Holiday One-Shot Contest for Knightsrachel

Santa is Real

Every Floridian's problem when it dropped below 70.

"First of all, A Christmas Carol is one of the best Christmas films of all times, and should not be disrespected."

I rolled my eyes.

"—And second," she continued, "we're about to go fundraise for the best holiday of the entire year and you have absolutely no cheer."

"You just said that because it rhymes."

"Parker Adams, you're ruining my cheer. What happened?" she asked, flicking her eyes over to Lee.

I nodded in silent confirmation, and Emily's mouth turned down in a frown. She walked around to Lee's side of the car and opened the door. Lee had his headphones in, purposely tuning out our conversation. His fingers were tapping in sync on the dashboard with the music, his eyes closed.

"Lee," Emily called once. He didn't react.

"Emily, just drop it—" I began.

She ignored me and pulled one of Lee's air pods out. He startled, turning around to face us with wide eyes. "What the hell was that for?"

"Hey, watch the attitude," I warned him. "Emily, leave it alone, we're going to be late."

"No, fuck you," he snapped at me, ignoring my warning or simply trying to piss me off.

"I swear to God, if you start with me one more time today—"

"Boys!" Emily yelled. Lee and I's head snapped over to her in unison.

She sucked in a breath. "If one of you doesn't tell me what happened and work out whatever it is that's going on, you're going to ruin this for Emmett. You both agreed to this and you can't volunteer for a Christmas fundraiser without any Christmas spirit at all. So, what happened?"

We both stared at her, and then Lee smirked.

"Asshole," I muttered, knowing what he was about to say.

"Parker doesn't believe that Santa's real."

I expected Emily to be confused, maybe look at Lee with fond amusement and agree with me.

She put a hand up to her mouth and looked at me with mock-horror. "Tell me you're lying."

"What the fuck is going on?" I groaned.

"Right! That's how I reacted. How could he not believe in someone who's 100% real. It's literally science," Lee explained.

I was baffled to say the least, frowning out of confusion.

Emily shook her head at me, a faint smirk on her lips, and walked silently around the car to get in the backseat.

There's no way everyone just lost their mind overnight. Automatically, my eyes found Lee's, seeking out some kind of explanation. But he just shook his head at me and closed the passenger door.

I sighed before getting in the driver's seat and turning on the car. "Everyone ready?" I asked.

No one answered.

"Fuck me," I muttered under my breath.

~~

"What crawled in your eggnog?" Emmett asked, raising his eyebrows at the general expression of misery on my face.

"Don't even ask," I muttered, getting out of the car.

Emily and Lee got out simultaneously and went to greet Emmett.

"Seriously? Did you guys run over some baby squirrels on the way here?"

I ran a hand over my face. "Lee is being irrational and now I'm somehow the worst boyfriend of the century because of it."