Thursday, December 26

Finally, a day to myself. The last number of days have been filled with family gatherings and boring Christmas get togethers for my parents' businesses and other elite social groups. I really don't like the people that my family associates with; they're so entitled, snobby and just plain rude. One person actually asked me if I planned on doing anything useful with my life. In those words. Who does that?

I climb out of my giant tub and let the now cold water drain. with my silky robe wrapped around me I let my hair out of its bun so it falls messily around my face. I venture out into my bedroom and turn on the fireplace, sitting in one of the chairs and sorting through the presents that I got this year. I have everything I could ever want, so most of it is just more junk that I'll use a few times and then never touch again. It's pathetic, really. My family shouldn't even give each other gifts, but every year they never fail to get more expensive, with more and more boxes under the tree every time. I'm not even sure how my parents know what to buy is since they don't know us at all. My mom mostly gets me clothes, shoes, jewelry, and bags from all the expensive stores she likes. She may be a bitch, but the woman has fabulous taste in clothes.

My favourite gift is one that Mason gave me. He knows how much I want to travel, so he got me One journal for each country that I've ever said I wanted to visit. He got them all, too; I have no idea how. Each journal is a different colour with different words or designs on the covers. It's a perfect gift, one that actually means something to me.

I haven't seen Harry since Sunday; we've both been busy for the holidays and it's a lot harder for me to just leave and sleep over at his place. My parents keep an annoyingly close eye on us when they're home for some reason. I'm supposed to go over to his house tonight, though, and I could not be more excited.

I still can't get over the fact that Harry told me he loves me. That's a huge deal. I haven't said it back to him, but he doesn't seem bothered at all. In fact, he seems happier, lighter somehow. I want to say that I love him, I do...but I just don't know if I can, or if I'm even there yet. It just doesn't feel right. At least he's not pressuring me to say anything; he seems perfectly happy with me not saying anything at all. He's waiting until I'm ready, which is all I can ask for.

"Sav?"

"Yeah, I'm in here!" I call out. Mason walks into my room and sets himself in the my other chair. "What's up?"

"Nothing, I'm bored. What are you doing today?"

"Nothing, but I'm going out tonight."

"Ah," he says, nodding his head in understanding. "Have you and...have you guys exchanged gifts?"

"No, we're doing that tonight," I say quietly, smiling to myself at how uncomfortable Mason is right now. "What did you get Kylie?"

"Well we haven't been together that long, so we agreed to keep it small this year. So mom gave me a bag that I can give her, one from Milan I think. And I got her this weird charm thing she wanted for her car, you know those things that hang from the mirror? One of those."

"Right," I say, nodding my head.

"And then I got her two charms for her Pandora bracelet."

"Wow, that's your idea of keeping it small?" I laugh. He shrugs and smiles to himself as he slouches down into his seat. "Are mom and dad home?"

"Yeah, they're downstairs. I think they're both working. Do you want to do something? I'm dying of boredom."

"Where's Kylie?"

"Am I not allowed to hang out with my sister?"

"Mason."

"She has a family thing," he admits quietly. I laugh and stand up. "Seriously though, we haven't hung out in forever."

"Okay, just let me get dressed. What do you want to do?"

---

"AH!"

I jump and throw popcorn all over myself and Mason. He nudges me with his elbow and proceeds to clean himself off.

"Seriously?" he asks harshly.

"What! I told you I didn't want to watch this," I whisper back. We decided to go to a movie and he insisted on seeing a horror, of course. He loves them, but I can't stand them.

"Alright well try to control yourself. It's almost over."

After the movie we walk around the mall a bit, not to shop but mostly to watch people. Sounds creepy, but we always do this for some reason.

"Okay, that girl there," he says, pointing to a slightly overweight blonde staring at a fudge store, "is on a super strict diet. She's practically drooling over that fudge, trying to convince herself that she doesn't need it. But she'll cave and buy a whole pound's worth and eat it all in one sitting."

"That's so mean!" I say disapprovingly. I look around and spot a married couple, holding hands but looking completely pissed off. "Look, it's our parents twenty years ago. Acting like a couple, dressing the part, looking together but completely miserable and pissed off at the world."

He laughs and nods his head. "Yeah, I see it."

"I miss this," I say, linking my arm through his. "We never hang out anymore."

"You're never home anymore," he counters.

"Yeah well, when you are home Kylie is with you 99% of the time."

"Fair enough. We should make a pact. One night a week we hang out together. We're going to be going to college soon and then you'll miss me way too much."

I laugh and he smiles smugly at me. "Okay, deal."

"Good. When do you have to be home?"

"Soon, I have to wrap Harry's gift yet. Speaking of Harry, he's taking me on a trip next week."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Yeah, we're leaving Sunday and we're going away for New Year's Eve. I need to think of something to tell mom and dad. Do you know when they're leaving again?"

He shrugs. "I think they may have said they're leaving tomorrow actually. But they're coming back for that thing at school. Dad has a meeting with the Board of Directors."

