Belle | #1

27| Forelsket

2 7

F o r e l s k e t 

(n.) the euphoria you experience while falling in love.

❋❋❋

And if love be madness, may I never find sanity again. 

– John Mark Green

❋❋❋

As it turns out, next weekend was Christmas.

Ell was an idiot for not piecing that together sooner. Reece was smart, she'd give him that, because every day after school, he was absolutely exploiting all of them to help with Christmas decorations at his house.

He didn't even try to be subtle about it. "I would have to decorate two floors all by myself – why would I do that when you lot are always around anyways?"

She didn't exactly blame him – she would've done the exact same, if she was being honest with herself. If she continued being honest, she would admit that she wholeheartedly looked forward to hanging gleaming stars around the walls of the Hawthorne house, and whenever it was time to leave, Ella would count down til she was back the very next day.

Julian was hanging up small fairylights throughout the house, according to Reece's blueprint for all the Christmas decorations. Of course Reece would do that – the first day of the job, he distributed coloured printouts of his drawings of what he wanted the Hawthorne house to look like.

Calliope basically took that as confirmation as to how insane of a control freak Reece actually was, and the Australian just shrugged. "I mean, without this, you would be hanging anything everywhere, and that sounds like a disaster."

Alexander was the one who slipped that Reece had been working on these blueprints every Chemistry class. Julian scowled at that, and Ella didn't exactly understand why. Reece didn't seem to care though, because all he did was shrug at the accusation.

Even with all that, Ella still thought they got the easy part of the decorating. They were technically just hanging and sticking ornaments that they retrieved from a cardboard box in the basement.

Reece, on the other hand, had real work to do.

According to Rosie and Ross – who were just as equally exploited as the rest of them – Reece makes a new family portrait for the family every Christmas. They said it with such adorable smiles on their faces that Ella almost let the glass star in her hand drop. While both children continued hanging ornaments on the part of the Christmas tree that they could reach, Julian slipped beside Ella, hanging a string of fairy lights just underneath her wreaths.

"They make it sound cute," he tells her, and Ella glanced at him, "but Reece kills himself over those portraits every year. Sleeps only two hours a day. Three if he's feeling generous."

Ella couldn't help but grin. "I wasn't aware that your artist friend was also self-destructive."

Julian cracked a smile at that. "He's dedicated – mostly obsessed, but to him they're the same thing."

"Where do they keep the portraits from other years?"

"In the basement," Julian replied, and Ella noticed how there was specks of glitter scatter around his black shirt. She stifled a laugh. "He has his own little display of all the family portraits he made."

Ella nodded her head, impressed. "An art display in the basement – don't you think it kind of beats the point?"

Julian lips quirked ever so slightly. He nudged his head towards the front entrance. "They hang up the portrait, until Reece makes a new one."