Songs for this chapter:
• Baby It's Cold Outside - Idina Menzel & Michael Bublé
• Winter Things - Ariana Grande
Chapter Twenty-Five:
Lexi's POV
I wake up to the sound of my phone buzzing from my bedside table.
Bryce:
Good morning, beautiful.
Baby?
Are you still asleep?
Oh.
I'm sorry.
Get some rest, baby girl.
I love you.
I feel my lips tug up into a wide smile as I read the several messages that Bryce had sent me over and over again as I sit up in bed. I let out a yawn as I stretch, attempting to work out some of the stiffness in my neck before I type back a message to my boyfriend.
Lexi:
I'm awake now, Bryce.
Do you need something?
I love you too.
Bryce is speedy to type out a reply to me.
Bryce:
I'm on my way to your house to pick you up.
I was about to turn around and drive back home because you seemed to still be asleep, but if you're awake, I should probably let you know that I'll be there in five minutes.
At this, my eyes widen in horror as I shoot out of bed.
Five minutes? How the heck am I supposed to be ready in five minutes?
Examining my current attire, a hoodie and pair of sweatpants that I'd taken from Bryce. The clothes are obviously extremely baggy on me, and not wanting to hear any criticism about my attire from Adriana and Addison, I figure that I should probably get dressed before I even leave the room anyway.
I quickly type out a reply to Bryce as I hurry to my bathroom with a groan, grabbing my hairbrush off of my vanity along the way.
Lexi:
You're only giving me a five-minute warning?
Bryce:
It's four minutes now, darling.
I can't help but to let out an agitated huff as I drop my phone down onto the bathroom counter, grabbing my toothbrush and tube of toothpaste. I brush my teeth in a rush before moving on to wash my face, then finishing up in the bathroom before exiting the room while running my brush through my hair.
I set my phone and hairbrush down on my desk, then taking a moment to examine myself in the mirror. Although I'm undoubtedly exhausted, you wouldn't be able to tell whatsoever by my appearance as I have a twinkle in my eye that makes me look alert and awake as well as a slight flush to my cheeks that makes me look . . . happy.
Surprisingly enough, Bryce hasn't texted me again with another time warning, and so I hurry to my dresser to dig around to find an outfit for today.
I decide on a thin white turtleneck and a pair of light wash denim jeans. I find a matching white lace bra and underwear set to throw on—just in case today goes exceptionally well.
And it's when I've completely stripped out of my pajamas and am only wearing the white lace underwear set that the door to my bedroom comes flying open.
I immediately throw my hands over my body to try and cover myself at least a little bit, spinning around to face the door. "Could you please at least knock?"
Bryce swiftly closes the door behind himself. "What's the point? This is nothing that I haven't seen before."
Relief washes over me to see that he's the intruder and that it's not one of my family members. I slowly lower my hands from my body as Bryce makes his way across the room and towards me.
He pauses when we're a foot or so apart. He raises his hands to grip my waist, his hands nearly large enough to wrap all the way around. His thumbs brush against my ribs as he holds me tenderly, looking down at me as if I'm the most beautiful girl in the entire world.
"Hi, you pretty little thing," he murmurs, and I can't stop my cheeks from blushing as I stare up into his eyes.
"Hi, Bryce," I reply shyly, smiling up at him.
He leans down, briefly brushing his lips against mine for a quick kiss before he presses his lips to my temple as well. I feel as though I'm practically melting in his arms right now, entirely consumed by his sweet words and actions already.
Bryce's hands suddenly leave my waist, and I feel my smile fade in response. If he notices, he doesn't care, and he instead moves across the room to take a seat down on the edge of my bed.
I watch as he crosses his legs beneath himself, but he ends of looking sort of ridiculous as his legs are so freakishly long. He just stares at me innocently when he catches me watching, and I arch an eyebrow up at him in response.
"What?" I ask him bluntly, which he merely rolls his eyes at.
"I was hoping I was going to get a bit of a show, because of the scene I walked in on. No lap dance?" he asks with a wicked grin.
I scowl at him, grabbing my jeans from the floor and unfolding them. I begin to get dressed, pulling the jeans up my legs before zipping and buttoning them. Bryce watches me intently the entire time with hooded eyes, his gaze dark and filled with lust.
"You need to stop saying things like that, Bryce," I scold him, reaching down to grab my sweater from the floor as well. I pull it down over my head, slipping my arms through the sleeves before yanking my hair out from the collar.
Bryce is still grinning at me, a cocky smirk. "I think you quite like my dirty mouth, Miss Brooks."
I open my mouth to counter that, but immediately shut it when I realise that dammit, he's correct.
And so instead, I just shake my head at him before making my way towards my vanity. "Who let you inside?" I ask over my shoulder.
