December 25th, 1953, 7:32 pm, The Winter household
"Mom, dad, can I please go out with Buddy for a little while? I need to give him his present,"
Dad looks up from his crossword puzzle. "That's fine by me. What do you think, Bella?"
"They're 17, they can go,"
"Sure, Vi. You can go. Have a good night." Dad looks back at his puzzle.
"Thank you sir, ma'am,"
"Have a great night, sweetie. Be careful, the roads might be icy,"
I smile. "Mom, it's Texas, it doesn't usually snow,"
"Oh, you're right. Sometimes I forget,"
"I'll see you guys tomorrow morning?" I say.
Dad nods. "Yeah, see you tomorrow, Vi,"
"Make good choices!" Mom grins.
"Don't worry, I will,"
"Actually, go get ready, Vi! Are you really going to see your boyfriend with no makeup on?!" Mom exclaims.
"Mom, he doesn't care. I doubt he notices makeup,"
"Put on the new dress you got from Santa today! Oh, it looks so pretty on you!"
I smile. "Okay, I will. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go get ready for my super hot Christmas date," I bound up the stairs.
I get into my room and sigh to myself. Does Buddy notice if I don't wear makeup? He's never said anything about it.
Whatever, I'll put on a little bit, just to please my mother.
I plop down at my vanity and grab my face powder and the floof. I floof my face a little bit. I fill in my eyebrows. I put on mascara.
Should I even bother with lip gloss? I mean, it'll just get all over when Buddy and I kiss.
I'm not even going to bother.
I spring up and go to my closet, taking out the new geougous dress that I just got this morning. It's pretty standard with the little collar and pinched in waist. The top part is a really pretty darker, almost blood red. It has long sleeves. The skirt part is black super soft and flowy.
I pull it on and look in the mirror. It's a little too big, but I can just throw a belt on around the waist part.
I fix my bangs in the mirror then go to the upstairs phone (which is oddly in the hallway?) And dial Buddy's number.
"Merry Christmas from the Holley House, this is Buddy,"
I giggle. "Nice new intro!"
He sighs. "Yeah, thanks. Took us years t'come up with that one,"
"I can tell! It's genius!"
"Are you ready, doll?" He asks.
"Yeah, my parents didn't even protest. Not at all. I asked and all and they just said I could go. It was weird, I thought I'd have to put up a fight,"
Buddy laughs. "They know you're in good hands with you're with me!"
I smile and roll my eyes. "Yeah, sure Buddy. Well, yeah, I'm ready."
"Great, I'll be over in a fe-"
"WAIT IS THAT VI?!" I hear Ella yell from the background.
"Yes ma, it's Vi," Buddy replies.
"Lemme talk to her!"
I can practically feel Buddy roll his eyes and begrudgingly hand over the phone.
"Merry Christmas Vi!" She says excitedly. "I hope it was amazing!"
"It was great, thank you! I hope yours was great!"
"It was! Okay, okay, I'll let you and Buddy do your little couples gift thing,"
"Ma, can you not call it that?" Buddy says.
"What else would it be?"
"Um, I dunno. Just given her the presents,"
"Whatever. I'll stay out of it, it's personal between you two,"
She hands Buddy the phone.
"I'll be over in a few doll. Love you,"
"Love you too," I hang up.
I go back into my room and pick up the hand painted box I made for him. Jeez, I hope he likes it. I wrote a ton of little notes and made a bunch of doodles in it. I think I even shoved guitar picks in there because Buddy's always losing his.
I walk out of my room, running into Juliet.
"Violet," she mumbles.
"Yes?" I reply.
"What'd you get Buddy?"
I show her the box. "I put little love notes and such in here,"
"What else?"
"Um, nothing really, why?"
"You should've gotten him at least 3 things, that's how it's supposed to be!"
"He's hard to shop for and he really doesn't care if he gets anything,"
"So?"
"So I just got him a meaningful one,"
She looks at the box. "That didn't even cost much!"
