Kissing Santa Claus

W i n t e r & W y a t t

        

        Ever since I was little, I’d always believed in Santa Clause. Yes, the Santa Clause who delivers gifts to children who had been good. My parents would even accompany me to his so-called workshop at the mall. He had this little elves and reindeers all around the cozy house-like feature. And whenever my eyes would catch Santa, he’d drop me on his lap and I’d pull on his beard. He was fat. That was my perception of him, until I heard the rumors that Santa was just a figment of imagination, that the real Santa is actually our parents.

So when we had this sleep over with my friends back when I was ten, we decided to hunt Santa Clause, actually stay up late and look for him. We were set by then, but before we can look for him, they had already fallen asleep. I was left alone, eating my cookies. I was wearing my Winnie the Pooh pj’s with my red hair tied in pigtails. Seeing as they were in deep slumber, I decided to do the whole Santa-Hunting on my own. With that on my mind, I went to my friend’s house balcony and sat down.

I stared at the city lights and let myself feel the cold wind. It was already 11’oclock. Santa Clause should have been there already. But no. . . minutes passed by as I waited for him and still. . . there was no sign of him. I was about to retreat back when I heard a loud thump! outside. Curiosity made me stand up and look out.

And there it was.

Santa’s sled, but there’s no Santa Clause, it was just full of gifts.

And then I saw a boy staring back at me. He had the deepest black eyes, and his hair curled at its side. His cheeks flushed when he saw me gazing back at him. He looked cute and adorable. He was wearing pj’s like me, except his pj’s was red.      

“Did you see Santa?” I asked him.

The boy nodded his head and then he let his head rest on his crossed arms as he continued on staring at me.

“Is he real?”

“Always,” he answered me.

I approached him, careful not to let myself fall off the balcony. The sled was floating mid-air, and he was just there. . . gazing at me for no reason.

“Who are you?” I stretched my arms, trying to touch him, but he just kept on staring.

He smiled at me. “You’re not supposed to know about me.” After he said that, he threw a small box to me, and I opened it.

It was a necklace with an attached pendant letter ‘W’ for my name. Winter. How did he know my name?

“Thank yo—“ I looked around and he was gone, and so was Santa’s sled. Ever since then, I’d always wait for him every night of Christmas Eve, but I had never seen him again.

        “You should totally come with us! I mean, we have this house and we can go skiing with the others. It would totally be awesome, Winter!” Adeline screamed, making me move my phone away from my ear.

I laughed at her. “Okay, fine. But I’ll have to ask my mom first.”

“You’re eighteen! Legal! Come on, the group wouldn’t be complete without you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I heard you, alright? Look, mom’s calling for dinner. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” I quickly ended the call and wore my fluffy bunny rabbit slippers as I headed down.

By the time I got there, they were already eating. I took my seat and huffed out a breath. “Can I just have pasta?”

To be honest, our table was big. Mom’s always wanted good foods for our health, so in turn there were a lot to choose from, but I wasn’t in the mood to eat right now. Plus, I’ve four brothers who eat like a pig. Being the only girl wasn’t really nice. I mean, just by looking at them made me want to eat less. Next to me were Dylan and Cole, the eldest and twins of this family, both of them were wearing matching black shirt and in front of me was Jace whose bangs were tied upward like a dog, and Vincent who was busy texting someone. Dylan and Cole were only here to visit since they had been busy over their work for years, and Jace was already in his last year of college in doctorate, specializing in medicine while Vincent was in his second year of college.