I finished up my exams during the week and my way of celebrating was to write more. Considering I procrastinated like an asshole (by writing, go figure), I think I did okay on the exams thank God. Man, trying to be an adult is hard.
"So where's the Christmas tree?" I asked Derek as I smoothed out the creases in my deep red top, hoping that he was a little more festive than he lead on. Christmas was two weeks away, and no matter how old I got, I was always excited for it. Giving gifts, seeing the smiles on peoples' faces was a joyful experience for me. It was definitely thanks to my mom, who was such a selfless giver, that I inherited this trait.
"You're asking mister apathetic here about festivities? The guy probably doesn't even own a stocking." Tori scoffed. Tori had been living with us for five weeks now and only just recently had the brother-sister duo warmed up to each other. Finally they didn't have to go through me for their communications and I was thrilled to have been the person to help rekindle their relationship.
"C'mon, the apartment could use a bit of a festive makeover. Let's go out, and you have no excuse, Derek. I know your holidays started on Monday."
"That doesn't mean I don't have work to do." He refuted as he poured himself some coffee, cursing under his breath as some spilled over the rim of the mug and onto the kitchen counter. "But I could afford to go out and pick some things up from the store."
"Great, hurry up and get ready. Tori?" I turned to her.
She took a break from typing away on her keyboard and peered over her laptop screen to answer me. "Count me out, I've got other things to do."
Derek grumbled at his sudden change in plans and my urgency to get out of the apartment as he tipped the contents of his mug into a travel cup. He cursed himself once again as he spilled it, pinching the bridge of his nose. I supressed a laugh as his frustration peeked through, only to be met with an intense glare. That shut me up quickly enough.
I hastily pulled on a pair of boots and a scarf before heading down to the parking garage with Derek hot on my heels. When my car wouldn't start - curse the cold - he was left to drive once again. Secretly, I was grateful for this.
"You know, you really need an upgrade on that car of yours." He told me as he turned on the engine. The engine turned over effortlessly and I thought back to the days when my car did the same thing.
"Hey, Frankie's been good to me all these years." I told him. The dark blue Honda Civic had served me well for the last six years. She was a graduation gift from my parents when I finished highschool and I fell in love with her instantly. She was a bit beaten up, but with a bit of love and care I maintained her well.
"Frankie?" He sounded almost confused that somebody would name an inanimate object. Was it so weird?
"Hey, a lot of people name their cars. You haven't named this beauty?" I gestured around us at the interior of his car. It was a beautiful car, a sleek, new Lexus. Something I could only ever dream of having. Maybe one day-
"No, I know that people name their cars. Why Frankie though? She looks more like a Charlene."
I screwed my nose up at his suggestion. "After Frankenstein. She's a bit rough on the outside so I thought it'd be a fitting name."
"You named your car after a monster." He said pointedly, the corners of his lips twitched upwards as if he was trying to supress a smile. The expression vanished as quickly as he appeared and his face hardened as his attention was directed back to the road.
"It's what's on the inside that counts." I huffed, crossing my arms.
We had made a terrible mistake. The mall was the most busy I had ever seen it with crowds of shoppers shouldering past eachother, using their carts as weapons. A woman who was at least a head taller than myself used her mass as an advantage and barrelled straight through me, knocking me off my feet to be trampled by a stampede of angry, agitated shoppers. I braced myself for the fall but it never came, instead I felt a firm grip on my waist as Derek hoisted me back up, not letting me go until I was stable on my feet.
"Thank you." I muttered, shooting him a grateful look. "I don't know what made me think this was a good idea."
"Let's just get this over with. Where to first?"
We ended up going to a few different department stores, me in search for a Christmas tree and some ornaments and Derek in search for some gifts for his family. Finding a tree was the easy part, I settled for a two foot tall tree that would sit pretty on the coffee table in the living room. We didn't have enough space for a big one, but I warned Derek that next year's was going to be full sized. Luckily he didn't argue it.
Derek found his gifts for his family with ease. New art equipment for Simon, some kind of computer software for Tori and a series of murder mystery books for his dad. Thankfully I had sorted out gifts early this year. It was rare that I was so ahead of time but I was proud of myself and made a few jabs at Derek for being the disorganized one out of the two of us.
We took the elevator up to our floor and walked into find Tori with the addition of another person in the living room. Derek scrambled to hide the gifts, stuffing them further in his bag and covering them with his own scarf.
"Not very discreet, bro." Simon's familiar voice sounded amused as Derek hurriedly took his bags to his bedroom and stashed them in there before joining us back in the common area. He thumped his brother on the back in greeting before Simon turned to me with open arms.
"Didn't think you'd be back in town so soon!" I exclaimed excitedly as I hugged him. He encased me in strong arms, lifting me off my feet and swinging me around.
"Look at you, no moonboot anymore." He paused, scrunching his nose up. "I think the boot made you taller though."
I playfully hit his arm. "Ha-ha very funny."
Simon grinned. "It's been a while since I've seen these two idiots in the same room together, being amicable." He gestured towards Derek and Tori. "You've done a good job."
Heat crept up my cheeks in the form of a blush. "They're hard work."
"Ha, I can imagine. Dad will be thrilled, though. He's been waiting for the Christmas that Derek and Tori exchange presents instead of glares."
"Nobody said anything about presents." Tori piped up.
"Guess I'll be returning yours then." Derek mumbled sarcastically.
