Saturday, December 12th. 13 days 'till Christmas...
Ariel's family had only been in town twenty-four hours and they were already driving Eric crazy. Between her sisters constantly arguing and her dad nitpicking everything to make Eric feel inferior, Eric knew if he didn't get them out of the house and keep them busy, he'd never survive to see Christmas.
It was his personal assistant, Anya's, idea to take them all to the Winter Festival. While the town of Maldonia goes all- out for Christmas, not everyone celebrates Christmas. So, for one weekend every December, Main Street and the town square shut down for a full- on festival for everyone to celebrate together; regardless of their holiday.
As soon as they arrived, everyone split up to partake in the different activities and check out the booths. Eric and Ariel went to the skating rink. Last year they had gone to the Festival together, but while they were ice skating, Eric fell, taking Ariel down with him and she sprained her ankle. They spent the majority of the rest of the day at the hospital and because she had to stay off her foot, they never made it back to the Festival and missed out on everything else.
After putting on their ice skates, Eric took Ariel's hand and they made their way onto the ice. Ariel glided a little bit ahead of him and did a couple of twirls. Eric, on the other hand, could barely stay on his feet on the ice. Prior to dating Ariel, he had never gone ice skating. Snowboarding was more his sport. In fact, every year he and John would go to Colorado the weekend before Christmas to go snowboarding. They would have been going next weekend if Ariel's family weren't here.
Ariel skated back over to Eric and took his hand to help him keep his balance.
"Good luck, sweetie." John's younger sister, Aurora, skated up to them. "Nothing on Earth could keep Eric from falling on the ice."
Ariel and Aurora laughed. Eric stuck his tongue out at Aurora. Aurora's boyfriend, Phillip, joined Aurora them a moment later; followed by Leah and Stefan, Aurora and John's stepdad.
"How in the world did you get Eric to agree to ice skating?" Leah asked Ariel.
"Guilt," Ariel replied, half kidding. "He owes me for last year."
Eric sighed. "You sprain your girlfriend's ankle one time and you never live it down..."
"If you keep letting him hold on to you for balance, it's gonna happen more than one time," Aurora joked.
"You make an excellent point." Ariel gently removed her hand from Eric's. "Maybe you should sit this one out, Eric."
Eric grabbed the wall for support. "Gladly."
"If you want some company while Ariel skates, John is over at the hot chocolate bar," Leah said.
Eric made his way off the ice and, after returning his skates, went over to the hot chocolate bar. The hot chocolate bar was a long table nearly the length of the ice rink that had everything one could want to top their hot chocolate with from whipped cream, to sprinkles, to different kinds of marshmallows, candies, and baked goods. After pouring himself a cup, Eric made his way down to the baked goods section where he found John. John was placing a brownie piece on his small mound of whipped cream and didn't notice Eric. Eric reached over and snatched the brownie from John's cup.
"Hey!" John turned towards him. When he saw it was Eric, he laughed. Eric tossed the brownie piece back at him and John caught in his mouth. He then grabbed a couple more brownie pieces and stuck them in the whipped cream.
Eric reached around John for the shaker of broken candy cane pieces. He dumped a bunch into his hot chocolate, then stirred it with a full- sized candy cane.
"How's everything going with Ariel's family so far?" John asked, as they made their way down the table.
"It's going, I guess. I think as long as I keep them busy, it won't be too bad."
They reached the candy section. "Sounds like it's going to be a hectic couple of weeks for you." John picked up a piece of peppermint bark and handed it to Eric.
Eric looked down at it. Eric didn't have a sweet tooth; the only thing sugary he liked was chocolate peppermint. No one really knew that, though, since he only ever ate sweets around Christmas; and even then it was still rare, so most people didn't notice he only ever ate or drank something that was chocolate peppermint. He never bothered to tell anyone because it seemed insignificant. John knew, though. Eric never told him, but at some point John just sort of figured it out.
"We're all still hoping you'll make it for Christmas," John said as they moved to the end of the table. He scooped some chocolate sprinkles over his drink.
"I'll try to stop by, but I really don't know how the day is gonna go."
"It wouldn't be the same without you there."
OOOOO
"I can't believe you dragged me here," Meg told Anya. "Even when I'm not skipping Christmas, I don't come to this thing."
Meg looked around the Winter Festival. They were in the town square, where dozens of booths were set up and people were selling everything you'd expect to find at a holiday marketplace; non- denominational or otherwise.
Anya made them stop at a booth selling scented candles and she was currently smelling each and every one to find the perfect one for her grandma.
"Which one do you like better?" Anya asked, holding out two candles and completely ignoring Meg's complaining. One candle had red wax and the other had white.
"If the red one is cinnamon, I vote for the white one," Meg replied.
Anya rolled her eyes and set the red candle down. "You've got to be the only person in the world who doesn't like the scent of cinnamon."
"That can't be true."
Anya shrugged and picked up a candle with blue wax. "Seems like it." She sniffed the candle and made a face before putting it back.
"Your grandma always uses an artificial tree; maybe you should get her a pine tree scented candle so your house will smell more like Christmas."
"Finally something constructive from you." Anya browsed the candles until she found a green one with a picture of a Christmas tree on the jar. She sniffed it and smiled. "This is perfect."
After Anya paid for the candle, they continued walking through market.
"I know you're skipping Christmas to avoid having to make amends with your sister, but will you still come to my house Christmas morning?" Anya asked.
"Yes. I've decided I'm only skipping mine and Proteus' Christmas traditions. I'm not doing a full holiday boycott."
Anya smiled. "Good. I was worried that after last night, you might be upset with Aladdin and me."
"I was a little upset last night because it felt like you guys were ganging up on me. But, after thinking about it, I know you meant well and I was being a little too drastic."
Anya briefly paused at a booth selling knitted scarves, but then continued on. "Have you told Proteus?"
"Not yet. I'm not looking forward to that conversation."
"You should do it sooner rather than later."
Meg nodded. "I know. Maybe I'll go over to his place tomorrow."
"Good idea."
"You know what would be a really good idea? Going home and getting out of this cold."
"And an even better idea would be for you to stop complaining."
Meg wrapped her arms tightly around herself. "Nope. The complaining is keeping me warm."
"Then it's a wonder you're not sweating." Anya laughed at her own joke.
"Yeah, yeah. You're hilarious. But, seriously; I'm freezing."
"Well, I still have a lot more Christmas shopping to do and I plan on getting as much of it done here as possible. I'd rather support locals than chain stores," Anya said. "So, if you really don't want to stay, you don't have to. Honestly, it'd be easier to shop for you without you here." Anya winked at her.
"Yeah, I'm probably gonna leave. I'm gonna go home and try to decide what I'm gonna say to Proteus tomorrow."
Anya stopped walking and looked at her. "Listen. Obviously Proteus is not going to like your plan. When he objects to it, don't be so combative and defensive like you were with Aladdin and me last night. Explain your side of it to him while also taking his feelings into account, okay?"
"I'll try."
"No, Meg; you have to. Don't let this drive a wedge between you and your brother or you may lose him like you lost your sister."