Just Friends

31

୪𝚃𝚎𝚜𝚜୪

Christmas has always kind of been a big thing in my family.

Not that we're super religious or anything, just because it's a celebration on the block that brings people together like some cheesy coming of age movie.

The neighborhood glows with peppy lights and bright decorations. Each and every house is completely decked out except Hank. Hank doesn't do Christmas. He hates it.

I'm here before Levi. It's a few hours too early, and my mom is still inside getting ready to have a few people over. Just Kelly, Mitch, and Jasper, I think. They already socialized with anyone else.

"Hello?!" I call as I throw the door open freely. They never actually lock it. It's kind of weird.

"Tessa!" Dad calls back to me like he hasn't seen me in ages and I'm coming back from war.

I grin as I wander on into the living room. I stop in the doorway, blinking when I see my parents in there.

Mom is up on Dad's shoulders. She smiles casually at me, in the middle of straightening the star above the tree up.

"You're going to break something." I murmur as I step closer to set some presents down under the tree with the rest.

"It won't be anything of mine." Mom waves me off, unconcerned.

Dad scoffs at her. "Hurry up, Pam." He demands. "My back hurts."

"It always hurts."

"But it hurts even more."

"All right, guys." I sigh, stopping their weak arguments there. "Why is there so much?" I snort, having to move my presents a little further out from the tree.

We don't usually have an entire cluster of gifts. Honestly, there's only ever been one or two per person. This looks like there's two or three, maybe even more.

"Well, we have more guests." Mom scoffs. Dad groans as he starts stepping away from the tree. Mom huffs at him, but doesn't protest when he starts working out how to get her down.

I grin at that. "You got Levi something?" I happily ask. I was hoping they would, but wasn't really expecting them to since they don't know him all that well.

"Of course." Mom hums. She starts sliding off Dad's shoulder when he gets close enough to the couch, stepping on the armrest. "Why wouldn't we?"

"You guys don't really know him." I reason with a shrug.

"We asked Jasper." Dad sighs heavily and collapses down onto his single recliner. Mom narrows her eyes at him, annoyed he's tired after that.

I'm glad I talked to Jasper before talking to my parents then. Otherwise he might've heard it from them which isn't what I wanted to happen.

We had a long talk about it. Jasper says he understands we're friends, and this is what friends do. All three of us.

He also understands that if I see or hear even the smallest thing about an attitude towards Levi, we're leaving and he's not going to hear from me for a long time.