A Christmas Carol

Chapter Ten

dedicated to gravestones for the adorable banner she made :)

          You’d think that after all this time of being together and first handedly witnessing raw never-before-seen footage of the other person, something as innocent as sleeping on the same couch together wouldn’t faze me. Yet for whatever reason, it did. Not in the same way it did that first night, when I felt like I had done something wrong, and definitely nothing like the second time after my nightmare, when it had felt natural that time, almost like having a sleepover with Piper or something. It just felt . . . different. The first time, we were two tired high school kids who fell asleep on the couch near each other, big whoop. The second time, it was a little less innocent than that, although there was still nothing wrong with what we did seeing as I laid under the covers and he had the decency to lay on top of them, ensuring that we were handling the situation correctly.

          But this time . . . we were pressed right next to each other. My knit tights were snug against his dress pants, his arm wrapped around my shoulders, my head resting in the crook of his neck. We were completely snuggled together, I realized as I hazily woke up that morning, my eyes sticky with sleep. It was the kind of thing that people who were more-than-friends did. Except we weren’t more-than-friends, so what did that mean, exactly?

          As I slowly sat up, Noel sighing beside me, my eyes seemed to be glued to the Christmas tree in the corner, the ornaments glittering in the morning light and the green pine needles seemed to extend outward, reaching toward me. God, his family had a pretty Christmas tree. My heart stopped as soon as this passing thought registered in my brain. Christmas tree—Christmas!

          It was Christmas morning.

          I took my hand and gave Noel a light shove. “Wake up!” I demanded rather loudly, disturbing the silence that permeated the air just moments before. His eyes flew open for a second and then he winced at the pool of light that was coming in from the window and shut them once again.

          “It’s too early,” he mumbled, snuggling closer to me and sighing loudly.

          I gave him another forceful shove. “It’s Christmas morning you dingus, get up!”

          His eyes slowly fluttered open and he yawned, shooting me a lopsided smile as we made eye contact. “Did you really just call me a dingus?” A look of pure amusement played across his face.

          I shrugged and grinned childishly, embarrassed by my awkward choice of wording. “I couldn’t think of any sufficient insults that are only minimally offensive and then that popped into my mind. But that’s aside from the point! The point is it is Christmas morning, and you need to get up right now!”

          Though his level of enthusiasm didn’t quite match mine, he smiled and sat up, rubbing his eyes in the process. His bed hair stuck out at different angles, but the tousled look did nothing to take away from his attractiveness. As per usual. I couldn’t help but stare.

          Suddenly he caught me staring and his smile grew. “Let’s go get some breakfast, dork.”

          I had no objection to that. We both stretched our bodies as we padded our way to the brightly lit kitchen, the decent layer of snow outside reflecting sunlight that spilled in through the window. It wasn’t snowing as hard as it had been last night, but there were still flurries. It truly was a beautiful Christmas.

          Too bad my family had to miss it.

          Instead of sugar cookies again, Noel whipped up a few chocolate chip pancakes, which were surprisingly delicious.