Armin's POV
Chapter 11
"Deck the halls with boughs of finals" is how the Christmas carol should have been written. Ever since the month of December started, my brains have been working on high gear trying to study for my upcoming finals before Christmas break. I'm pulling A's in all of my classes, but my finals could either make or break my grades. I haven't been able to have a normal sleep schedule in who knows how long. Truthfully, I have only been consuming coffee and sugar, in hopes of staying awake for all of my classes, then finishing homework the second I get back to my dorm. I know that I probably will crash and burn the second I hand in my last final, but until that moment arrives, dry eyes and coffee stains on t-shirts have been consuming me.
Although, I still do find time in my busy life to try and hang out with my friends. All of us have been hanging out more at the pizza place with the karaoke system. The owners know our group so well, that whenever we go there, they give us a pizza for free since we are constantly ordering food. It's kind of relieving to get out of my stuffy dorm room and laugh with my friends.
But otherwise, nothing exciting has happened since Eren and I went out and took pictures together. I'm just sitting in my dorm room, studying for my Intro Psych class, when my ringtone on my phone starts to play the song "Carry On Wayward Son." It's Eren's ringtone, since sometimes all he talks about is the TV show Supernatural. It's kinda crazy how much the boy can rant about that show for hours on end.
I pick up the phone, and I'm greeted with silence on the other end. "Hello? Eren?" I say into the phone. "Oh there you are Armin! Sorry, my phone is being a piece of shit right now. But anyways, do you mind if you meet me in the library, I'm having some trouble understanding some science theories, and it would be great if you helped me." Eren said sweetly. He did this sometimes, he would call me in the middle of the night, and ask very sweetly for some help on homework. Truthfully, he didn't really have to put on the sweet talk because I would have helped him regardless, but it was amusing hearing him talk like that. "Yeah, I will be down in a few minutes." I replied into the phone. "Great! See you soon!" Eren said, then the phone went dead.
I walked over to my closet and grabbed my winter coat, scarf, beanie, and winter boots . It had finally started to snow, so my skateboard was begrudgingly hanging on my little post on the wall. I walked out the door with my backpack in hand, and started the cold walk to the library. When I got into the building, Eren was the only one sitting at one of the tables. He waved over at me to get my attention, I waved back. I took a seat right next to the brunette. "Thank you so much for coming here so suddenly Armin. You're the best." Eren said. A pink flush was splayed all over my cheeks, "Oh, it's nothing, if it helps you in your classes, then it's worth it." I replied quietly. As much as I hate having to walk in the cold for these little study sessions, they do give me an excuse to be with Eren. Most of the time, I teach him the certain theories or problems, and then he tries to solve them, and while he does that, I am able to steal glances from him. It's cute whenever he starts to concentrate. His eyebrows get all scrunched up and he bites his bottom lip whenever he gets confused. Truthfully though, it's just nice to be able to spend more time with him. His warmth wraps up around me in this cold library.
After he is done with all of the problems, I check them over to make sure he fully understands them. Then we just sit in silence for a few minutes, taking in the endless rows of bookshelves. "So, you excited for Christmas?" Eren finally asks. I stare up into his emerald eyes, which have a blueish tint to them in the lighting right now. "Uh, yeah I guess. I don't know, I've never really had a Christmas where I've been able to hang out with friends before so, it will be different." I replied quietly. I could feel Eren's eyes staring at me, so I looked back at him. "Are you okay, Eren?" I asked the boy. He stayed silent for a few more seconds until he said "I wish I could have been there for you. You were all alone, and I couldn't protect you. I'm so sorry." Eren put his face on the mahogany table. I leaned down to look at him in the eyes. "Eren, hey, none of that is your fault. You couldn't have done anything to stop all of the horrible things that happened in high school. Yeah sure, I was alone in school, and yes, I was very depressed, but you're here now. That's all that matters, you are here now. We're together, we are here for each other. Listen, you are the best friend that I wished for every night in high school. I couldn't ask for anything more than for you just to be here with me. I learned from all of those horrible experiences in school, and now I am a better person. Just listen to me Eren." I looked directly into his shimmering eyes. "I'm not alone anymore, and it's thanks to you." I said. Eren's eyes grew larger, and his cheeks flushed pink. "You really mean that?" Eren asked. I chuckled at his comment. "Yes Eren, I really do mean it." I nodded.
