Self Love • Christopher Velez •

chapter 36; when the girls talk boys

"Wait, so the two of you gave each other things with your names on it?" she asked me and I bit my lips as I nodded. 

"And uh," I started before my face heated up and I covered my face and smiled. 

"Oh this is going to be good," she remarked and I took a deep breath. 

"When we got up to go home, I hugged him and told him merry christmas," I said and she nodded. 

"When we separated from each other slightly, he said the same thing and uh," I stopped because I had a huge smile on my face and it was burning. I could see how red my face was. I covered my face and took a deep breath.

"Christopher kissed me on th-" I continued but was cut off when she screamed. 

"HE WHAT?" She yelled and put down her eyebrow pencil. I picked up my pillow and put my face into it. 

"He kissed me on the cheek," I mumbled into the pillow

"I can't hear what you said," she said and I repeated the same thing.

"I can't hear you," she sang.

"Christopher kissed me on the cheek!" I exclaimed as I took the pillow away from my face. She smiled at me and started giggling.

"It's just a kiss on the cheek," I told her, my face still extremely red. 

"A kiss is a kiss," she said with a wink and I groaned. 

"How long was it?" she asked. 

"I don't know, around 5 seconds?" I said and she smiled. 

"Did you return the favour?" she asked me and I shook my head. 

"What happened afterwards?" 

"It made me smile and after he gave me the kiss, he smiled at me before turning to go home," I told her.

"And what did you do after he left?"

"Continued standing at the door and smiling," I told her and she laughed.

"Will you kiss him the next time he kisses you?" she asked me.

"I don't know, maybe, maybe not, this has never happened to me before," I said. She was about to say something when my mother opened the door. 

"Do you want to play Jenga?" she asked before noticing Andrea.

"Hello Andrea," she said to her and Andrea waved. 

"Hola, tia! Merry Christmas!" Andrea said to my mother. 

"Merry Christmas querida," she replied with a smile. 

"I'll call you later or something. I'm gonna join the game and you need to get ready for your dinner," I told her and she nodded. 

"Bye hermosa, tia."

"Bye," my mother and I both said. We walked to the living room where everyone was and started the game. 

"Oh my god, Zac, stop kicking my leg!" I exclaimed when it was my turn to remove a block. He sniggered and continued kicking me. I rolled my eyes but removed one of the blocks without the other blocks falling. 

Turning around, I stuck my tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes at me as my father took out one block. We played a few rounds before we had lunch. We talked and ate and when we were done with lunch, we played monopoly instead. 

"I'll help you out with dinner," I told my mother and aunt, who were starting on dinner.

"Do you cook often in Miami?" My aunt asked me. 

"Yeah, Andrea and I make dinner every weeknight," I said.

"What about weekends?" My mother asked instead.

"We would sometimes go out for dinner or order delivery," I told them and we continued with dinner. 

When we were done, we sat down together to have dinner and we went to the living room afterwards to open the presents. We would usually give one person all the gifts before moving on to the next. I gave my mother a necklace, my father a belt, my grandmother a bracelet, my aunt a pair of earrings and a watch for Zac.

When it was my turn, I received a clutch bag from my mother, a pair of sunglasses from my father, a blanket from my grandmother, a pair of boots from my aunt and candles from Zac. 

We continued opening the gifts and once we were all done, we watched a movie or two together. When it was around 11pm, we all went back to our own rooms.

When I got back to my own room, I quickly got ready for bed. Once I was done, I crawled into bed and sent Christopher a text.

From me:
Hey, good night Christopher
Dulces sueños :)

A few minutes later, I got a reply

From Christopher:
hey, good night Nila, dulces sueños :D

I turned off my phone and drifted off to sleep with a small smile on my face. 

I couldn't let the opportunity to make a 5sos reference slide