I hear Bryce stand up from his bed, and I listen to his footsteps as he heads towards me. "Your mom. She told me to be quiet just in case you were still asleep, but she said that I could come up here anyway."
I sigh, unable to stop myself from rolling my eyes at how my mom is suddenly in love with Bryce and I's relationship.
I'm certainly not complaining, though. Not one bit. It's better than my dad, who seems to hate Bryce now that we're together.
I pick up my cherry blossom necklace from my vanity, but Bryce takes it from me before I get a chance to put it on. Instead, he opens the clasp and then secures the necklace around my neck for me, kissing my shoulder as he watches me slip on my promise ring.
"I love that now everyone knows that you're mine," Bryce tells me with a cheeky grin, and so I hit him in the arm which just makes him chuckle.
🌸🌸🌸
"I hate that you still haven't told me what we're doing today," I say to Bryce with a sigh as he holds the front door to his dad's house open for me.
I step into the doorway, welcoming the warmth that the house provides. A few candles are lit near the foyer, giving the air the sweet smell of vanilla and cinnamon, sort of like how Bryce smells himself. There's something extremely welcome about stepping into this house again, and for some strange reason, it feels like home.
"You'll figure it out soon enough," Bryce responds cheekily as he shuts and locks the front door behind us.
I contemplate raising my middle finger to him, but I instead control my frustration silently as I slip out of my boots, lining them up against the wall. I take off my jacket as well, which Bryce immediately takes from me to go hang up in the coat closet.
Bryce had barely spoken to me during the drive here, and it kind of stung. I figured that he would be really friendly to me today if he wanted to see me so early in the morning, but that doesn't seem to be the case considering how quiet he's been.
Therefore, I have no details about his plans for us today.
Mateo suddenly appears, walking out of the kitchen. He's holding a steaming mug in one hand and an open book in the other. He's wearing his reading glasses and a thick knit sweater, his blond hair messy atop his head.
He seems to be reading as he walks, and so it takes him a moment to notice that Bryce and I have entered the house. He eventually does look up from his book, though, and he smiles wide as soon as he sees me.
"Hey, Lexi. I didn't realise that you were coming over so early today," he says sweetly, his smiling not dimming for even a moment.
I grin as I wave back at him. "Yeah, your brother is an annoying jerk. I haven't even had time to eat breakfast yet."
Bryce and Mateo's gazes lock, and they silently stare at each other for a little while before Mateo shyly looks back down at the book in his hand.
I'm not really sure how comfortable Bryce and Mateo are about the fact that they share a father, but they don't seem to be too awkward around each other at the moment: it seems as though they've come to a mutual understanding that it's in both of their best interest to not hate each other, especially considering that they're currently living under the same roof for the next little while.
When Mateo looks back to me, his eyebrows are raised. "You haven't eaten breakfast yet? Do you want me to make you something?"
Bryce doesn't even give me a chance to politely decline Mateo's offer before his arms are around my waist in a protective manner as if to claim me as his. He swiftly tugs me back against his chest, sternly telling Mateo, "I was just about to make her something, thank you very much."
He sounds extremely annoyed and perhaps even a little bit offended.
Mateo looks a little bit startled at the way that Bryce had lashed out, and I watch as he continues to walk down the hallway, past Bryce and I. He dares to wink at me right before he turns on his heel and heads up the spiral staircase, away from his annoyed brother.
I turn around to face Bryce, but in doing so, I can't help but to notice the bare Christmas tree in the corner of the living room.
Bryce's POV
I know that dragging the fake Christmas tree and all those damn boxes of Christmas decorations down from the attic at the ungodly hours of the morning was all worth it as soon as I watch my girl's face light up.
She stands there in awe, staring at the tree as I keep my arms around her waist. She eventually turns to finally face me, a joyous twinkle in her eye as she asks me, "We're going to decorate your dad's house for Christmas? Bryce? Is that what we're doing? Oh my God!"
She begins to bounce up and down on her heels, clapping her hands together, and she looks so fucking adorable that I could almost cry out of sheer happiness at seeing her this happy.
"Of course. You felt like you were missing out on Christmas this year, and so I'm going to make up for that, baby," I tell her with a smile, releasing my grip on her waist and instead reaching down to grip one of her hands.
Blossom opens her mouth again to speak but I'm already able to tell what she's about to say, and so I respond to her question before she even gets a chance to ask it. "Yes, Blossom. We can have Christmas movies playing on the fucking TV as we decorate."
Her eyes widen as if she's surprised that I could've assumed what she was about to ask, but she doesn't complain as she squeals and falls right into my arms.