Eren then pulled me into a tight embrace. I hugged the boy back with all my might. Once we pulled away Eren said "Well then blondie, I am going to make this the best Christmas ever." I giggled at his new formed confidence. "Alright Mr. Emerald Eyes, it better be." I winked at him.
The walk back home was a peaceful one. Snowflakes were falling steadily, and Eren was going to spend the night in my dorm tonight, since we didn't have class until noon. I started to walk a little faster than Eren, and when I looked back to check to see if he was okay, I was met with cold snow in my face. I could hear Eren double over in laughter. "Oh my god Armin, y-you should have seen your face." He laughed. I wiped the snow off of my face, and sneakily started to grab a handful of snow in my hand, while Eren was still laughing his head off. I bunched the snow up into a perfect snowball, and then took aim for Eren. I launched the snow right at him, but unfortunately, the snowball landed right at Eren's feet. It quickly caught his attention. "Oh, is that how you want to play Arlert?" Eren said threateningly. "Shit, run." My mind was telling my body. The second that Eren came at me with a new snowball, I bolted for my life. I ran for the nearest tree to hide behind, since there was nowhere else I could hide. I tried to control my breathing. If Eren caught me behind this tree, I was going to get a face full of snow.
I took a chance, and peeked around one side of the tree. There was no sight of Eren in the distance. Then I decided to look on the other side of the tree, but I was greeted with a fist full of snow. I fell, and I felt myself get pinned onto the ground. "Eren...urg, ge-get off of mee. I struggled to say with a mouthful of snow. I then felt Eren's hand start to put more snow all over my face. "Looks like I win this battle, Armin." Eren said with a smirk on his face. I struggled to get out of his tight grasp. "Oh come on Eren, I'm gonna get frostbite on my lips if you keep dumping snow all over me." I said. Eren's cheeks then flushed even more red they already were due to the coldness of the air. He then raised his eyebrows, and started to lean in closer to me, and whispered in my ear, "I could fix that for you if you wanted." He said seductively. My face grew so red and hot that I'm pretty sure that some of the snow on my face started to melt. "He has to be joking, right? He really wouldn't want to kiss me. It's just a joke." My mind was racing with all of these possible thoughts. Although, all I wanted to do was kiss Eren in this moment. I didn't know how much I could control the urge to kiss him, so to make things fall in place I replied with a smug "Do your worst Jaeger." Eren looked a little taken back "Are you sure Armin? I don't want to steal your first kiss just because of something stupid like a little snowball fight." He said worriedly. I thought about that night in Eren's truck. How he talked to me about how a first kiss should be with somebody you truly love.
"I love him. I am in love with Eren Jaeger. I am in love with Eren in every way possible. And I really want to kiss him." Those three words were still swimming around my head. I finally put everything together. I really am in love. I never thought that I could get so close with a person, that I could possibly fall in love with them, but lo behold, here I am, looking at the one person I love the most in the world right now. I love everything about the emerald eyed boy. He is my everything, and I love him with all my might. I look at Eren, and realize that I still haven't replied to his question. "Well, you're my best friend Eren, and I love you like a best friend should right? And you said that my first kiss should be with somebody I love. So it would be privilege to have you steal my first kiss from me." I said sweetly. Eren just blinked and nodded his head.
Before I knew it, Eren was leaning his head towards mine. His emerald eyes fluttered shut, and I took the cue that I should do the same with mine. I started to lean in towards the brunette, and I could feel that we were getting closer because I could feel warmer with each passing second. Excitement and anxiousness were bubbling in the pit of my stomach. It was finally going to happen. I was finally going to have my first kiss with somebody I truly and utterly love with all my heart. I felt his breath on my lips, and my hands started to shake in the snow at the long waiting. Our lips were just about to finally touch, when we heard somebody yell "Hey! You over there!"
We both opened our eyes, and realized that it was campus security, and we were way out past curfew for sophomores. We jumped to our feet and raced back to my dorm room. We could hear the shouts from the security guard, and with each shout, we ran faster and faster. I looked back at the guard to see that he had slipped and fell on a piece of ice. That was our ticket to get away without punishment.
