"There," I said, pleased with myself, as I put the last ornament on my half of the tree. I glanced over, Connor's half had barely anything on it.

I must admit, I actually preferred having the tree up in the loft to having it downstairs. Not that I've have had a choice.

The only reason that we couldn't have the tree downstairs was that, simply enough, we couldn't carry its huge box downstairs. I mean, it would've been possible, but it took far too much effort and Connor and I were instinctively lazy. So we were stuck having it up here. Not that I could say I minded.

"Connor?" I walked over to where he was standing and propped my arm up on his shoulder.

He looked surprised when I called his name, like he had just realised I was standing next to him. "Hmmm?" He must've been in deep concentration, he didn't for one second look away from his bare tree.

"Do you need some help?" I asked. It had been close to 45 minutes since we started decorating the tree, and he had only put up two ornaments in that amount of time.

He shook his head. "You should go and finish your own side…after all, this is a race. If you waste all your time over here, I may just beat you, he said, grinning. Poor Connor. He was so proud of himself.

I gave him a nervous laugh. "Um…I wouldn't count on that if I were you," I said quietly.

He turned to look at me. At first, he looked confused, then started to look crushed as he realised what I meant. "Oh, Abby, you didn't…" He leaned around me to look at my finished half of the tree.

I looked down at the ground, starting to feel bad for ruining his good mood. "Yeah, sorry," I told him, flashing him an apologetic smile as I looked back up at him.

He shook his head, staring at his feet. "You win," he said sadly. His head suddenly popped back up. "Could you help with my half?" he asked me, his hands clasped together in front of him expectantly.

I nodded, a slight smile creeping across my face. "Yeah. Here, let me see that," I told him, nodding towards the ornament he held in his hand.

He looked down and noticed it, handing it over to me. "Right, sorry. Here." He watched carefully as I placed the ornament in the middle of the tree.

"How many more are there?" I asked him, even though I already knew the answer. 15-20, give or take.

He looked behind him and pointed to the box that sat, open, on the floor. "Everything in the box," he said, smiling sympathetically at me.