Two days until Christmas
"Jess!" I squealed the second my best friend's face came onto the screen, flopping down on my bed at the same time.
Today my brothers and I were just having a chill moment before we went out to dinner (or so I think that's what we're doing) so I decided to check up on my friends. I haven't called them for pretty much our entire Aspen trip because we've been so busy and I've just enjoyed hanging out with my family. But we have texted a ton so they have lots of updates on what I've been doing and I know exactly where and what they've been doing.
"Jodee! Oh my God, Miss Girl! Why haven't we talked? You never call me!" She dramatically exclaimed, the camera on her end also moving around as it seemed like she was getting situated so I could actually see her on the call as I have yet to see her face.
"Sorry! I know, I've just been so busy. How's the Bahama's?"
Jess's family is kinda a travel family — they love to travel and do it all the time. They travel every winter and spring break as well as a couple random long weekends they'll go somewhere and then pretty much all summer Jess and her family are gone. But her mom and dad hate cold places so they always go somewhere warm; Hawaii is their go to most of the time but Mrs. Crawford thinks it's fun to try new places so besides Hawaii they rarely re due locations.
I've always been a little envious of the Crawfords because Cal, Ace, and I never travel — I haven't even been out of the country. But Jess also says she's envious that I've actually lived somewhere else as she was born and raised in the same house, never once has she lived elsewhere. So I guess everyone wants something the other has.
This year our Aspen trip has been amazing, however, so I'm hoping my big brother and his best friend decide that we can do more trips in the future! Especially because I'll be at college soon so I'll just want to come home and not go away for vacation so I need to get trips in while I'm still living at home.
I do plan on staying close to college — probably driving distance — as I do not want to leave either of my brothers behind and I like California in general with the weather and everything. But I still am scared to live alone and move away for college.
Can't wait to have that conversation with Ace ... and Caleb.
"It's so awesome here! It's like the perfect temp — not too hot and not too cold! Anne has also been good on this trip so that's a plus." Jess told me, finally settling down on what looks to be a type of lawn chair.
Anne is Jess's big sister who is in her second year of college, if I have my information correct. She went to the East Coast for college (I don't know what specific school) so she rarely comes home besides break. That also means that her home is the East Coast now so Jess says she's pretty grouchy and not fun to hang around when she does come home. Jess and Anne have never been super close, but they've always shared a special bond that has more or less deteriorated with age as they both start to get on each other's nerves now as they are so similar.
I think Anne is cool — she's like the classic older sister who teaches you about boys and makeup and all of those things. She was pretty popular in highschool so Jess gets a lot of tips from her.
When I was younger (and kinda still now) I always wanted an older sister. I wanted someone I could talk to about boys and makeup and periods (when I finally get mine — hurry along mother nature!) But I was stuck with a big brother — and later two big brothers.
Of course, Ace, Caleb, and I are super close. Probably closer than the average siblings out there but it's also a different bond as Ace is eleven years older than me and my guardian so he's never been a "normal" big brother, more of a father figure. And Cal isn't even technically my brother so there's that. I love my brothers and really appreciate them ... but sometimes it's hard with me being so sensitive and them being quite rough on the edges men. I know I can talk to them about everything – they've both made that very clear — but sometimes I'm hesitant to. That's why I would love an older sister ... or mother in those kinda situations.
"That's great!"
"How's Aspen? I know you've been liking it; but what's your favorite activity?"
"I think I liked sledding the best." I told her with a grin, remembering the fun time I had that day. "Snowboarding was just hard, and I was pretty bad at ice skating so I would definitely go sledding — you don't need to be athletic to sled!"
My coordination and athletic skills are sketchy at best, so usually I go for the skills and fun activities that require none of those!
"Ah! I love sledding. But I have to say I'm partial to skiing. Why didn't you ski instead of snowboarding?"
Even though Jess's daily likes the warmth, they do go up to Tahoe, which is only about a four hour drive from where we live, a decent amount so she's pretty good at snow sports.
