Two days before Christmas, and I'm almost done with the Christmas arc of this story. Finally.
So we meet Maria in this chapter. Not Lou or Melissa (Cole's other sister) yet, but they come next chapter. Just an FYI, in this world, Cole's family is half Italian, quarter French, and quarter Korean. I'll get further into that next chapter, but for now enjoy.
Journey owns the song used, not me.
After a bit more idle chat, Cole stopped in his driveway.
"We're here!"
Upon entering the house, things were quiet. Which seemed odd to Cole.
"Anyone home?"
"Living room!" A voice rang through the house. "Manolo!"
All of a sudden, a small grey schnauzer came bounding down to the group. The dog yipped as Cole got down to its level.
"Hey, Manolo! I missed you!" The dog proceeded to lick Cole all over the face. Then it went to inspect the others.
"Manny, down." A brunette teenage girl with thick rimmed glasses approached the group. The dog did as it was told. "Nice to see you, big bro."
"Nice to see you, too, little sis." Cole hugged his sister. "Guys, this is Maria, the older of my two younger sisters. Maria, this is my best friend Jay, my other best friend Zane, my girlfriend Bri, and her roommate Nya."
"Nice to finally put names to faces, especially the girl my brother hasn't shut up about since he came home last summer." Maria said as Cole rolled his eyes at her comment. She then noticed the sling holding Bri's arm. "What happened?"
"I landed on my hand ice skating. It wasn't pretty."
"Ouch." Maria winced.
"Where are the others?" Cole asked.
"Melissa has a competition in Amaryllis tomorrow. They'll be back tomorrow night."
"Crap. Forgot about that." Cole facepalmed.
"No worries. You guys want to go do karaoke? I'm meeting some friends there."
"We don't want to impose." Nya told her.
"Nonsense. I told them you were going to be staying here and they said it was cool." Maria waved her off. "Now, boys are in Cole's room, girls in the guest room. We'll head out around six."
Bri groaned as Maria's friends all flocked around her boyfriend. Well, they were doing it to Jay and Zane, too, but it was making her mad that they were oblivious to his rejection of their "advances."
"In hindsight, they did specifically ask if my brother was coming along." Maria sat down next to her.
"What?"
"It's obvious you're jealous. You've been staring at them and muttering death wishes for the past five minutes."
"Oh." Bri blushed.
"Nah, it's fine. I'm disappointed that they forgot about the rant I gave them when they first met Cole."
Bri laughed.
"How long have you two been together?" Maria asked next.
"Well, we met last December. We started dating in January, made it official in February."
"Wow." Maria chuckled to herself.
"What?" Bri asked.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but for the longest time I thought my brother was gay."
Bri, who was taking a sip of her drink, proceeded to choke.
"What?" She managed to get out.
"He never showed interest in girls when we were in school together. Although then again, he never showed interest in guys either, so I guess he could've been asexual."
"Actually I'm sure I'm demisexual." Cole said as he approached his sister and girlfriend.
"How'd you escape the piranhas?" Bri asked.
"I just told them that I needed a drink." Cole said as he called over the waiter.
"They are still going googoo eyes on you." Maria said.
"I have an idea." Cole then cupped his girlfriend's cheek and kissed on the lips. Maria laughed as her friends suddenly became disgusted and moved on.
"Who's next for some karaoke?" The DJ shouted from the booth.
Cole and Bri broke the kiss in annoyance, but then smirked at each other.
"Shall we?" Cole asked as he gestured to the stage.
"We shall." Bri took off the sling and grabbed his hand. A short argument later ("The doctor said I don't need it. I'm wearing it so people know to avoid that area."), they were on the stage.
'Just a small town girl
Living in a lonely world...'
"Oh great." Maria said as she sat with Nya. "This is his go-to song."
"Cool." Nya said, not really paying attention. She was irked at the teen girls going after Jay.
"I know that face. Do I have to go tell them off for you?"
"Huh?"
"I just had this same talk with Bri. I know jealousy when I see it." Maria told her. "That your boyfriend?"
"No!" Nya exclaimed before calming down. "No. He's not my boyfriend."
"Yet."
"Excuse me?"
"Yet. You want him to be your boyfriend. It's painfully obvious."
"Is it?" Nya blushed.
"I go to school with a bunch of lovesick teens. I know these things. What's stopping you from asking him out?"
"Um," Nya paused. What was stopping her? A flashback to the ice rink came up and the feelings of fear returned. "I need to use the bathroom." She said to escape.
Maria just sat there with a confused look on her face. Deciding not to linger on it, she went to go sing.
Yeah, if Nya seems OOC in this story, just you wait. I will reveal why next chapter. I am uploading to the end of the Christmas arc today, so keep an eye out, especially since Fanfiction has started this thing where if you update a story twice in 24 hours, it will only appear as if you updated the first time that day (at least on mobile).
Gold Medal Ninja
