Disclaimer- I don't own anything.
December 23
Re-creating the past with Grandma Rose
Massie woke up and rolled over only to come face to face with Derrick. She remembered last night when she found out that Derrick had to share a room with her. Although Derrick volunteered to take the couch or sleep on the floor, she just felt rude. Friends could sleep in the same bed together and nothing would be awkward. Right?
Boy was she wrong about that one.
The first awkward situation was when she forgot that Derrick had to sleep in his boxers in order to get the perfect night's sleep. When he ripped off his shirt, Massie couldn't help but stare at his perfect abs. When he caught her stare he just gave his cocky grin that made Massie roll her eyes and turn over to face the other side.
Number two of the awkward situations was accidently hitting her bare foot against Derrick's leg every five seconds. She muttered, "Sorry" each time but that didn't kill the awkward silence that was happening.
Lastly was the awkward fact that Derrick- the boy who hasn't spoken to her in about five years- was laying right beside her. There is nothing more awkward than sharing a bed with your ex-boyfriend.
"Knock, Knock." Grandma Rose said as she entered the room carrying in waffles and toast with strawberries on a tray. Massie and Derrick both sat up with confused looks on their faces. "It's tradition first morning here, breakfast in bed."
"Gram, that was back when-"Derrick started to say before cut off by Grandma Rose.
"It doesn't matter if you guys are a couple or not all that matters are you guys are together again." Grandma Rose said, staring at both of us with tears brimming her eyes. She sucked in a breath then handed us the tray of food. "Enjoy."
She left the room and the two of them sat in silence until Derrick finally spoke up, "We better eat before she comes back in here."
"It looks delicious," Massie said, plopping a strawberry into her mouth.
They began eating in silence, it seemed like when they were together it was always silent. It was mostly because neither one of them knew what to say and didn't want to be the first one to start up a conversation. Massie knew that this "friends" thing was never going to happen if there was no talking so she decided to speak up. She knew Derrick would never work up the courage to talk, especially after what he had done to her…
That's all in the past, she reminded herself.
"So there is a lot of snow outside," Massie blurted out.
Massie wanted to slap herself in the face. After all, of that silence and all of the questions, she spent five years coming up with just in case she saw him again, that was all she could say. A lot of snow outside?
"I would say at least five inches, there was big storm a couple days ago." Derrick replied. "Luke told me all about it last night, there should be more snow coming today."
As they continued eating breakfast Derrick continued rambling on and on about the weather. He talked about the weather here and the weather way down in Florida where Kemp and Alicia were staying for Christmas. Who knew that he knew so much about the weather or even cared about the weather in general?
"How do you know so much about the weather?" Massie laughed, finishing the last piece of her toast.
"I don't know, I was just trying to fill the silence." Derrick joined in laughing but Massie could tell that he was slightly embarrassed for his rambling.
Suddenly the door burst open and Grandma Rose entered the room carrying coats, scarves, mittens, and gloves. "Time to put up some Christmas lights!"
XoXo
Massie knew that Stacey always insisted on putting Christmas lights up because she said without Christmas lights outside then the house just lacked the Christmas spirit. Every year, -when Massie and Derrick were together- they always put up the Christmas lights together and Grandma Rose made sure that tradition didn't die either.
Right now Massie was holding the ladder for Derrick as he strung twinkling lights from the roof. This was the last thing they had to do before they were finished with the Christmas lights and she had to admit that they made a great team because the yard looked like a Christmas fairytale.
"Massie, do you remember the one year you climbed up the ladder then were too scared to climb back down?" Derrick said as he finished putting up the last set of lights.
"I can't say I remember that," Massie lied, looking down at the snow.
She remembered it perfectly, it was the day that she knew she was never going to get over her fear of heights. When she looked down and saw how far away the ground was she never felt more scared in her life. So, instead of climbing the ladder she sat up on top of the roof.
"You sat on the roof and started screaming." Derrick laughed at himself.
"No I didn't!" Massie protested, gripping onto the ladder thinking about tipping the ladder so Derrick goes flying down to the ground.
"Derrick, Derrick! Save me I'm so afraid!" Derrick said in his girly, high-pitched voice that was supposed to resemble Massie's.
"I never said that!" Massie shook the ladder a bit trying to make him stop. "I have your life in my hands so you better watch it Harrington!"
Derrick started climbing down the ladder with a grin plastered on his face.
"You think you're so funny, don't you?" Massie asked as his feet hit the ground.
"To this day that story still makes me laugh, I was planning on telling that story to our grandkids." Derrick said.
"Well, we will never have grandkids so I guess I don't have to worry about that." Massie said shoving her hands in her pockets.
"Your right, in order to have grandkids we will need kids first." Derrick smiled.
"Yeah, just what the world needs is a little miniature Derrick running around." Massie laughed flicking some snow in his face.
His face scrunched up when the cold, wet snow hit his face. He wiped his face with his glove-covered hand and playfully screamed, "You asked for it!"
Derrick started quickly picking up snow and started throwing it straight at Massie. The snow started hitting her and she started to run away, laughing.
"Okay, Derrick this is war." Massie shouted.
"Hold on I have to find my army." Derrick said, and then ran around to the back of the house.
What is he doing? Massie thought.
He came back with Luke, and his father Daniel following behind him dressed in the there snow jackets. So this is what he meant by an army.
They heard the front door open and in there snow outfits out came Tabitha, Sammy, and Stacey.
"We're on Massie's team!" Sammy shouted.
Snow started flying everywhere and all you could hear was laughter. The awkward silences were broken.
XoXoX
"Queen me." Massie placed her checker down and smiled.
"You're still the same Massie." Derrick placed a checker on the board. "It's like nothing has changed."
"Really? You seem different." Massie took a sip of the hot chocolate Derrick made her. He always made it perfect for her, four little marshmallows, not too hot and extra chocolate. It was complete perfection.
"How?"
"Well for starters, you used to always beat me at checkers." Massie swiped Derrick's last checker off the board with a smirk.
Derrick's eyes widened at the board. "You cheater!"
"But you're still a sore loser." Massie laughed then walked over and sat by the fireplace. She was still a little cold from there snowball fight outside.
"So, I never asked you what you ended up doing with your life." Derrick sat down beside her.
"I'm a guidance counselor at OCD." Massie took another sip of hot chocolate.
"Why?" Derrick asked. He seemed confused. "I thought you wanted to be a fashion model or a county pop singer."
Massie slammed him on his bicep for remembering those silly dreams. "Those were my high school dreams, Derrick."
"I thought they were good dreams." Derrick smiled down at her. Massie couldn't tell if he was joking with her or if he was serious. With Derrick, it was always hard to tell the difference between funny and serious.
"I'm not tall enough to be a model and I can't sing at all."
"That's true, you are tone deaf." Derrick nodded his head.
"Yeah and you have the voice of Josh Groban." Massie rolled her eyes and nudged his shoulder.
"I don't like to brag."
The two of them started laughing and the fire started to die down. Thinking back, Massie realized that Grandma Rose did create the past. This was exactly what it was like on Christmas six years ago. Laughing, fighting, and feeling butterflies in her stomach. It was all the things that she and Derrick did in the past. Although in life you can't live in the past, you have to move forward into the future.
Authors note-
First of all, I'm so happy with all the reviews and alerts I got for this story. They truly do make me smile (a little corny but it's true).
Also I'm really trying to keep posting up chapters and I promise that I will finish this story this time and I won't delete it.
Thanks! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas :)