I shrugged. "Both Ace and Caleb snowboard so it just made sense."
"Speaking of which... is Caleb around?" She asked, pulling the phone extremely close to her face as if she was searching for him.
"Jessica!" I scolded, an incredulous look on my face.
"Only joking, Jo. Only joking ... kinda," Jess responded, laughing. "Oh look! Aubrey is active on insta, let's add her to the call."
I nodded my head in agreement. "Okay!"
Jess's tan fingers made their way around the screen as I figured she was pressing the buttons to add our friend on to the call.
In no time, Aubrey's face lit up the screen. "Hi guys!!!" She said excitedly, waving.
"Hey Aubrey!"
"Aub!!"
"Where are you?" I inquired.
"At the ski lodge, my little brother rolled his ankle or something and is making a big fucking deal about it so my parents are helping him and I'm just having some hot chocolate." Aubrey said, turning her camera to show up around the very crowded ski lodge.
"Fun! Are you skiing?" Jess asked.
"Yep!' Aubrey turned the camera to point towards a set of skis on the ground.
"See, I told Jodee she should have skied — everyone ski's!" Jess accused me.
"It wasn't my choice!" I held up my hands, choosing not to say that even if I did have options I would have still chosen to snowboard over skiing.
"Wait, did you go snowboarding?" Aubrey inferred, backing up the conversation.
"Yeah! Just a few days ago my brothers and I went snowboarding for like half of the day and I was kinda bad at it, not gonna lie..." I trailed off for the dramatics.
"Your brother and Caleb?"
"Yeah... isn't that what I said?" I scrunched up my eyebrows, trying to decide if I left out Caleb or something.
"No." She said almost immediately. "But anyways, skiing is a lot easier your first time so I would definitely recommend it over snowboarding since it was your first time."
I nodded my head, but decided not to respond verbally. Aubrey had been on the ski team since she was really young so she loved it and thought everyone should join.
Ezra — what's this abt a private call???
Just then Ezra's text notification popped up on the top of my screen as he texted the group chat with me, Aubrey, Jess, and Justin. I giggled, going over to his text as I saw he was typing some more.
I also heard the other girls giggling, Jess speaking first:
"Oops, guess I locked the call when I put Aubrey onto it." She laughed.
Jess and I's call started on the group chat so that all of our friends could join and we could all catch up meaning that Justin, Aubrey, and Ezra could see that there was an active call. But I guess Jess just locked Ezra out by accident and he's trying to get on.
"Just leave it." Aubrey laughed. "Let's see what Ez does." Jess giggled too and agreed.
Ezra — hellllooooooooo
He texted the group chat.
Ezra — pls let me on. C'mon Jodee!
He moved to just privately chatting with me. When he sent a really funny gif of someone begging and crying I decided to take pity on him, pressing the button to call him so it would ring his phone and he could get onto the call.
"Yes!" Ezra said when the sound was made that he had entered FaceTime.
"How did you—" Jess started to ask before her and Aubrey (as much as you could) made eye contact on FaceTime as the realization came to them.
"Jodee!" They both barked at the same time, staring me down.
I blushed and looked down, unable to hide the smile on my face. "What? I don't know how he got on!" I lied in an attempt to protect myself from my two best friends.
"Bullshit!" Aubrey declared.
"Don't be jealous, ladies. It just seems as though Jodee wanted to talk to me and not you two." Ezra finally spoke up for the first time since I added him to the call.
"Ezra!" I hissed, my mind thinking that if I said it in the direction of him and quietly my two other friends wouldn't hear it, like in real life.
"It's true, Jo." Ez shrugged, sending me a dimpled grin.
I rolled my eyes in response.
"Ugh!" Aubrey complained. "Things were so much better without stupid boys on the call!" Her comments aimed at the newest joiner of our call.
"You're right, I do need more back up." Ezra began, his fingers typing around on the screen. "Justin! C'mon, pick up, man, pick up."
