A/N: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! I just thought I'd write a little short fluffer for the holidays. It's not the best I've ever written, but I like it. Tell me what you think, just because I'm in the giving feeling, I'll give you an iPod mini-razor-phone-coffeemaker-nano if you can find the symbolism!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything!
"MERRRRRR CHRISSMASSS!"
Cindy, Libby, and Brittany laughed, dodging the holiday silly string being sprayed at them by Nick and Butch as they walked into Betty Quinlan's annual Christmas party.
"Girls!" came a light, fluffy voice from the steps. Betty Quinlan. She had a glass of egg nog in her hand and wore the most beautiful pink dress Cindy had ever seen. Betty reached in to give Cindy a hug and said, "It's so nice to see you all. I'm so happy you came!" Guessing by the large amount of egg nog in her glass, Cindy guessed Betty was waiting to get completely smashed before all of her guests arrived. How classy.
"Well, your Christmas parties are always so fabulous! How could we miss it?" Cindy said, putting her bag down and smoothing out her new, just as gorgeous, red dress, making sure Betty noticed.
"Yeah, we've been looking forward to this for so long," Libby said, setting her bag next to Cindy's. "There haven't been any decent parties lately."
Betty smiled, taking a swig of her egg nog. "So true."
As Betty, Brittany, and Libby started a conversation about something Cindy didn't really care about, she made her way to the kitchen and grabbed a glass of Betty's homemade red-dyed egg nog. She took a gulp and walked into the living room, where Butch and Nick were singing their versions of Christmas songs and trying to balance on top of a keg.
Cindy sat down and got comfortable. She looked around the party - no Jimmy.
Cindy had finally admitted to herself that she had feelings for Jimmy. Even though they had been just friends for the past 7 years, Cindy sometimes got the feeling that he still felt the same way she thought he did back in 5th grade. Now at 17, Cindy was ready to tell Jimmy how she felt and she decided tonight was the night to do it.
It must have been an hour later when Nick and Butch finally passed out and stopped singing. Cindy looked around the party - still no Jimmy.
Where was he? she thought.
Suddenly, a glimmer of pink caught her eye. It was Betty. She was walking and talking with someone, but Cindy couldn't quite see who it was. As the couple made their way closer to Betty's living room, Cindy's eyes widened. It was Jimmy. He looked fantastic. He had on a black t-shirt with a brown leather jacket over it and the best pair of jeans Cindy had ever seen Jimmy wear, not the usual dad jeans that didn't flatter his butt at all.
"Cindy!" Jimmy said, walking away from Betty and over to Cindy. "It's so good to see you!" Cindy sat up and ran over as he pulled her into a long, comfortable hug.
"You look beautiful," Jimmy said.
Cindy blushed and gave him a wink. "You don't look bad yourself, Jimmy. I love those jeans!"
"Thanks. I bought them today." he said, blushing a little.
"Well," Betty said, interrupting their moment, "Jimmy and I were just talking about his latest invention. Apparently, there's Nobel buzz about it." Cindy was too impressed with Jimmy to notice Betty inching closer and closer to him.
"You little nerd!" Cindy said, lightly hitting him on the arm, "That's great! Why didn't you tell me?"
Jimmy blushed again and shrugged. "I don't know. I kind of wanted to keep it a secret, but," he looked over at Betty and smiled, "this one got it out of me."
Cindy's heart skipped a beat and looked over at Betty, who was holding Jimmy's arm, a smug look on her face.
"Oh," Cindy said, understanding why Betty invited Jimmy in the first place. "Well, can I get you a drink or something?"
"Actually, he's had a couple egg nogs already," Betty said, grinning, "Fixed them myself." What was she? His wife?
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Cindy decided to leave them alone. They obviously wanted to be together tonight. "Well, um, I think I'm going to go in the - outside or something." With that, she turned to leave without saying anything to either of them.
