so loud that one of their neighbors came by to complain, but none of them cared. It solidified them all as a cast and was one of the best nights Dylan had in Atlanta.
They continued it as a tradition the next year, but it was smaller since Colton and Gage were gone. It got smaller and smaller every year, since they didn't really invite the new cast members to the party. It wasn't that they didn't love Arden, Shelley, Sprayberry, and the others, but it felt like the original Georgia cast's tradition that would be hard to explain to the others. They'd all gotten so close when they filmed in Georgia, away from Los Angeles, living and working together every single day while filming, that they always felt more solid than the later cast had. They always had a full cast Christmas party on set, with all the crew as well, but then they always had a smaller one after that with the original cast members.
Now that there were so few of them left, it felt important to hold on as long as they could. Especially since it was likely Dylan's last.
"You can just put the food on the table, Posey. Dylan, the beer can go in the fridge in the back. And thanks for the ornament, guys," JR says as he walks the ornament over to his tree.
"It's mostly from Posey. He's given them to just about everyone he knows. I have one back at my house, too," Dylan yells back as he places one case of beer on the top shelf and lays the rest on the floor by the fridge. He turns and walks back into the dining room.
"This ornament is foul, Posey. You better not have gotten me one," Holland says from where she's curled up in the chair by the tree, scrunching up her nose? as she looks at the ornament.
"No, I got you a much less awesome present. One that fits your delicate, lady-like tendencies." Posey laughs.
"Oh, fuck you, Posey. Don't pull that fucking sexist shit with me. I just don't think a shitting Santa is funny."
Linden laughs as JR sits on his other side on the couch. "I think she just schooled you, son."
Dylan laughs as he surveys the food. "Damn, guys. Think we got enough food?" He whistles at the stacks of food on both tables in the dining room. "You know, I would think this spread would get a little smaller now that there are less of us, but I think the amount of food has actually gotten bigger." Dylan laughs as he grabs a popcorn chicken and throws it into his mouth.
"Susan couldn't resist making three different dishes for the party. I think she thinks you boys would go hungry otherwise if we didn't send you home with leftovers," Linden says, moving through the kitchen and grabbing a beer from the fridge.
"I can make my own food, you know," Dylan says, eating another piece of chicken off the plate.
"Or at least order burritos."
Dylan looks over at Posey, offended. "Dude, I made all the food we brought over. And my chicken is fucking delicious. I think it's you that gets the takeout, bro."
Posey laughs. "But takeout is just so much easier. Especially when you can get shit delivered."
Holland stands up and walks over to the table, grabbing a plate. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm eating. We waited so long for you two that I'm starving." Holland grabs a huge helping of asparagus on a platter and puts it on her plate.
"If you ate more than weeds, you might not be so hungry," Dylan teases, picking up a plate.
"Just because I'm vegan doesn't mean I eat weeds, ass," she says as she puts broccoli on her plate.
"But chicken is so good. How can you not eat chicken?" Dylan asks as he loads his plate up with three different kinds of chicken.
JR laughs as he falls in line behind him. "Think you got enough chicken there, Dylan?"
"There is no such thing, bro," Dylan says, hot wing hanging from his mouth as he tries to eat and fill his plate at the same time.
They all fix their plates and sit around the living room. As they eat, they talk about the episode they are in the middle of filming and how they think the rest of the season is going to go. They talk about their plans are now that filming is finished. They end up playing Cranium after they eat, which they've played every year since the beginning. As Dylan is trying (and failing because he's laughing so hard) to get people to guess horseback riding by puppeting Posey around like he's galloping, he forgets that this may be his last Christmas like this and just enjoys being around his these people who have become his family.