21. Christmas kisses and tears
Rebecca, Theo, Blake, and I all watched the rest of my family regretting everything as they stood at the corner of the street in swimsuits holding up signs with ridiculous sayings.
"This is great!" Theo laughs.
"I haven't seen anything better," Rebecca adds.
"We should make them walk home." Blake jokes.
"I chose not to be grounded for the rest of my life, thank you very much." I grin.
"So what're your plans for the big family event?" Blake asks.
"Rebecca, what were you thinking?" I ask since she is the guest of honor after all.
"Hmm." He tapped her chin, "there's this arcade down the street that my cousin owns. I bet he'd let us use it for the day." She smiles.
"Perfect." I smile before looking back at Blake, "we're gonna get a flashback of our childhoods."
"Would it be rude if we joined you?" Blake suggests.
Rebecca answered before I could.
"Of course not!"
"What about your families?" I ask since this is the holidays after all.
"My family doesn't celebrate Christmas," Theo explains.
"It's sorta date night at my house since it's their anniversary. And my little sister staying with Murphy's upstairs for Christmas." Blake tells me.
"Wonderful. Now come on, they're gonna get frostbite." Rebecca grabs my arm and yanks me towards her. "You don't seem amused that he's gonna join us," she whispered.
"Trust me, I'm not." I fake a smile before looking over at my family crossing the street in a giant hoard and jumping into their cars to head home and change.
"Come on!" Blake yelled in frustration.
"Hey, you challenged me first." I grin.
"I thought I was a pro at Just Dance." He complains.
"Says the one who asked me to teach him how to dance."
"It's proven that the worse dancers are usually the best at Just Dance." He smiles.
"Right," I say with a sly smirk. "Again?"
"No." He glares. "I think it's time for a new game."
"Like what?"
"Laser Tag." He smiles.
"Oh, you're on!" I shouted before running across the took towards the laser tag area.
"One on one?" Blake asked when he finally caught up. I was already strapping myself to the vest you have to wear, practicing shooting my laser gun.
"Of course." I grin, tossing him a vest while I went to set up the game on an auto-start for us.
"One minute to hide," I explain.
"Wait!" He screamed at me as I sprinted inside the area. Doing the glow in the same objects that blocked my way.
Once the buzzer rang above, telling us the game began, so did the trash talk.
"You're about to be owned, Julia Lee!" I heard Blake shout.
"Bring it, tough guy!" I scream back.
I carefully crouched under the little stairway, waiting for the right time to attack.
"You can't hide forever!" He shouted again.
"Now you sound like a murder," I said in reply.
I heard a slight chuckle approaching me. Soon I saw Blake's foot step up on the stair, I waited for him to get to the bridge before taking my shot.
There was a loud ding when I hit him and I rolled to the side, behind a wall, so he wouldn't see me.
"How?" He said to himself.
I softly chuckled to myself before I started to move again.
I thought I was hidden enough and Blake was blind, but the dinging noise said otherwise.
"Dammit!" I yelled. Before breaking out in a sprint to get out of Blake's eye view.
"No running!" He joked, following me on the overhang.
"What can I say? I break the rules." I joke with a small laughter before turning the corner.
"Oh, so we're playing that game now?" I hear Blake asked before hearing him run above me. Heavy footsteps.
"Did you just slip?" I asked, moving backward so I won't seem predictable.
"No." He laughed through his embarrassment.
He totally slipped. I heard his quiet squeal.
I continued to back up before hitting the wall. Blake was nowhere to be seen, so I was on my toes. Waiting for him to jump out and probably give me a heart attack.
"Come out. Come out wherever you are." I said in a creepy voice like the classic horror movies.
"And I sound like a murder?" I heard him laugh.
That's all I needed because I followed where his voice came from. My walk became a slight jog, searching every corner looking for him.
I felt his arms wrap around my waist as he yanked me to carpeted ground.
"Hey!" I yelled as I fell underneath him. He held his gun and shot me in the chest, that stupid ding going off.
"Breaking rules huh?" He smiled, still pinning me to the ground.
I grabbed my gun and shot him. Laughing when his ding went off.
"Yes." I grin uncontrollably.
I don't understand what the next turn of events was or how they even happened. It could be from the adrenaline from everything that happened today or the fact that I had way too much hot chocolate before all this.
I saw Blake's head start to lean into mine, and I found mine doing the exact same until our lips connected and what felt like a spark race through my bloodstream to my brain, messing will all the thoughts that were running through my mind. Turing them all to mush as we continued to kiss.
He pulled away slowly, eyes still shut, or they were open I couldn't tell because it was dark.
I laid there, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. And when I figured it out it changes to why the hell did that happen.
"Uh," Blake mumble, almost like a whisper.
"Yeah," I said without thinking.
"Let's just pretend that just didn't happen, okay?" He said.
"Yeah. Yeah. Agree." My words were just one giant mess.
"Okay." He said while rolling off me. Holding out his hand to help me up.
The lights shot back on once I got off the ground. Blake and I, not being able to make eye contact as we walked out. Rebecca walking past, instantly noticing something was off.
"You guys okay?" She asked, forcing Theo to stop with her.
"Yeah, of course." I try to play it off, but it was extremely difficult. Rebecca knew something was wrong and I know I'm gonna have to tell her later.
Blake left early. Theo stayed the night with us, as I struggled to keep everything all together in my bedroom.
There was a soft knock at my door and when I turned around, I saw Rebecca standing there. Waiting for me to explain what the heck is going on with me.
"I kissed Blake." I finally admit. Choking on my words a bit.
If it weren't for me looking like I was about to cry, Rebecca would be celebrating. Instead, she walked up and hugged me tightly.
There was no exact reason why I was crying. It could be the fact that Blake wanted to pretend that never happened or the fact that I know he love's Tara. Either one, both made me cry.
"Oh, where has the time gone?" Rebecca whispered. "One minute you were smiling and laughing, the next you were crying on my shoulder."
I chuckled with a sniffle in her shoulder.
She pulled away, still having her hands on my shoulder. "You shouldn't be crying over a boy that you think you can't have. A boy in general."
"Because if he truly loved Tara, he wouldn't have kissed you." She smiles weakly.
Theo walked in to see me whipping away a stray tear.
"I sort of overheard everything." He smiles slightly. I chuckled at his nervousness as if him hearing us would get him killed or something. "And Rebecca right. I know Blake and I know that kiss meant something to him. He just gotta realize it himself."
"Thank you." I mouthed with a smile. He walked up and hugged me before wandering off to bed with Rebecca.