Asher Banning still mourns his mother after three years. When his friend, Caden, decides to get their group of friends together for Christmas as a way to help Asher not feel lonely for the holidays, things quickly turn upside down.
MATURE: for expl...
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"The plan for this winter break is to hang out with my friends and have fun." Freyja talked into her camera attached to a GorillaPod. "I promise to tag you along, but for now, I'll see you in the next video. Bye!" She held the camera for a moment longer, then placed her palm up to the lens and switched the device off. "Sorry for that," she finally said as she placed it on the table next to her backpack with bat wings.
"For what?" I asked, squinting my eyes. She unzipped her backpack and gently placed it inside.
She blushed, zipped it closed, and scratched her head. "You know, my YouTube stuff. Making you guys be in the video, taking forever to film . . ." Her black lips scrunched up as if in disgust.
"Oh, come on, that's nothing. It's amazing you're doing that. You know, the world needs to see more awesome Goths out there." Nick nodded, drinking beer. It was his fourth one since they arrived. But who's counting?
"Definitely agree. But they need to see that Goths aren't evil. They're people who just happen to like different things." Sam winked at her, smiling. He didn't make it sound better with adding "Goth's aren't evil." What was that supposed to mean? I knew he didn't mean anything by it, but if I were her, it would've sounded insulting to me.
Freyja sat on the reclining chair by Tori, grinning. "Thanks."
"So," I said, looking at everyone. From Freyja, to Tori, Abigale and Piper, Paris and Caden, to Kirsty and Sam, then Nick who sat beside me on the other end of the sofa. "I want to thank everyone for coming—"
"What is this?" Caden laughed. "Mate, ya don't have to give some crappy, unemotional monologue like they do in movies."
It wasn't my intention to do a monologue, but once I thought about what I wanted to say, what I was going to say, it would've come out like that. My cheeks became hot. "Well . . . that wasn't what I was originally gonna do." Rolling my eyes, I continued: "Look, I just want things to go back to the way they were." Wasn't that what we all wanted?
"And that is?" Abigale asked, half smiling.
"Friends, not strangers. Inseparable, mischievous, crazy." I sipped on my tea but couldn't hold in my laughing from my horrible speech. It sounded better when it was in my head, but once my mouth got a hold of the words, it was like my tongue twisted what I wanted to say. Why did I do this to myself? Why couldn't my brain correlate with my mouth?
Liquid caught at the back of my throat until breathing turned into choking.
The group giggled, knowing how often I tend to choke on food or drinks.
Nick patted my back, trying to help me. "You okay?" He tried to hide his soft laugh by biting down his lip.
I nodded. After a moment of clearing my throat, I placed my hand against my neck. "Yeah, I think so." My voice was still raspy.