"No no no no! Jess, quickly, blocked him out of the call." Aub started to stress, her WiFi beginning to cut out as she was talking so fast and moving the camera around at the same time, overloading the phone with all of her requests so it began to glitch out.
"I can't!" Jess responded, laughing.
Aubrey began to say something back before another sound was made — Justin finally reached the call.
"Hey guys!" Jus waved animatedly into the screen, unaware of the bickering we were previously having.
"Hey Jus!" I responded.
"What's up, my man?" Ezra said at the same time.
"Everyone looks happy on this call..." Justin responded sarcastically, bringing the phone closer to his face — Guess those glasses aren't working for him. "What's going on?"
"Nothing." Jess and Aubrey grumbled at the same time.
"Where even are you?" Ezra asked when a beautiful sunset came into view of his camera.
"Oh! Wyoming, my grandfather's ranch. Isn't it amazing!?" Justin turned his camera so we could see around the beautiful landscape.
With the way Justin talked about 'The Ranch' you would think he'd want to spend the rest of his life there ... and he does. I think I heard Justin say that he wants to move up to the ranch and start a family there some time. He just loves it so much. It's practically his second home with how often his family goes up and for how long they go for.
I think it would be super cool to have a second home that I love as much as Justin loves this home. Or even a second home, like Aubrey's cabin in Tahoe. It seems like anyone with a second home just loves it. Sometimes I wish we kept our Massachusetts house — or really got a new one since our house was not in good condition — but that was just so I could say we have a second home.
"Where is everyone else? Jodee, I know you're in Aspen." Ezra asked both Jess and Aubrey.
"I'm at Tahoe — per usual. Just chilling over at the ski lodge while my little brother goes to get his ankle checked out." Aubrey responded, taking a sip from a cup which I assume was hot chocolate in it.
I want some hot chocolate! I consider yelling down to Cal as I know that he and my brother are hanging out downstairs together, but then I remember that we're going out to dinner soon so I should probably not spoil my appetite.
"What happened to his ankle?" Ezra inquires.
"I don't even know, nothing, he's just being dramatic."
"Oh. Got it." Ezra laughed a little bit, screwing up his face. "Jessica, how about you?"
"The Bahamas!"
"New place?" He laughed, Ezra is always making fun of Jess and her family for going to a new place every single year as he doesn't go anywhere any year, so at this point it's just a running joke.
"Of course, Ezzy, where else?" Jess responded with a teasing look on his face.
"Don't call me that, Jessica." Ezra immediately retorted. It's what his little sister calls him and he absolutely hates it — even when she does it.
"Jodee!" Caleb's loud voice brought me away from the conversation me and my friends were having, brushing my door open.
I flinched, my phone kinda flying up in the air before I managed to grab it again.
"Hey! Knock next time." I said, bitterly.
"Nope." Caleb responded without hesitation, swinging his arms in front of and behind his body. "Anyways, get up, we're heading to dinner now— who're you talking to?"
"Just my—" I started to respond before Caleb walked over and stuck his face in the camera, so he could see who I was talking to just fine.
"Oh! Hey, Ezra." Cal's face lit up when he saw Ez. "Hey guys!" He greeted the rest of my friends, flashing a dimpled grin.
"Hey Cal!" Ezra responded.
"Hi, Caleb!" Both Aubrey and Jess responded at the same time.
"Hey." Justin finished off the hellos.
I pushed Caleb with my hand on his shoulder before taking my foot and pushing it into his rock hard stomach to get him even further away.
Cal looked down, laughing at my attempts to get him out of the camera frame before getting up himself and walking away. "We leave in five minutes — wrap it up!" He yelled as he started to walk down the hall.
"Aww, is Caleb gone?" Aubrey pouted and Jess made some words of agreement, that they both wanted Caleb to come back.
I swear these girls...
"Yes! He's gone." I responded. "I gotta go guys, we're going to have some dinner, talk to you soon!"
Each of my friends responded with their own little goodbye before I ended my side of the call and got out of bed so I could go change my clothes before we left.