Under the Mistletoe (Christmas Special)

Chapter 9

The clock reads 12:54.
That means I've been sitting here staring at that vase of flowers for nearly three hours.

I'm trying to think of who could've written that letter. It could be one of the guys I work with. Max? Jeff? Davis? None of them were in love with me, though, were they?

One time I read this book about this girl who had a stalker that sent her all these letters proclaiming his love for her and telling her how beautiful she was. That isn't what this situation is, is it? I'm too abnormal to have a stalker! I'm not famous or anything! No guy is secretly obsessed with me! Well maybe the guy who wrote the letter is...but this doesn't seem as creepy as a stalker note would. This guy doesn't seem like he just stalks me; it seems like he actually knows me.

I cannot deal with this right now. I do not want to deal with this right now. It's giving me a headache. It's probably just a prank anyway, right? Probably Melissa or one of my sisters, right? Yeah. Definitely. They know me really well - well enough to write that letter about me. This is so stupid.

I step away from the flowers and break eye contact with them after hours. I never want to see roses ever again. Except they're my favorite flowers, so massive thanks to the mean person who gave me them and ruined my life.

I believe it's time for me to eat breakfast now. Also a massive thanks to the same person for making me starve until 1pm.

***

As I glue pictures of Liam and I into the scrapbook, I smile. We're so goofy; I love it.

There's pictures of us the time we went in a kiddie playhouse and I accidently touched pee, the time we went around London wearing crazy disguises to avoid him being recognized, the time we had a crazy two person dance party in the lobby of our apartment building (it lasted about 30 seconds), the time we filled my bathtub up with jello, and so many other pictures that hold such good memories. I'm hoping he'll like this, especially since there's concert tickets in the back.

I hear a knocking at my door followed by, "It's me."

It's Liam. As I get up to open the door for him, I realize that his present is scattered on my table. My eyes widen and my jaw drops as I look from the table to the door and back to the table. I scream out a jumble of words and tell Liam to hold on a sec. I manage to grab everything and take it to my room in one trip because second trips are for losers. I race to the door and try to act casual. I'm panting, by the way.

I smile awkwardly, "Hey. Sup."

"What are you hiding from me?" He raises his eyebrows.

"Pfft, not your Christmas present, obviously." Crap. I sort of have this tendency to be an idiot.

"I love how you aren't obvious at all." He sits at my kitchen counter. "What's up?"

"Not much. I've pretty much wasted my day so far."

"These are pretty flowers," Liam comments, sniffing the life-ruining roses.

"Yeah, my sisters do have pretty good taste in flowers."

"Your sisters?" 

I nod. "They pranked me with these flowers and a super long and cheesy note. Like they actually expected me to believe it? Ha."

I hand him the 'love letter' that came with the flowers and I watch him read it with an uncomfortable face. 

"It seems pretty genuine," he says, looking at the ground.

"That's what I thought. But seriously, it can't be real. A guy sending me that? Yeah, right."

Liam starts, "Josie, it-"

I cut him off. "Liam, look. I appreciate your thoughts on this, but I'd rather not talk about it. If it's not my sisters then it could be a guy. Even though I said I wanted a boyfriend, this is kinda scaring me. Not in a creeper way or anything, but it's just kinda fast you know? My life isn't supposed to be interesting like this. There isn't supposed to be mystery and this happened and it's starting to get to me. I'm just going to let it be. I don't want to do anything about it. I'm not going to do anything about it."

He doesn't say anything for a minute. He seems taken aback by my response, but it's the truth. My life has literally always been simple. No mystery or real excitement - I live a normal life. Maybe that's why I don't expect to get love letters and flowers from some secret admirer thing on a daily basis. It freaks me out a little. I'm pretty easy to freak out, but this has thrown me way off guard. I have absolutely no idea who wrote it and it's a little weird to think about. It's a little weird to think that someone's in love with me. I can't picture someone thinking about me or liking me. I'm just me - no one special. I'm not worthy of secret admirers.

He finally speaks, "If that's how you feel, I'll respect it." 

"Thanks. Can go do something fun? Laser tag or something. I feel like I've been locked up in this place all day and I need to get out."

"Actually, I think I'm going to get going. I just dropped by to say hey."

"You never drop by just to say hey...,"

"I guess this is a first then. I'll see you later, probably." He smiles briefly before leaving.

Well there's no trying to pretend that wasn't weird.

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I think there's going to be one chapter left and an epilogue :) So I'll try to finish before the end of the year!

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thanks for reading! i love you! <3

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