Once back in the dorm room, we were bending over, hands on our knees, trying to catch hold of our breath. We both looked at each other, and started to laugh. We had so much adrenaline in our bodies that we just laughed it all out. We were rolling on the floor, grasping hold of our stomachs, trying to get air back into our lungs. Finally, after we had calmed down, Eren looked at me and said "Well that was fun, wasn't it." I just shook my head. "I can't believe that we almost got caught for something as stupid as that." I said. Eren just nodded his head. "I know right, we didn't even get to kiss." He said with a laugh. "Ha Ha. Yeahh." I said while looking at the carpet. Eren looked at me with somber eyes, "Hey, you okay?" He asked me. I tried to play off that I was perfectly fine, and said "Yeah, I'm okay. Just still a little worn out from all that running I guess." I lied. Eren looked at me with susceptible eyes, "Alright, if you say so."
I told Eren that I was going to go and take a shower, then we could start watching movies. While in the shower; with all of the scorching water running down my back, I started to think about what just happened in the past few minutes. I was so close to kissing him, so damn close, and then that stupid security guard just had to come over and ruin the mood. I sighed all of my frustrations out and tried to shake off my sad mood. Who knows, I might get another chance at kissing Eren. I just had to be thankful that he was here with me now, even after almost kissing him. After I was out of the shower, we popped some popcorn and started watching movies. Although, we didn't even make it through one of the multiple movies until the both of us fell asleep.
My sleep was a restless one. I was sucked into my nightmare once again. I saw myself standing in a white room. There was nobody else around. It was just me and the walls. I started to walk around the room, when I heard somebody talking. The words were getting louder and louder, until I had to cover my ears. "The time is coming." Is what the voice was saying. I had absolutely no idea what that phrase even meant. I tried to run out of the room, but I stopped running when I heard Eren's voice this time. His voice was muffled so I couldn't understand a single thing he was saying. I tried calling out for him, to try and get his attention, but nothing worked. Finally, all of the voices stopped. In place of them however, was a stinging sensation on my left wrist again. I knew what I would see when I looked down, and I was greeted with the same three cuts, and a pool of my own blood underneath me. I looked up to try and call out for help, but instead, I saw a shadow on the white wall. Then, my eyes focused on the horrifying image above the shadow. It was the same phrase, "The time is coming." but it was written in blood, my blood. The shadow started to speak, he kept saying those four words over and over. I started to scream to make it stop, but all that happened was the shadow got louder and louder each time.
I woke up screaming. My heart was beating at an unhealthy rate, and I was covered in my cold sweat. "Armin! Hey shh. It's okay. I'm right here." Eren was holding me in a tight grip. My eyes were darting all over the place, trying to take in all of my surroundings. "Eren, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I started to cry. Eren quickly hugged me tighter. "Hey, it's okay Armin. It was just a dream. You're okay now, I'm right here. It will be okay, shh, I am right here." My breathing started to regulate back to normal, and the tears were slowly starting to dry. I just wanted all of these nightmares to stop. It didn't make sense that all of them were intertwined together. I couldn't figure out any sort of 'deeper meaning' to them except that they were scaring the shit out of me. I stayed in Eren's arms for what seemed like hours. "Eren, you should really try and go back to sleep." I told the brunette. "Not until you do." He replied. Eren could be really stubborn sometimes. I tried to close my eyes, and I finally started to drift off into a more peaceful sleep.
I woke up to sunlight in my eyes and birds chirping outside my window. "Good morning sleeping beauty." I turned my head and saw that Eren was laying on his side so that he could face me. He had really bad bed head, but in some way it was endearing to see. "Hey, what time is it?" I said groggily. Eren checked his phone and said "It's about noon." I bolted out of my warm blanket. "What do you mean it's noon? We have to go to class Eren!" I said frantically. Eren started to laugh at me freaking out. "This is not a laughing matter Eren!" I yelled at him. "Armin, calm down. If you would stop yelling, I would tell you that all classes got canceled today because a huge snowstorm hit last night." Eren said. I stopped taking my shirt off, and said "Oh, well you could have just said that!" I told him. Eren just chuckled, "Yeah, but it was funny seeing you all frazzled."
Eren hopped out of his blanket and looked around my dorm room. "Eren, please don't say it's dirty. I just cleaned it yesterday." I said when I noticed him eyeing my room. "No, it's not that." "Well then what is it?" I asked him. "You need a Christmas tree in here." He said nonchalantly. "Are you crazy Eren? I can't fit a Christmas tree in this tiny dorm room!" I said. "I know that! I meant we should get you a small fake tree. We can put decorations all over it, and listen to Christmas music while we put it up." His eyes started to shimmer, and I knew that he wasn't going to let this idea go. "You really like Christmas, don't you?" I questioned the brunette. Eren chuckled a little and said "Let's just say, I love Christmas, like you love Halloween."