As she walked out, she could hear Jimmy saying, "Okay, I, uh, it was nice to see you Cindy!"
It just wasn't fair. This was supposed to be Cindy's night. She had been looking forward to this party for weeks, daydreaming about what would come of it. She had imagined her and Jimmy sitting together by the fire, Jimmy looking at her, only at her, and a glass of wine - or apple cider, whatever - in their hands. Just as a moment of silence came upon them, Jimmy would push a strand of hair away from her face, glide his fingers down to her chin and pull her in for a kiss.
In her dreams. How could she have been so naive? Jimmy had been pining for Betty ever since 5th grade. She could see that he still liked her too. Why else would he have told her about the Nobel Prize before he told Cindy? Why did he talk to her and drink with her instead of Cindy? It was always all about her.
It's okay. It's fine. He's just a boy. Just a stupid boy.
But she couldn't keep telling herself that. He wasn't just some stupid boy. She really liked Jimmy. She liked him a lot.
Just as she felt hot tears forming in her eyes and slowly running down her cheek, she grabbed her glass of holiday egg nog and poured it into Betty's lawn, the dyed liquid coming out like a huge red waterfall. Cindy quickly grabbed a napkin and stuck it in the glass to keep the liquid from leaking. The last thing Cindy wanted to do was clean up a mess she made on Betty's porch.
"Cindy?"
Cindy spun around to see none other than Jimmy, his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "Are you okay, Cindy?" Jimmy asked, stepping towards her.
She nodded, trying to sound like she didn't care. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just kind of starting to feel like a third wheel around you and Betty, that's all."
"Listen, Cindy," he said, "I don't - I mean, we aren't -"
Cindy shook her head. "Just forget it." She knew she was overreacting a little bit, but, at this point, she didn't care. She needed to leave before she said anything she would regret. Turning on her heel, she ran down the steps and onto the snow.
Wait. Snow?
Jimmy was standing right behind her when she turned around, her mind racing, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Is it snowing?" Cindy asked. Jimmy nodded, that adorable grin forming on his face. "But, it never snows in Retroville. It only snowed that one time when you -"
"When I was building my weather machine." he finished. Cindy nodded, getting even more confused because she could have sworn the mayor had banned him from messing with the weather. "I remember when I first made it snow, it was in the middle of summer, and you stayed out all day, playing in it." Cindy smiled as she remembered what a wonderful day that had been. "And when your mom finally made you go inside, you said you wished it would snow like that on Christmas. I remember."
Cindy looked up at the sky and watch little petals of snow fall down on the ground, in her hair, on Jimmy's jacket. She felt the warm tears coming back in her eyes as she realized how stupid she had been. Jimmy stepped closer to her and wiped a tear off of her cheek.
"I just wanted you to have a good Christmas," Jimmy said, combing his fingers through her hair. "And, for what it's worth, Cindy, I don't like Betty, not even as a friend, really. The only reason I came to this party was because you were going to be here."
Cindy nodded and looked down at her feet. "Thank you, Jimmy. This is the best Christmas present anyone could ever give me."
"Well, I have one more ingredient," he said as he pulled out something from his back pocket. It was mistletoe. Cindy blushed as Jimmy held it above her head, grinning like a little kid. Just like one of Cindy's dreams, he pushed a strand hair behind her ear, glided his fingers down her chin and pulled her in, gently, for a kiss.
When they broke away, Cindy smiled at Jimmy, dreamily, as Jimmy took Cindy's hand. "What's say we blow this popsicle stand and go back to my lab for - oh I don't know - a snowball fight?"
"Will there be hot chocolate?"
"Duh," Jimmy said, Cindy giggling. Jimmy pulled Cindy back into an embrace one last time and kissed her passionately. As they broke away, Cindy could feel the tickle of his breath on her skin as he whispered in her ear.
"Merry Christmas, Cindy."
A/N: Tell me what you think!
Merry Christmas!