NEIGHBORS !
╰┈➤ 09. holiday baking
irl
"Right. And whose genius idea was this?"
"Nick's," Matt muttered as he answered Elena's question.
The brothers decided to throw a small little event on their channel– a Sturniolo Christmas, they called it. Currently, they were about to start filming a Wednesday video which was just a blind, deaf, and mute holiday baking. Was it really baking? No, it wasn't. But, the heart was there.
It was now mid-afternoon. All of them agreed that they wanted to do something tonight, so this video was their priority. At the moment, the brothers were building a gingerbread house and Nick had kindly asked Elena if she would be there to watch the camera to make sure it doesn't stop filming or anything of the sort. Of course, Elena said yes and she was on her way.
Now, she was sitting behind the camera, trying to contain some of her laughs as they had their biggest argument on camera to date.
"Elena, please come fix this!" Matt had looked to her as a last resort, feeling bad that she was there just to help film but now she was acting as a designated babysitter.
"I'm busy, Matthew," she says from behind the camera, covering her mouth with her hand to try and conceal her laughter.
He throws his hands in the air as Nick and Chris continue to argue. If there's one thing about Nick, he despises his sense of vision being taken away from him.
After another 30 minutes of arguing, it was time to show the camera the gingerbread house, which meant Elena had to remove the camera from the tripod, bringing it over to the table where they created their– lack of a better term– mess.
"Okay, Elena, can you–" Chris sticks his hand out and fiddles with the camera until he's satisfied, "there. Here's our gingerbread house!" He holds up the gingerbread house again with both hands, turning it to show all angles to the camera as he smiles at the mess he and his brothers made.
Elena pans the camera back up to the boys, Nick was death-glaring at Chris while Matt stood there defeated with his hands on his hips. She brings the camera back to the tripod before adjusting it and bringing the whole unit closer to the three boys. They start filming their outro as Elena takes a step back to look at her phone.
"We couldn't have done it without Elena!"
"Yes we could've–"
"Shut up, Chris!"
He turns his body away from Matt and faces the camera with a bored look on his face, "Elena! Come here woman," Chris calls out. Her attention is ripped from her phone at the sound of Chris's voice and she shakes her head no.
"No way, Chris."
"Why not?
"I'm not camera ready."
"The other times on the channel, you were?"
"Chris!" Nick swatted his arm.
"Just come here!"
Chris sighed, "give me trouble one more time and I'm dragging you here myself."
Elena knew the threat wasn't empty, so she headed over after pulling up her hoodie. She stood between Chris and Matt and waved at the camera, "hi. I'm not sick. Just... not camera ready," and she's shooting daggers with her eyes as Chris looks at her with a sheepish smile on his face.
They continue to do their outro with Elena and she runs to the camera and waves bye before turning it off.
"Did you guys need help cleaning up?" Elena offers, looking at the floor as she asks.
"Maybe. Yes, please. Because some dumb fuck wanted to throw sprinkles when they can't fucking see," Chris says as he looks at Nick who was playing with the camera to make sure everything recorded.
Nick looks over to the stare he could physically see and flips Chris off, "it can't be that fucking hard to vacuum. Just do it."
"It's your mess–"
"Okay! I'll stay. I will stay to help clean," Elena interrupts them by moving forward as she looks around for their plastic bags so she can start throwing stuff away.
"Cleaning up your mess 'cus you wanna have an attitude," Chris is so annoyed right now for some reason, feeling like he should be protecting Elena. From what? He doesn't know. It's literally just his triplet brother.
"What are you so mad about? I never even said I wasn't gonna help clean, you just started assuming 'cus I'm standing here watching back our video for our channel to make sure the video even fuckin' exists," Nick breathes out, fed up with the attitude.
"God, where's Matt?" Elena asks out to any ear who was listening.