It was then decided that we would go out and buy a Christmas tree and decorations. We took our time while getting ready. Instead of taking Eren's truck into the city, we decided it would be safer to take the train. After we got all bundled up, we were heading out the door to go on our next adventure.
We both bought our tickets for the train, and once it was at our stop, we went up and sat in the second level to enjoy the ride. There were barely any people on board so we could talk as loud as we wanted, without getting strange looks of annoyance. "Can you believe that this is where you and I met?" Eren said to me. I looked into his green eyes, then at the opposite side of the second floor. He was right, this was the place that our adventure began. I looked back at Eren and said, "I'm glad that I got on this train that night." Eren nodded his head in agreement and simply said, "Same here Armin, same here."
We got into the city, and went into the local Hallmark store. They had some small fake Christmas trees in the back of the store. We picked the one that came with extra Christmas lights, then made our way to Walmart to get some cheesy decorations for it. We had a lot of fun in Walmart. After we picked out all of the decorations for the tree, we went to the $.98 candy bin, and started to organize it. It took us a few good hours, but it was so worth it. Just the satisfaction of seeing all of the candy in its appropriate place was good enough for Eren and me. We went and got some dinner before we had to catch the train ride back to the campus.
The day was a true success. I got a new Christmas tree for my dorm room and now all we had to do was put it together. We laid out all of the different pieces, once we got back to the dorm. I put on some classic Christmas carols, so that this could be the "Ultimate Christmas Experience" as Eren put it. It was a little bit of a struggle trying to figure out which pieces went to which stand. Luckily, we put it all together after only three hours. I then went out and got the Christmas hats that we bought at Hallmark earlier that day. I threw one to Eren, and we put them on. We both took a few pictures with each other and later that night, I posted one to Instagram with the caption "The Ultimate Christmas Experience with him :)"
I took out all of the decorations, and started to hang them all over the tree. When I was putting on a music note decoration, I could feel Eren's eyes on me. I turned to look at him, and his green eyes looked gold from all of the Christmas lights. He was just smiling at me, like he was in some sort of trance. "Eren? What are you staring at?" I asked him. He blinked his eyes a few times, and his cheeks got all red of embarrassment. "Sorry, I...I um, I was staring at the Christmas tree. It looks really good." He said with a smile. I just chuckled at the brunette. It took one more hour to put all of the decorations on the tree, and when we were done, we stood back to admire our work.
The tree was glittering and gleaming with the Christmas lights. All of the glass decorations seemed to glow whenever the light hit them at just the right point. The tree looked absolutely magnificent. It was all I could have wished for a Christmas tree. I looked at Eren from the corner of my eye. He was smiling and beaming at all of our hard work. He then made eye contact with me, and the both us looked away with flushed cheeks.
We set up a few blankets, and made some hot chocolate. We were laying down and Eren asked "Armin, what do you want for Christmas?" I looked at him incredulously. "You want to get me something for Christmas?" The brunette looked confused for a few seconds, "Of course I am Armin, why wouldn't I get you something?" Eren said. I tried to think of what I wanted for the holiday. I couldn't really think of anything rather than to just spend more time with Eren. "I'm not actually sure. I guess all I really want is to have more adventures with you." I said shyly. Eren just gave me a smile and said, "Same here."
I rested my head on Eren's shoulder and just took in all of the beauty of our Christmas tree. I could hear the song "Baby It's Cold Outside" with Zooey Deschanel playing in the background. I started think that maybe, this Christmas, would be different. I would be able to just throw away all of my worries and loneliness, and replace it for fun and Christmas spirit. I take another look into Eren's emerald eyes, and I think to myself that he is right. This Christmas is going to be one of the best Christmases that I will have. It will be the "Ultimate Christmas."
A/N-I bet you all hate me for that almost kiss thing ;) but do not fret, there is still more cuteness to come!! I hope you all enjoyed that chapter and I am happy to say that my writers block is all gone!! So there will be more chapters to come! Please keep reading and commenting, and as always, Happy Reading!-Zenovia