"That's not until after school starts again, right?" He nods and I smile to myself. That means my parents won't be home when I leave and it'll be easy for me to get away. I won't have to make anything up.

"You two are pretty serious, aren't you?" he asks. I look up at him and try not to roll my eyes at the slight disgust on his face.

"Yeah, I guess we are. I know it's weird but if you knew him outside of school you would totally understand, Mase. He's so great."

"Is he good to you? Does he treat you right?"

"Yes," I laugh. "We fight, but that's normal. I've never felt...safer."

"I guess that's good," he says quietly. "I don't like it at all but...you seem really happy lately. I'm assuming he's the reason for that." I nod. "How did this even happen? Like...how do you just start seeing a teacher?"

"It's a long story and a very complicated one that I don't have the energy to tell. Honestly, I don't even know how it happened. When I met him the first day I felt sort of drawn to him, but I obviously didn't expect any of this to happen," I tell him honestly. It's true. I never ever pictured myself falling for him. But I think I did.

"Sav, you realize that even after we graduate it's going to be hard for you guys to tell people, right? Everyone is going to know that you met while he was your teacher, even if you don't tell them you started dating this year. It's still going to be really weird. The school won't like it, that's for sure and mom and dad won't be very happy."

"I haven't really thought about all of that," I say tiredly. The thought of working everything out is just exhausting. "I don't know how it's going to work. Maybe I'll go away for college and he'll just come with me and we can start over somewhere else."

"You went from not dating at all to having literally them most complicated relationship you could possibly have," he says, laughing lightly. Good to see he's not angry about it.

"Yeah, I'm not sure how that happened," I agree, laughing a little as well. "Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now."

---

I walk up the steps to Harry's place with his present in hand. We, like Mason and Kylie, agreed to keep things small. We put a fifty dollar limit on our gifts for each other, which is actually nice. I have no idea what I would get him. Even finding this one was hard. I knock once on his door before walking in.

"Harry?" I call.

"Be down in a minute!"

I laugh a little, thinking he is probably still wrapping my gift. Typical guy. I put mine under is little tree and lay down on the couch while I wait for him. I got Harry a bunch of movies to add to his collection and a new shirt. Simple enough, which is what we agreed. I also brought him one of my sweaters as a joke, since I'm always stealing his stuff. It's a massive one from a university I visited once. I drown in it, so I'm thinking it might actually fit him.

"Harry, what are you doing up there!" I shout. He doesn't respond, but a few minutes later he comes down the stairs with a small stack of boxes in his hands. "Finally."

He laughs and shakes his head as he walks over to me. He leans over me and gives me a quick kiss before disappearing into the kitchen for something.

"What did you do today?" I ask him.

"Nothing really. I marked some exams," he says nonchalantly.

"So, you did nothing all day and you waited until five minutes before I came to start wrapping presents?" I tease. He laughs and I get up to walk over to him. He's making hot chocolate.

"I forgot," he admits. He wraps an arm around my shoulders as I get close to him. "I find wrapping gifts kind of pointless anyway."

"Why's that?"

"What is the point of spending money on decorated paper just so that the person can rip it to pieces?"

"Wow," I laugh. "So cynical."

"Just saying, it's a waste of money," he continues, smiling. "But I did it anyway, just for you."

"I feel so special," I say sarcastically. He looks down at me and I wrap my arms around him.

"You should. I don't wrap presents for just anyone."

"You're so weird," I laugh. I stand on my tip toes to press my lips to his. He puts his free hand against my cheek and slowly slides it into my hair. I haven't kissed him in four days and I can definitely feel that now.

"Shit," he mutters, pulling back suddenly. The kettle whistles and he keeps one arm around me, but goes back to making the drinks.

"What?" I ask, trying not to whine. I just want to kiss him.

"You can't kiss me like that," he says, smirking at me. "I can't control myself."

Heat rises in my cheeks and I release him to go back to my spot on the couch. He finishes with the drinks and I hear him spray whipped cream on them. Fancy.

"Thanks," I say quietly, taking the warm cup in my hands. He sits directly beside me and puts his arm around me again. "How was your Christmas?"

He smiles at me again and my heart starts to race. "It was great. Liam's parents are basically my parents, so it was nice to see them again. They even got me some gifts, which I really wasn't expecting. Plus, his mother is an amazing cook. I probably gained ten pounds."

"Right," I laugh. Like that's possible.

"How was your week?"

"It was fine," I say, shrugging. "Mason got me a nice gift and my parents were superficial as usual."

"That's too bad," he says, taking a sip of his drink. He brings the cup away from his lips and I giggle at him. "What?"

"You have whipped cream on your face," I inform him. He smiles and takes another sip, making sure to get even more around his lips. I laugh and he sets his drink down, taking mine as well. "What are you doing, I'm not done."