"Coming. I'm coming, I hear them from my room, I just needed to plug my phone in," Matt's sock-clad feet pad over to where they were in the kitchen and he runs over to where Elena stood. She took a broom and started sweeping the sprinkles gently to prevent them from moving around more than they already were, and Matt offered to vacuum for her.
Chris stops his glaring at his oldest brother and turns to where he sees movement and sees Matt grabbing their Dyson vacuum and walks over to him.
"I can do that."
"It's okay, I'll help Elena. You can throw out the trash," Matt closes the closet door behind him and walks over to Elena.
"No. I don't wanna go downstairs."
"I took out the trash and recycling last time and Nick did it before me. Just go, you're already wearing your Birks too!"
Before Chris can respond, Matt already plugged in the vacuum and powered it on. He rolled his eyes, grabbing the black Hefty and trudged downstairs.
Once he was back in the house, Elena was leaning against the table as Matt wiped down the table and Nick washing the dishes in the sink from through the day. Chris realizes there's nothing left to do, so he flops down onto their couch and kicks his feet up onto their coffee table.
"Did you guys wanna do something tonight?" He asked from his position on the couch, turning on the TV as flipped through the apps, looking for a movie to watch.
"Actually! Mila and Roman are free tonight. Is there anything you guys have been wanting to do?" Elena stands up straight next to Matt.
"Lowkey, I wanted to go to Irvine Spectrum. It's far, yeah, but I know the Christmas decorations are cute and we're going back home sometime next week. So we could have one big friend thing before we head back," Nick explained.
"Aww! You're all leaving me? What am I gonna do in LA by myself?!" Elena sassed out.
She was exaggerating, she was used to spending most major holidays alone. Her parents were both busy people. They were doctors and in addition to that, they were sending their daughter to college in Los Angeles, as well as were paying for a majority of her bills.
They were happy to do this for their daughter, knowing she had deserved to go through college without having to worry about money. Despite what Elena initially thought, when she had to tell her parents she would not be pursuing a medical science career, they still supported her the same as they would've if she did choose to do a premed.
But now, she was attached to her best friends and knowing that all of them were going somewhere else for Christmas, it made her a little sad. She knew Camila was still opening her home to her, but Roman was also going to visit Camila's family and Elena felt like it was more of an... introductory type of visit. And who was she to intrude on their trip?
She had already planned on what she would do to spend Christmas alone, but realizing the reality of everyone around her being hundreds of miles away dampened her mood a bit.
"You're not going home again, Lena?" Nick asked, face slightly twisted in concern.
"No, I usually just visit on random weekends when they're not super busy. My mom is on call for sure, though. She says she's convinced that mothers plan to have their babies on Christmas Day. And my dad is definitely on call as well. People tend to get injured more around the holidays," she explained.
"Well, would you wanna come with us?" Matt proposed.
Elena laughed, thinking that Matt was joking. When she looked at him and realized his eyebrow was arched in confusion, she put two-and-two together– he was serious!
She immediately started shaking her head, "no way! I would never wanna intrude on your guys' family time. You guys have been so busy with the videos and the podcast, you don't go home as often as you guys would like and I know family time is so important to you. So don't worry about me!" She rushed out. The last thing she wanted was her friends to pity-invite her.
"No! Seriously! Think about how fun it would be!" Nick now had lively glow, excited by this idea, "you could meet Nate! And Mary Lou– oh, and Jimmy!"
Her bottom lip jutted out, her best friend was so cute.
"Nick, I'd love to. But really, I couldn't do that to you guys. Really. I'm all okay here by myself, I promise."
"No, c'mon Elena, you've never been to the east coast, right?" Chris was now chiming in, trying to convince her to come as well.
"Well, no. But are you guys sure about this?"
"Yes!" The three of them said.
"I'll think about it. I have to talk to my parents, through. Even though I won't see them, they still like, wanna know what I'm up to."
"Of course! I'll let Mary Lou know tonight that you might be coming, just in case she needs to prepare or something. Even if you won't come, it's better to be safe than sorry," Nick pulled out his phone, unlocking it and pressing on his messages app to text his mom.