She embraces me into a hug, squeezing me tightly. "Thank you, Bryce! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
I kiss her on the top of her head, nuzzling my cheek against her hair as she continues to hold me. "C'mon, baby," I whisper. "Let's go make you some breakfast and then we can start decorating."
I can tell that breakfast is the last thing on Blossom's mind right now by the way her gaze lingers on the boxes upon boxes of Christmas decorations as I grab her hand and guide her into the kitchen, but I don't let her skip breakfast because she's already tiny enough. She takes a seat down at the island as I grab the ingredients for pancakes from the cupboards and fridge. Blossom watches me intently as I mix all the shit together in a bowl, turning on the stove and greasing up a pan.
I ate earlier, way before I picked Blossom up as I had to get all the Christmas shit together first, and so I'm not hungry at the moment. I make Blossom her pancakes, her eyes on me the entire time as she watches my every move as though it's the most interesting thing that she's ever seen.
After I pile a stack of pancakes onto Blossom's plate, I slide a bottle of maple syrup across the table and watch as she begins to cut the pancakes up. I start the dishes as she eats for the sake of time, dropping her plate and utensils into the dishwasher once she's somehow consumed the entire plateful of pancakes.
She leaps up from her seat as soon as I close the dishwasher door. "Can we decorate the tree first?" she asks me sweetly, seemingly unable to contain her happiness as she stares at me, her eyes wide with wonder.
I roll my eyes at her, still smiling as I nod. "Sure we can, sweetheart."
I follow her out of the kitchen and back into the living room. She pauses in the doorway, crossing her arms against her chest as she examines the tree. "This is a fake tree, right?" she asks me.
I nod as I walk up behind her, close enough that her back is to my chest once more. I lean my chin on her head as I answer, "Yeah, baby girl. It's a little too late to get a real tree now. I hope this is okay. We'll get a real tree next year."
She nods at me, smiling as she walks away from me and heads towards one of the boxes of ornaments. She sits down on the floor, crossing her legs like a little kid as she pulls the lid off of the box to examine what's inside.
I take a seat down beside her and she shuffles closer towards me, so that her side is flush to mine. We sit here, extremely close together, and we work through the boxes of ornaments, lining them up on the coffee table. Blossom eventually stands up, offering me a hand as if she has enough strength to help me up from the floor, and we begin to actually hang the ornaments on the tree.
I soon learn that she's extremely picky about making the tree look perfect, not allowing two of the same ornaments to be close to each other whatsoever. She puts way more thought into the tree's aesthetic than I ever would, but it's cute how invested she is in making this look good.
I put on a Christmas movie for some background noise as I had promised, and it makes Blossom's smile grow impossibly wider.
I have no fucking clue how much of the morning we spend hanging up these damn ornaments onto this fucking tree, but before we know it, there isn't anymore room for another damn ornament. Blossom scowls at me when I suggest we take down the piece of shit ornaments that I made at school when we were kids, telling her that the tree would be prettier if we replaced the tacky homemade shit with expensive glass shit, but she merely claims that the ones that I made fourteen years ago are her favourite.
I tried hard not to laugh at that, pressing a kiss to her cheek and then plucking the star for the top of the tree off of the coffee table.
"Do you want to put the star on?" I ask her, and she nod her head enthusiastically. She takes the silver star from me, examining it in her hands tenderly before her eyebrows raise as a thought appears to strike her.
"I'm too short. You should just do it," she says, not bothering to hide the disappointment written all over her face.
She holds out the star for me to take back, but rather than retrieving the star from her small hands, I grip her waist and lift her up into the air. She squeals, but she seems to understand what I'm doing as I take a couple steps towards the tree.
"Can you reach now?" I ask with a grin, watching as she places the star right on the top of the tree.
I lower her back down to the ground, admiring the blush of her cheeks for only a moment before I crush my mouth against hers
She lets out a surprised sound, muffled by my lips, but she kisses me back feverishly. My hands find her face and I hold her jaw with both of my hands, keeping her close to me as my lips work against hers.
There's something about decorating this damn tree together that has managed to make me sort of emotional for some stupid fucking reason. I know that its our first Christmas that we'll be spending together as a couple, but seeing her so happy is almost too much.
I suddenly become even more aware that I need to make this girl happy for as long as I live.
And so I kiss her hard under the lights of the Christmas tree.
A/N: I know that it's Halloween next week and therefore everybody probably doesn't want Christmas content right now, but trust me: it's going to be adorable, and it will most certainly put you in the Christmas mood. I've never really been a Halloween kind of gal anyway ;)
Also, I know that some people are probably going to be upset about one of the songs I recommended for this chapter because of some controversy, but though sexual assault and consent should be taken very seriously, please don't take the song too seriously in the context of this chapter <3