"It doesn't matter, Juliet. I think he'll just be happy I got him something at all,"
"He better have gotten you something amazing!"
"No,"
"Why?!"
"Juliet, you know his family doesn't have that much money,"
She purses her lips. "Well one thing that you can get him is free,"
"What is it?"
"You know..."
"Juliet, no, don't say it!" I exclaim.
"A blowjob!"
I blush. "Shut up!"
"What?! It's a good gift!"
"But it doesn't have to be Christmas for that? It's not really a present?"
"Just do it!"
I shake my head. "Shut up, Juliet. Now."
"Oh, you're embarassed,"
"Yeah, not everyone into broadcasting our sex lives to anyone who will listen."
"I'm just trying to give you advice on how to make your man happy!"
"Whatever, I'm sure he's happy with me all the same."
"You know why? Because you put out!"
"You know relationships aren't just sex,"
"Whatever. Get him a blowjob," she pushes past me and goes into our bathroom.
I roll my eyes and head downstairs to wait by the window.
《《《》》》
Buddy pulls up and I quickly grab my purse and dash out to his car.
He gets out, and as always, opens my door.
I duck in.
He gets back in. "First Christmas together!"
I smile and kiss his cheek. "Yeah! First one!"
"First of many," he grins.
"Well, where do you want to go?" I ask.
"Anywhere but our houses I guess. I really just wanna be alone with you, doll."
I blush. "Our usual spot, then?"
He nods. "Good enough for me!" He says as we start to head there.
《《《》》》
We found this relatively secluded place on the east side of town a couple months ago. Down an old back road, there's a little hidden alcove surrounded by trees. It feels like it should be creepy, but it's just not. It's serene.
He kills the engine, but leaves the battery on for the radio.
"I'm sorry, doll, I only got you a coupla things,"
"Hey, I don't care how much I get. I don't care if I even got anything. I just want to spend some time with you,"
He smiles. "I love you, Violet."
"I love you too, really."
He reaches in the backseat and grabs a gift bag that has boxes in it.
"I really only got you like, two things," I mumble.
"You don't gotta get me anythin'. I just gotta get you stuff because you're my girl and I want you to know I love you."
"Well, from now on you really don't have to get me anything. I won't think it's rude,"
"Okay, well, here, you go first, babe."
I peek inside and pull out the smallest box.
"Wait, open that one last!"
I hand him the little box and pull out the medium sized one. I open it and it's a Vanilla Maple scented candle. I open the lid and smell it. "Oh my lord,"
"When we were at the mall and you smelled it, you said it was your favorite,"
I nod. "It smells so good!" I put the lid back on.
The last thing isn't in a box, its just wrapped with red wrapping paper. I tear it open and it's a super nice, high quality sketch book. "Buddy, this is so nice!"
"Yeah, in art class I noticed your sketch book was runnin' out of pages."
"Yeah, this is so useful, I needed this!"
I hand him his box. "Here, open this before I finish,"
He takes it and looks at the top. "It's so pretty, did you paint this yourself?"
I nod. "Yeah,"
"Wow, it's so pretty!" He opens it and a few pieces of paper fall out. "What are these?"
"They're love letters," I blush.
"Oh! Aw, doll! That's so cute! I can't wait to read 'em!"
"Yeah, there's some dumb doodles and a few guitar picks, too."
"It's perfect," he hands me the smaller box. "I really hope you like this one,"
I slowly open the box and see his class ring on a chain. I look up at him. "Really?!"
He grins. "Yeah, figured you should have it. We're steady and have been forever,"
"It's so sweet of you! I can't believe it!"
"You deserve it, doll. You're my girl,"
I lean over and hug him tightly. "Thank you so much!"
He pats my back lightly. "Of course,"
"Juliet and Adalyn are gonna flip when they see this!"
"I'm glad I got a girl t'give it to!"
I kiss his cheek. "I love it so much!"
"I love you so much,"
"You, Buddy, are so amazing!"
"You are too, doll," he smiles. "You are too."