Home and Holidays

chapter 14

The next day, after lunch, Noah headed over to Ella's house, his mind racing as he mentally practiced how he should ask her out. He was more nervous about it than he would've liked to admit, purposely taking his time on the walk there. Once he finally reached Ella's house, he briefly considered chickening out completely, but he forced himself to ring the doorbell instead, deciding to pretend that he wasn't totally freaking out inside.

"Noah, hi!" Ella excitedly greeted him once she opened the door.

"Hi, Ella." he responded, smiling. He was trying hard to hide his nervousness as he couldn't stop thinking about what he planned to ask her today. And how pretty she looked with her long, wavy hair cascading perfectly down her shoulders wasn't exactly helping either.

"Come on, I can't wait to show you how we decorated our tree." Ella beamed, grasping his hand and bringing him inside before he could think of a reply, which he was secretly grateful for since he could barely think straight anyway with how wrapped up he was in his thoughts. Not to mention the way Ella's natural beauty was captivating his attention as well.

"These sparkly red and gold ones are the new ornaments that my parents bought recently." Ella explained once she and Noah were in the living room, looking at the fairly large Christmas tree decked out with sparkling lights and ornaments. "Most of the other ones we already had from last year. Oh, except this one." she said, pointing to the ornament that Noah had painted. "This one is obviously my favorite." she added, giving him a smile.

"It is?" Noah asked her, his eyes sparkling as his heart melted.

"Of course! I love looking at it everyday." Ella sweetly told him. She then proceeded to show him the rest of the ornaments, and explain how she had purposely matched the rest of the decorations in the living room to the color theme of the ornaments and garland on the tree.

As he listened to her talk, Noah mentally decided that he would go ahead and ask her out right after she was done showing him the Christmas tree. That was his plan anyway, but somehow, hours had eventually gone by and he still hadn't asked her the important question. They were currently sitting on the couch in the living room as they read together, completely engulfed in the story.

By the time Noah was getting ready to leave, he still hadn't asked Ella out. He wasn't sure if he should or not. As much as he wanted to, he was scared that he might make things weird between them if she didn't feel that way about him.

"Thanks for coming over, Noah. I always have fun hanging out with you." Ella told him, walking with him toward the front door.

"No problem. I have fun hanging out with you too. I'll um, see you in a couple days at the community center?" he checked.

"Yeah, I'll be there." Ella replied with a little smile.

Noah nodded in response before turning to leave, but he felt like an absolute coward for chickening out of what he was planning to ask her in the first place. As overwhelming as it was, he couldn't leave without telling her how he felt. He stopped mid step, running his hand through his hair as he forced himself to just go for it.

"Hey, um.... actually I kinda wanted to ask you something." he worked up the courage to say, turning around to face her.

"Ok, what's up?" Ella questioned with a smile.

"I was.... wondering if.... you would maybe wanna go out to lunch with me sometime? Like on a date." Noah asked her, trying to appear cool and collected, but in reality he was nervous as ever for her reply.

"A date?" she echoed back as a question, blushing like crazy as she stared at him. "You want to go on a date with me?" she asked again with a cute smile, trying to be completely sure of what he meant.