THE LAST CHAPTER IS NHY!
So, I'm sorry for the wait but I, like, wrote this chapter fifteen million times over! GOSH! I HOPE YOU GUYS CAN FORGIVE MEEE ...
So this chapter goes to all of my fans because they've been amazing and I love them all! :))))
This chapter's song is David Bowie and Bing Crosby singing at Christmas together. They're both favourites of mine so that song is like heaven to me!!! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
LOVE U GUYS SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!
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Chapter Ten: Christmas Eve
“Yes! I win.”
Slamming his last pawn into ‘home’, Steve fist punched the air and let out a whoop as he won our game of Frustration. Stacey groaned and let her head fall on the table.
Both Steve and Stacey were very competitive people. I’d learned that right at the start of the game when they started getting carried away and placing bets on who might win. Being part of a huge family, it was also in my nature to be competitive but at that moment, nothing seemed to matter.
“I told you I would win!” Steve yelled at Stacey.
Stacey rolled her eyes. “I would ask for a rematch but I really have to go.”
I frowned at her. Tonight is the night Steve is supposed to turn into a cat. For good. We had planned to stay here until it happened, the three of us. Or so I thought. When I looked at over at Steve, I guessed that I had a pretty similar expression on my face as him. His brow was furrowed questioningly and his lower lip was sticking out like a pout.
She bit her lip, “I’m sorry. I know I was going to stay for you and everything but my mom won’t let me. She says that she needs help with Christmas dinner plans. I’m sorry guys.”
To be honest, even if I was a little miffed that she hadn’t told us earlier, I still understood. If I were at home right now, I’d be helping lick clean the appliances used to make my mother’s famous volcano chocolate cake. Besides After we tell her that we’re okay with her leaving early, Stacey gathers up her possessions, gives us both a quick kiss on the cheek and leaves for her mother’s house.
I checked the clock. We still had a couple of hours until Steve was supposed to change. Melinda told us when the clock strikes midnight. Why is it always Midnight? So we sat and watched a few movies. You know the kind. The old ones with singers like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. I think I fell asleep a few times but always managed to wake myself up at the good parts. We then shoved some noodles in the microwave for ‘dinner’.
Spending time with Steve got me thinking what it would be like if Steve got to stay. I mean, we could have been able to do this every night. It was fun. It felt natural. It felt almost as natural as it would have been at home with my family. Then I remembered that that was never going to happen because Steve was changing back tonight and there was nothing we could do to stop it. Unless we found his true love and evidently that wasn’t going to happen: where were we going to find her?
It was just after we finished some old Friends Christmas Edition finished that I realised how much time had passed. It was ten minutes till midnight.
Suddenly, panic filled my body. Oh my god, I thought, it’s really going to happen. I think that up until then, I kept thinking that maybe, just maybe, there would be something that we could do to stop it from happening. But there wasn’t. Right?
I think Steve noticed what time it was too because he looked down and switched the TV on mute. We both breathed slowly, out breaths echoing around the silent room.
“What do I do Emmy?” Steve asked abruptly. His question wasn’t one I could answer.
Instead of answering him, I scooted closer on the sofa and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. He leaned his head on my shoulder and sighed.
“You know,” I started. “I could get used to having nights like this. With Scrabble, noodles, old movies …”
He laughed, “Yeah, it would be great, right?”
In hopes of cheering him up I said, “Hey. We could still do that. You’ll just be more … feline.”
Steve snorted. And we just sat there until midnight, Steve’s head on my shoulder and our arms wrapped around each other. Getting nearer the time, Steve stood up, paced a little, bit his lip. He was agitated and nervous and (as usual) scared.
Two minutes to go …
Steve started pulling at his hair again. It was sticking up everywhere. It’s all I could do not to reach out and flatten it down.
One minute and thirty seconds to go …
A tear leaked out of my right eye before I could stop it. I hurried to wipe it away. I didn’t want Steve to see me crying.
One minute to go …
We were both crying now. Steve for fear of changing. Me for losing my friend.
Thirty seconds to go …
I couldn’t hold it any longer. I launched myself right at him, hugging him tightly and burying my face in his warm shoulder.
Ten seconds to go …
Steve leaned down and whispered in my ear something that I wasn’t expecting. He said, “I love you Emmy.”
There was a moment of confusion and shock on my part. Steve stepped back to let the cat form take him.
But all of a sudden I realised what he had just said to me. Oh my god. Steve just told me he loved me. And then I was reaching out to him again, catching his face in my hands.
And then I was kissing him. It was just a peck. Right on the lips. Like the kind of kisses that you see little kids give each other.
And, oh my god, it was like magic. His lips were so soft and so moist that they made me want to swoon. Pulling back, my hands around his neck and my forehead on his, I waited and hoped (oh my god, you wouldn’t believe how much I hoped) that this would work.
Everything was very still for a second. Steve’s face was frozen with shock and I’m pretty sure I looked a little shocked too. But then a miracle happened.
Steve started to glow a brilliant pale light and I stepped back, taken aback. He stretched out his arms to see it for himself. His skin - and the fur that had grown so far - was actually glowing. Then the fur was disappearing, stand by strand, and his tail started to evaporate into thin air. If I wasn’t so shocked myself, I would have laughed at his expression: Mouth curved in an ‘O’ and eyebrows knitted together.
Eventually the glowing stopped and A Cat Called Steve was gone and all that was left was Steve the male model.
We looked at each other just a moment before I was engulfed in Steve’s arms. He was hugging me closely, nuzzling my neck and repeating the same words over and over again. “I love you I love you I love you I love you …”
It was me who pulled away. He looked down at me, confused when I stopped hugging him. I smiled at him. “I love you too.”
He smiled and his lips crashed to mine with ease, quickly deepening the kiss and wrapping his arms around me again. I smiled against his mouth.
When we eventually pulled away from each other, we were both breathing heavily and smiling like maniacs.
“All this time,” Steve said. “All this time, the cure was right under my nose. It was you. You’re my true love.”
I nodded and giggled, “And you’re mine.”
Steve frowned, squinting at something behind me in disbelief.
“What is it?” I asked before I turned around. That’s when I knew that this really was a miracle Christmas. Because outside it was snowing. Actually Snowing.
That’s when I knew that everything was going to be okay. Everything was going to work out just fine. I had Steve and Stacey. I was in love. And everything was going to be okay.
That is, as long as I kept out of the way of cats for a while.
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THERE'S AN EPILOGUE!!! :p
vote please for the watty awards <3