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ELIZABETH'S POV - Thursday, December 20th
One thing you should know about me: I love Christmas.
It's my favorite time of year, all the bright colorful lights, delicious cookies, and the pine tree scent that just follows you everywhere.
"What time did you tell them to get here?" asks my best friend and neighbor, Ricky Bowen, as he sets a bowl of freshly baked snickerdoodles on the coffee table in my living room.
"6," I replied. Tonight, our friend group is doing our annual Christmas gift exchange, a secret Santa. We do this every year, and the name I got was Gina, which is perfect because she's so easy to shop for.
Ricky scoffs. "So what time is Percy gonna get here, then?"
Percy White is my boyfriend who is known for being many things; popular, water polo co-captain, East High basketball's star point guard, and always late.
"He'll be here on time," I say defensively, "he promised."
Ricky rolled his eyes and walked away to grab the hot chocolates. He's always seemed to have something against Percy. I don't know why.
When six o'clock rolls around, Percy, EJ, and Ashlyn are the first ones to arrive. I shoot a meaningful glance at Ricky when this happens as Percy immediately makes his way toward me and slips his hand into my back pocket. I roll my eyes playfully at him. "You watch sixteen candles one time, and then this happens."
He turns so we are face to face. "You like it. Don't lie." He chuckles softly.
When everyone finally arrives, we sit around on the couch and eat snacks and exchange gifts while Home Alone plays softly in the background. Gina loves her gift from me; a soft grey sweater I saw at the mall that totally screamed her name.
"Okay, okay, my turn," says Percy, and he is the last one so I know he's got my name. He hands me a plain white box with a green bow on it, but stops me as I am about to untape the lid. "No, no, not right now. I want you to open it when everyone leaves."
"Oooh," EJ says, wiggling his eyebrows, and Percy reaches over and punches his shoulder. EJ is the other co captain of water polo, and the two are best friends, two peas in a pod. I mean, of course we're all a friend group but everyone has their pairs. EJ and Percy. Nini and Kourtney. Ashlyn and Gina. Seb and Carlos (who are actually a little more than just friends).
"I'm definitely putting this with my stuff for the ski trip!" Gina says excitedly, still admiring her sweater.
East High's ski trip is an annual thing for all the juniors and seniors, and always falls on the first weekend of holiday break. We leave tomorrow and will return on Christmas Eve, which is why we are doing our gifts now.
Everyone stays at my place talking and laughing and watching Christmas movies. It's nearly midnight when I lay my head on Percy's shoulder and whisper, "I wanna know what's in the box."
He smirks. "I'll get them out for you."
He stands up suddenly and shuts off the TV.
"Hey, man!" Big Red whines.
"Time to leave! Sorry! We have to get up early tomorrow for the bus anyways. Drive home safely-" he turns to Ricky, "er, walk home safe. Anyways, byeeeee!"
"You don't need a ride back home with us?" Ashlyn asks him.
"Nope," he wraps his arm around my shoulders, "I'm spending the night with my girl."
"My mom won't like that," I whisper to him, frowning.
"Well, she's not here, is she?" He replies, and he's right. I don't know. Talking about my mom is kind of a sore subject. Anyway, she's never home, she's always working. Or with some random guy. She told me she wouldn't come home until tomorrow afternoon anyways so....
Once everyone's gone, Percy and I walk to my room. Immediately I tear the box open, and just see one little small thing inside the big box.
"Um..." I trail off, not knowing what was going through his head. Knowing him it wasn't a joke. I don't think.
He snakes his arm around my waist and leads me to the bed. "You look beautiful," he whispers in my ear.
Suddenly his shirt's off and so are his jeans.
"What are you doing?" I sit up.
"We're going to use your present. Duh." I'm sure you can guess by now what exactly was in the box.
"I don't know..."
He rolls his eyes. "Oh, come on. Everyone's doing it. It'll feel good, trust me."
It's not a secret that Percy isn't a virgin. He's been with at least 2 other girls that I know of, more than once for each, and I mean, he's so popular it could be way more. Me, on the other hand? Percy's my first boyfriend. And I've never had sex.
"Percy, I don't think I'm ready..."
"You are. Plus we've been together for over a year. Don't you trust me?"
When I don't respond, he looks at me with a pleading face and I feel guilty.
"Don't be a pushover. Come on, Shepard."
"Alright," I finally agreed, my voice shaking.
And then he does it, and it hurts really bad that tears spring to my eyes. And then he finishes and my sheets are all wet and I feel dirty. I didn't even finish.
"What's wrong? Not good enough?"
"No, you were fine," I said, rolling over so I'm facing the wall. He presses his body against mine and I tense up. "I'm just tired."
"Okay. Goodnight babe, I love you."
I don't respond, instead I just pretend to be asleep.