"Oh, that's no problem! Um, I'll probably have an answer by tomorrow or tomorrow night! But for now, Irvine Spectrum?" She smiles at them. She really loved her friends.
"Yes, correct," Matt starts, "um, Elena? A word?"
"No. Say it here."
"...can you drive?"
"I knew it."
Matt's smile is sheepish, feeling bad and scared that Elena might feel like he's taking advantage of the fact that she can drive.
"Yes, I'll drive. We're reducing our carbon footprint."
He pulls Elena to his side and hugs her, and she's pushing her arms away. Chris rolled his eyes and Elena wouldn't say anything, but she caught him and smiled to herself.
"'Kay, I'll go call Mila and Roman. I'm gonna walk home and get stuff to sleepover, you know the drill. Nick, can I get ready in your room?"
"Of course. Help me pick my outfit first then you can leave!"
"Mmkay, saves time for when I choose my fit, too, 'cus I just have to make sure it matches yours in a way!"
Nick and Elena head upstairs as both Matt and Chris go to their rooms and then to their respective bathrooms to start getting ready.
Elena helped him pick an outfit: a white graphic tee, a tan jacket, and some lighter washed blue jeans. She looked at the fit laid out and one came to mind for herself, and when it clicked she headed home to grab her clothes and paraphernalia to get ready.
As she packed her clothes, she rang her other best friends and invited them for the night.
"Mila!" She answered on the first ring and of course, Elena was excited about this. "Lena!"
"I miss you so much, where's Roman's bitchass?"
The camera up pans to the man whose chest she was laying on, he looks down from his phone and into the camera and he waves and smiles, "you!" Elena's yell practically smacked the smile off his face.
"You're the reason why I never see this woman anymore!"
"No. Chris is the reason."
"Burn," Mila whispered.
"We're not doing this, Rome. Mila, turn the camera back on you, the sight of him makes my stomach twist," she scoffs and Roman flips off the camera and they smile at each other.
"Hi," she waves.
"Hi. We're gonna leave at like... 5:30? Maybe 6? I need to get ready still, but just like hair and makeup and stuff. Let's shoot for 6, yeah?"
Camila nods, "mhm. Are we eating there first? Roman was kinda craving pasta, he said."
"Sounds good, I'll convince them. Okay. I'll see you guys in a bit! Mila, when are you guys going back to visit your folks again?"
"Um, next week? Like..." she pauses to look at her calendar app, "okay. 3 days! Why, did you change your mind? Oh, my G– are you coming?!" She was so excited, it made Elena sad to say no.
"No. I'm sorry, Milly. I might join the triplets this year!"
"Told you," Roman says under his breath.
"Elena!"
"I'm sorry! I know his ass is coming so he can meet your family, I don't wanna get in the way of your guys' time together!"
"I hate that you're so nice. Fine. All is forgiven. We'll discuss New Years later?"
"You got it," Elena sighs. Scrambling for an outfit while packing toiletries and clothes and hair tools was taxing, she was completely out of breath, "Mila. I gotta go. I'm so out of breath moving around my room, bro. I'll see you guys in a bit, yeah?"
"Yes! Text me when you leave, yeah?"
"Of course. See you guys, drive safe!"
"You, too, love you!"
"Love you more."
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘˗ˏˋ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ ˎˊ˗∘∙⊱⋅•⋅.
EDITED :D
📂 l1velaughluke says:
IM SORRY I WAS GONE AGAIN LOL i have a new chris story planned but i needed to drop a charger (or two. wink wink) before i published the introduction! so here we are 💜 get excited for the next chapter. i have something super cute in mind !!!!
kk LOVE U THANK U FOR BEING HERE even tho i'm terrible with updating 😏😏😏😏 please bully me into updating more if u feel like it. i accept it.
xoxo LOVE U