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Here it is (a STORY! I knOW!):
Reality’s Take On a Charlie Brown Christmas
Lucy stared at Joey’s Christmas tree with her mouth falling to the floor. Seeing her face, he simply smiled sheepishly and stumbled on his words. “Well, uh. You see, Christmas is a, uh, a really, REALLY big thing at my house. Especially this year. Because of college next year, and, uh, yeah, you know.”
Yeah. Sure I know, Lucy thought, her eyes transfixed on the mountains and valleys of presents. Me? Who never believed in Santa Claus… Who never had the chance to… Who never got anything for Christmas. Ever. She was consumed by her jealousy. Again. What is WRONG with me? she thought. Joey is just trying to be nice, having me over for Christmas Eve, keeping me from my psycho family, and all I can do is fume that he’s better off? GET WITH THE PICTURE, LUCY!!!!!
“Lucy?”
“Huh?”
“Are you OK? You totally zoned out right there!” Joey’s eyes were full of concern, and Lucy belittled herself for thinking bad about him. He was just trying to give her a better Christmas than she’d have stuck at home. “Anyway, I’ve got something for you.”
“What?! I… I thought we decided we wouldn’t do anything for Christmas since I was invited over and you know I can’t buy anything right now and I’m awful at making stuff.”
“We did. But I wanted to. Here.” Joey handed Lucy a small box, meticulously wrapped in metallic gold paper with red ribbon and a matching bow. At least it’s small… Both of the teens went to the couch in front of the fireplace, the fire’s smile crackling furiously, and sat down; Joey fidgeted nervously while Lucy slowly (very slowly) opened the package.
“Oh. My. God.”
Lucy could hardly believe her eyes. It was a bracelet, silver links with a silver heart, decorated with real diamonds, hanging in the middle. She tried to talk, but could only stutter out incoherent phrases. “But… But…. Oh my god… W-why?... I… I didn’t get you…. GAH!!!!” She finally gave up, exasperated and exhausted with the effort to express the tumult of thoughts and feelings swelling in her body, thisclose to breaking out and covering the walls in the slimy, pure mushiness of teenage emotion.
“Luce, it’s OK. I wanted to get you this… I… I guess, well... I like you. Well, that’s obvious; you’re my best friend. But I mean, REALLY like you. More than I used to. More than friend-like. More like girlfriend-like. AKA: Will you be my girlfriend? Gimme a shot… Please?” His last sentence, that one word, was said in such a small voice, so desperate and craving for her to make or break him with one of two words: yes or no, that she had to smile. Should she? Lately she had been thinking more and more of him, and he was right; it was more than just friend-like. But did she really want to risk their friendship if it didn’t work out? Well, either way, normal friendship is lost; we both know we like each other.
“…yes.”
***
Joey walked Lucy home that night, the flush on his cheeks more from happiness, the slight temporary awkwardness that change the new relationship had left, and excitement of what would come of it, than from the cold air. They reached her front door.
Lucy counted to five before swallowing a goblet of the stale, recycled air that seemed to surround her neighborhood and probing a sensitive subject for the both of them.
“Wanna come over tomorrow morning?”
And with Joey’s reply, the recycled air of the past mixed with the tender air of the here and now and left Lucy with a bittersweet taste of what Christmas would bring: happiness, a thing she had never truly belonged to in her own home, or rather, despair, destruction, and the normality of her life that would crush the new hope that Christmas Eve had presented her, wrapped in metallic gold paper and red ribbon, with a matching red bow on top.
-Wolven Poet December 26, 2006
The Love Mutt · Tue Dec 26, 2006 @ 03:42pm · 0 Comments |
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