The 25th of December. A day that Sally would normally dread. He hadn't enjoyed a Christmas since his mom had died. And his dad wasn't a very festive person anyways, especially now that all he did was drink.
But this year it would be different.
This year he was having Christmas with Larry and Lisa.
Sal opened his eyes on the morning of the 25th and looked over at his clock which read 8:37. Out of the window he could see that it had snowed, how fitting. He hauled himself out of bed and took a shower before putting his hair into the 2 usual pigtails and strapping his mask on. He rummaged through his drawers to find a good pair of black jeans and then pulled on a red Christmas jumper which had a cat wearing a Santa hat on it. The cat looked a bit like Gizmo which was one of the reasons Sal had bought it. After shoving a piece of toast down his throat he left his dad's present by his bed and grabbed a bag full of other wrapped gifts. Quietly he closed his apartment door and walked into the elevator. First he visited floor 3 and left a chocolate bar outside Chug's apartment then he made his way to floor 2 and left a present outside Todd's door. He prayed it wouldn't be stolen when he realised he was now at Larry's door. He only had to knock once before Larry had almost thrown the door off its hinges when he opened it.
"Sal! Dude Merry Christmas!" He said while pulling Sal into a hug.
"You too Lar-bear." Sally teased while returning the hug.
Sal walked inside the apartment to see it had been nicely decorated since he was last there. A fake tree stood in the living room decorated with lights and baubles and underneath it were a few wrapped gifts.
"Me and my mom opened each other's presents earlier but look what she got me!" Larry excited pointed to a very large pile of art supplies on one of the couches.
"Holy shit, that looks expensive."
"Yeah, it was apparently."
Lisa then emerged from the kitchen holding 2 mugs of hot chocolate. She put them down on the table before making her way over to the two boys.
"Merry Christmas Sal!" She said before kissing his mask on the cheek.
"Mom Sal doesn't want you to kiss him." Larry said.
"Sally is like my second son I can kiss his cheek all I like." Lisa replied.
"As long as the mouth is saved for me." Larry said under his breath.
Sal elbowed him.
"What was that for?" Larry said quietly.
"For that comment and for putting an opinion in my mouth."
"Dude I literally couldn't care less if my mom kissed you on the cheek I just wanted to take the precaution that you were ok with it."
"Like Lisa said, I'm her second son."
They grabbed the hot chocolate and at down on the couch. Sal gave Lisa a perfume that she's wanted for a while and she gave him some new posters for his room.
"Okay Larry open mine." Sally said while handing a one lumpy package.
Larry ripped off the paper to revel a navy blue Sanity Falls t-shirt. This one was unique because the sleeves were elbow length.
"Yo Sal this is one of their newest shirts! Thanks dude!"
"That's not all." Sally said as he handed over a small envelope.
Larry looked confused but he opened the envelope. Inside were 2 tickets to the next Sanity Falls concert in 2 months.
Larry's eyes went wide.
He looked at Sal.
And screamed.
"HOLY FUCK SALLY OH MY GOD!" He yelled.
And before Lisa could even get him into trouble for swearing he had picked Sal up and was hugging the life outta him.
"Oh my god Sally thank you!" He said once he had put the boy down and it was then Sal noticed tears in Larry's eyes.
"No problem dude." Sal replied.
No one could see it but Sal was smiling so much his cheeks hurt. This was exactly the reaction he'd hoped for, but better. It was then that Larry handed over his present to Sal.
"It's not as good as what you got me but here." He said.
It was 2 Sanity Falls t-shirts. One red one, one black one. They looked great. There was also a pair of earrings. Circles with 'SF' in the middle.
"I love them. Thanks Larry." Sal said with a smile.
"There's one more." Said Lisa handing him a rectangular present. "It's from both of us."
Sal ripped off the paper.
It was a photo frame. And inside it was a photo of Sal, Larry and Lisa. Sal remembered the day it was taken. It had probably been the best day of his life.
And suddenly he was crying. Tears dropped into the photo from under his mask.
"You alright Sal?" Larry asked.
"I-I love it." Sally said before letting out a sob.
He really did love these people. More than anything else in this world.
Both Larry and Lisa wrapped their arms around Sal so it was now a group hug. Lisa had tears in her eyes and Larry was almost crying too. Sally clutched onto them for dear life. If anything were to happen to these people, well.... he wouldn't know what he'd do.
The rest of the day was amazing, after exchanging presents with Todd and Chug they went outside for a snowball fight. Well, more like a snowball war with the aggression that Larry put into it. After the fight Sally made the excuse that he'd forgotten something at his apartment and made his way into the elevator clutching his gifts. He got to his door and opened it to find his dad sitting on the couch, as usual. But there were no beer bottles except one half-empty one in his hand. He was so focused on what he was watching that he didn't even notice Sally until he closed the door. Sally then noticed that he was watching an old video of his wedding day, Sal's mom stood looking into the camera, smiling. She looked beautiful. He walked past his dad and into his room where he lay the t-shirts and posters on his bed and placed the photo frame on his bedside table. He walked back out of his room to see his dad holding a photo of his mom.
"Did Larry like his presents?" He asked. His tone was calm which meant he wasn't drunk or hungover. That was a change.
"Yeah, he loved them."
"I still cannot believe that I let you take the money for those tickets out of your savings for that skin graft."
"I'd rather be happy than look good." Sally said.
Henry seemed to stop for a moment before looking up at his son. He walked over and gave him a hug.
"You're a good kid Sal."
Sally hugged him back.
"Do you want to come down for dinner? Lisa won't mind, in fact she'll be glad to see you."
"Nah it's alright. I'll be fine up here, I'm not really doing the best anyways. You go have fun Sal."
Sally hugged his dad one last time before he left the apartment and got in the elevator again.
To put it simply, the Christmas dinner Lisa prepared was probably one of the best things Sal had ever ate. He stayed at their apartment way past midnight to the point where it was now a Christmas sleepover. Sally went back to his apartment to grab his pjs and to find his dad asleep. 'He'll be fine' he thought.
It was 4am and the 2 boys were still watching movies on the TV in Larry's room. They were wrapped around each other under a blanket. Eventually they went to bed. Sal fell asleep first and for a while Larry just lay there and looked at him. He kissed Sal's forehead.
"Merry Christmas Sally Face."
And then he closed his eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
I hope you all have a great day coz you all deserve it. I also hope you liked this slightly longer and festive chapter :)
There will definitely be a New Years chapter which you can also look forward to.
Also...... I've started writing another Sallarry story. In this book Sally is selectively mute and Larry is basically his voice. I'm really happy with the first chapter but I don't think I should publish it while this book is still ongoing. I would like to publish it when I finish this book but tbh idk when that'll be coz I have no idea where the story is going lol.
So merry christmas. I'll see you in the next chapter. :)
Also here's some really bad art I did. Larry looks a lot better lol - even tho his mole is on the wrong side :'(