"I know, I just need your help for a second," he explains. He quickly leans in towards me and kisses all over my face, leaving remnants of the whipped cream all over me. I giggle and try to push him back, put he just pushes me down and pins me against the couch.

"You're so annoying," I whine when he's finally done. He laughs, clearly proud of himself. I can;t help but laugh as well.

"Here, let me help you," he offers. He kisses me again in all the same places but slower this time, gently sucking on each spot to clean up the mess he made. My heart starts beating out of control and I reach down for the bottom of his shirt, starting to pull it up over his body. He pulls back, normally an action that means he's going to help. Instead he just smirks at me.

"Control yourself, babe. We have presents to open."

I roll my eyes and release his shirt, wiping his top lip with my thumb since there's still some whipped cream there. He kisses my lips then, gently and slowly in anticipation. So unfair.

"I don't really want to wait," I breathe when he pulls back. He chuckles and lifts himself off of me, sitting on the ground in front of the tree. Apparently he suddenly has some self control. How convenient. I slowly get up and he spreads his legs so I can sit between them, leaning my back against his chest and resting my hands on his legs. He reaches beside him for a gift and puts it in my hands. I rip open the packaging and pull out some shampoo, conditioner, body wash and shaving cream with some razors.

"So...what are you trying to tell me there, Harry?" I ask, leaning to the side so I can look up at him. He laughs lightly.

"This is stuff you can keep here," he explains. "So you can shower here and not worry about smelling like me."

"Aww," I coo, looking back at the presents. "Thanks, baby." I open one lid and take in the scent. Smells like lavender. "Nice."

"Okay, next one," he says suddenly. He hands me another but I shake my head.

"Your turn." I sit forward and reach for one of his presents, the shirt. It's another plaid button up, since he seems to really like those and I stole his favourite one. He laughs a little as he pulls it out of the box.

"Does this mean I'm not getting mine back?" he asks softly in my hear. I shiver a little at the feeling of his lips against my skin and shake my head. "Good to know. Thank you."

"You are welcome. Okay, give me that one," I say, reaching for the one I was supposed to open a minute ago. I rip it open and pull out a pair of fuzzy boot slippers. "Oh my gosh! How did you know I wanted these?"

"I didn't, but apparently it was a good guess," he says. I can here the smirk in his voice. I rip the tags off and immediately slide them on before handing him his next gift. He opens up the box full of movies and I sit up and turn around so I'm facing him, my legs overlapping his and stretched out behind his body.

"Some of those may have already been used," I tell him. He smirks at me and looks through them. "But I know you don't have any of these. Most of them are romantic comedies."

"My favourite," he says, winking at me. I laugh and nod my head. "Thanks, this is great. We were running out of movies to watch."

"Yeah, if you made me watch Love, Actually one more time I would probably kick you."

"Hey," he points a finger at me, "that's a classic." I just laugh and he hands me another box. It's small and I can immediately tell that it's a jewelry box. I look at him skeptically. "What?"

"Harry, we set a limit. Jewelry is too expensive."

"You haven't even opened it yet!" I raise my eyebrows at him and he rolls his eyes with smile on his face. "I didn't spend a penny on it, I promise."

I look at him for another moment before hesitantly unwrapping the box. I fold open the velvet casing and I laugh a little. This doesn't look like it belongs in the box. I lift out a silver chain with a small cross hanging from it. It's simple, but it's actually really beautiful.

"I wore this every day for about ten years," he explains. "I forgot to wear it the first day of school this year, the day I met you. It sounds weird but..I don't know, it just felt like more than coincidence so I left it off. Now I want you to have it."

My heart could practically burst at hows sweet this gesture is. I immediately pull it over my head and around my neck before leaning forward to kiss him.

"Thank you," I mumble. "I love it."

"You're welcome," he says lowly, pressing his lips to mine again. I put my hands on either side of his face and kiss him harder for a few seconds before pulling back and setting my last one in his lap. He sighs and smiles crookedly at me before opening it as well. He lifts up the sweater and looks at me questioningly.

"That's actually mine," I inform him. I figure I'm always stealing your clothes, so you should wear mine too. Plus, it's like four sizes too big on me."

"It's massive," he agrees, laughing. "I would put it on right now, but that would be pointless."

"What?"

"Come on," he says, standing and holding his hand out to me. He pulls me to my feet and suddenly picks me up, carrying me to the stairs. "I can't wait any longer."

Notes

another update wooo. just wanted to get another up for tonight cuz i was procrastinating :P booo homework. also i would have written more so that we could throw some smut in there, but i just dont have the energy for that right now :P
also, i skipped all the christmas stuff because ive written that before and its just so annoying to go through all of it. i feel like its unnecessary. so i just didnt include it. i might have more motivation to do it if it was actually christmas but its not so i dont.

so yeahhhh this chappie was just kinda cute i think. needed to get some creative juices out of me. i hope you guys liked it :)

please comment!! i wanna know that you guys still love the storyyy :)

and vote please :)

thanks so much for reading guys it means the world to me <3