Remember December

Remember December~ Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-One 

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The familiar male scent of Nick wafted to my nose before I saw him. Turning my head briefly I saw that he had sat beside me, arranging his desk so it was closer to mine. There were dark circles under his eyes that made my heart clench with worry. 

I knew it hadn’t been that long since the hotel, about 2 weeks, but I had hoped that by now the nightmares that had been plaguing Nick would have gone away. My hopes seemed to be in vain because not only had the dark circles gotten worse but I couldn’t help but notice how sunken in his cheeks looked. Had he not been eating? Nick loved eating. I guess all boys do, but he loved it. Everyone was supposed to be coming over to my place tonight to discuss what we were doing for Christmas, I would try to talk to Nick there.

It was December 10th and my birthday seemed like it was years ago, not just days. Nine days since I had the best kiss of my life, eight days of pretending it never ever happened. Cole and I acted like nothing was wrong, that it wasn’t difficult to be in the same room together without feeling awkward, but it wasn’t working out that great. Well, for me it wasn’t going that great. Cole seemed fine, he smiled at me, asked me questions about homework, hung out with me and our friends, and acted like the perfect guy friend. I, on the other hand, was a nervous, awkward, clumsy, idiotic mess when I was around him.

Every time I looked up into his face I couldn’t help but get lost in his eyes, or flash back to our kiss. It was well pass the ridiculous line and he probably thought I was insane. Maybe I was, who gets this crazy over a guy after one kiss? Not normal girls, let me tell you that. I had been kissed before, many times in fact, but none of those kisses, those guys, had had any type of affect on me. They were nice, but they never left me begging for more. 

Of course none of the guys had wanted to forget about it afterwards either.

Maybe that’s why this was bothering me so much, I reasoned. I decided I would stop fretting about it for now because all it was doing was giving me a huge headache. Coming back to reality, that’s when I noticed Nick was waving his hand in front of my face and yelling my name.

I blinked then looked over to him. “Huh?”

“God, I thought you had slipped into a coma or something! What were you thinking about so hard?” He asked me, concern but also amusement filling his tone.

I felt a blush flush my cheeks and I laughed awkwardly. “Uh, nothing. Hey, you’re still coming over tonight right?”

He scoffed. “Uh, of course! It’s tradition, we always go to your house to discuss Christmas plans.”

“There wouldn’t be a need to discuss Christmas plans if you guys would just let me spend it alone.” I muttered under my breath. Of course Nick heard me, or perhaps he knew what I was going to say anyways. It had been like this every year since I was 14.

His face softened and he spoke in a more serious tone. “December you know we’re not going to let you spend Christmas alone.”

I sighed, even though I loved that my friends cared about me so much. “But I’m such a bother Nick, everyone always has to change their plans for me. If it wasn’t for my stupid parents never being home for the holidays…”

“I know, but you know that we don’t mind! We love having a big Christmas together, just us wild teenagers.” At the last part we both smiled. Their parents (mine couldn’t be included since they didn’t even know about this) all assumed that on Christmas Eve we all partied and got wasted. It was so far from the truth it was laughable. Every Christmas Eve we all got together at my house and exchanged gifts for each other, having ourselves our own little Christmas. It wasn‘t ever a big affair, but it was always full of laughter and fun. “And anyways,” he continued, “It isn’t just for you this year, remember?”