The Best of Me (A danisnotonfire fanfic) ✅

Part 23: Christmas

Dan's pov
"Nan, this is Leah," I said, introducing Leah to my grandmother.
"Oh, what a pretty face! It's so nice to finally see Daniel with someone, you have no idea," Nan laughed, making me cringe.
"We're not actually... dating," We had both said that phrase so many times the last two days, it hardly mattered anymore.

"Oh," the disappointment written in Nan's face were permanent and prominent. It was so typical Nan, acting upset so others would feel guilty. I knew about her little trick, and had grown immune to it, but I guessed Leah felt pretty damn horrible right now.

"Stop it, Nan. You're bothering us," I scolded her, taking this as our cue to leave. At the very same time my own mom shouted from somewhere in the house: "Dinner everyone!"

"Great, I'm starving," Leah said, shocking me completely. Did she actually mean it, or was it something she said? Her nervousness were pretty obvious as she kept tugging on the sleeves of her dress and running curls through her fingers. I placed a soft hand on her shoulder. She froze, but I pretended not to notice.

"Come on, let's meet the family!"

During the whole meal, Leah hardly said a thing. The only times she spoke is when a question were directly addressed to her, and she replied blunt every time. I sat back in my chair, watching my family eat, smile and share stories from the past. The only thing wrong with the picture was that Leah wasn't smiling like them.

"Hey, are you alright?" I whispered, leaning in towards her.
"Yeah, I'm perfectly fine," She whispered back, obviously lying, but since it was Christmas I let it pass.
"Okay, if you say so," I replied leaning back just as Leah was addressed another question.

"So how did you two meet?" My nosy aunt wanted to know. She was always digging for new gossip to spread like wildfire through the family and her lunches with other old aunts.
"We live in the same block," Leah replied slowly, making it obvious she'd chosen the words with care.
"Oh, how exciting," Adrian shot in sarcastically.
"Oh, fuck off," I replied, earning everyones horrid gazes and gasps. Only Leah were smirking slightly, artfully covered by her hair.

"Language young man!" my dad scolded me. I choked on a laugh and swallowed my smile. Leave it to my parents to hate expressive words. I was so used to 'Living on my own', that I rarely thought twice about it. Phil had grown used to it, and I'd even caught him in cussing on his own a few times.

"Sorry Dad," I replied in a monotone voice.

I swear, every Christmas family dinner lasts for hours! It felt like forever before my mother announced it was time to open presents. Usually we waited until Christmas day, but because of some issues with tickets and stuff, we had decided upon opening the present the day in advance.
"Dibs on the couch," I shouted, dragging Leah with me towards it. Usually, it was the most comfortable seat, and we would probably be stuck there for some more hours.

I watched as my family members read up every single tag, handed it to their new owner, opened the package slowly and showed the rest what they got, one after one.
Leah ended up leaning towards me and I'd slipped my arm around her waist when they finally came to a gigantic present which said:

To: LeeLee
From: Dan and Phil

She shifted slightly under the weight of all the pairs of eyes, opening the gift slowly. I watched her reaction as she pulled out an obnoxiously large stuffed alligator, a little box and a couple of framed photos.

"The gator is from Phil," I explained hurriedly.
Her eyes radiated as she looked up at me.
"Well remind me on thanking him," She said while studying the photos. The first one where the night Leah and Phil had fallen asleep on me, cuddled up and adorable as hell. The second one were a screenshot from the video we'd filmed together, that I had yet to put up, where Leah laughed at a grimace I'd pulled. The last one Phil had taken of us from behind, as we held hands while walking the streets of London.
"Thank you Dan, these are really amazing," She said, akwardly side-hugging me, while a choir of 'awww's accompanied it.