"No you big idiot, I forgot."
"Better get to the mall then. Good luck." He retorted.
I grinned as the siblings bickered, Simon eventually joined in on the conversation so I took this time to assemble my Christmas tree. Once I was finished with decorating, I stood back and beamed at it triumphantly. While the apartment was too small to completely decorate, I liked the festive touch that the tree brought.
Shortly after that I retreated to my bedroom, my mind reeling over the crowded apartment now that Simon was staying with us too. Growing up without brothers and sisters, I didn't know how the sibling dynamic worked. All I knew was that it was louder. I couldn't complain though. Derek and his siblings were finally all together once again and that was all that mattered.
I snuggled into the warmth of my bed, eyelids feeling heavy as sleep tempted me to go under. There was nothing else to do but give in.
"So, are you going for it?" Liz waved her fork around as she spoke, breaking through my current thoughts. "He seems pretty keen on you, Chlo." She winked.
With Liz, there was an endless amount of convincing on her part for me to take things further with Simon. My only issue was that he seemed a little more interested in me than I was in him, and leading him on wouldn't be fair. He had been staying with us for a week now and there were multiple instances where he got a little bit too cosy with me. It wasn't completely unwelcome, but it just didn't feel... right.
I shook my head as I stabbed a piece of lasagne on my fork and popped it in my mouth. "If you think he's so perfect then you go for it." I couldn't tell if Liz genuinely wanted Simon and I to be together, or if she just felt sorry for me. My dating life sucked, and after only ever being with Liam, I had minimal interest in getting back into the dating scene. Perhaps if things were different, my past experiences were different, if I felt different then maybe...
"It just doesn't feel completely right for me." I affirmed. "So what's the plan for Christmas?" I decided to change the subject to avoid anything dating related.
Liz shot me a knowing look, one that told me that we weren't done with this conversation. "I'm heading out of town in a few days to see my nanna. My mom is well enough to join us for Christmas this time so it should be interesting." She forced a pained smile. Her mom was a sore subject for Liz, but it became easier for her to talk about it as her mom slowly progressed in her recovery. Since Liz was a kid, she lived with her nanna while her mom was in and out of rehab.
"I hope it goes well." I squeezed her hand across the table and gave her a small smile. Luckily she returned it, confirming that she didn't seem too bothered.
"What about you?" She asked. "You've literally being bouncing off the walls every time somebody mentions Christmas."
I grinned sheepishly as I sipped my coffee. "I'll be heading to my parents' place for the day. Just the typical Christmas lunch and gift giving."
"Did you get anything for Derek and Simon?" She asked, curious.
"I thought about it. I wouldn't have a clue what to get either of them. Buying for guys is surprisingly difficult."
"I know what you could get Simon." She grinned and I gestured for her to continue. "You. In your birthday suit. Add a bow or something."
"You're gross." I chuckled. "I could just get him some art supplies, but then I'd have to get Derek something too, and then something for his sister and she's just difficult."
"They have a sister?" She asked, surprised. "You never mentioned there was a sister."
"She popped up a few weeks ago and needed a place to stay. Her and Derek had a falling out a few years ago and I practically had to be the one to convince him to let her stay."
"Huh." She stated simply.
We threw down some cash to cover our meals, leaving a generous tip, before heading back to my apartment. Liz wanted to catch up on the newest episode of Orange is the New Black so we had arranged to watch it at mine this time around. We stepped through the threshold of my apartment to find it eerily quiet. I silently thanked the Gods that everybody was out so that we could watch our show in peace.
The only disturbance was Derek coming back home from running errands, and he was out of our hair relatively quickly once he realised we wanted peace and quiet. I shot him a grateful look for being so considerate, thanking my lucky stars that I had such a quiet flatmate-
The door burst open right as the end credits began to roll and in walked Simon and Tori, holding a mass of shopping bags in their arms.
"You're lucky you came in when you did instead of five minutes earlier. I would have killed you for being so loud." I joked. "Oh, Liz, this is Tori." I gestured towards the dark haired girl as she finished shutting the door behind her. "Tori, this is-"
"Liz!" Tori exclaimed, dropping her bags where she stood. They hit the floor with a solid thump and she rushed towards Liz. They threw their arms around each other and I realized that this was not the first time they had met. Liz let out a girly squeal of excitement as they embraced each other and I looked at Simon quizically. He shrugged and under his breath muttered 'girls'.
"Good to see you again, Liz." He grinned.
"I heard that you were back in town." She beamed at him and turned her attention back to Tori. "I didn't know you were here."
Turns out Liz and Tori went to college together. Liz knew that Tori had two brothers, she just never connected the dots in all the time she had known Derek and Simon. They were best friends for four years but drifted apart once they had graduated, only ever sending each other texts every now and then to catch up. The last time they saw each other was just before Tori moved two states over to live with Brady, almost two years ago.
"We should go out tonight!" Liz exclaimed gleefully with an excited twinkle in her eye. She was on cloud nine after being reunited with her college best friend. "There's a cute bar down the street and I think they do karaoke on Saturday nights." The two girls were polar opposites. Liz was the preppy, excited, always happy friend while Tori was the tough as nails type who never took any bullshit. She also didn't seem the type to enjoy karaoke but agreed with Liz's idea and turned to us.
"I'm in." Simon told them.
"Nope." Derek deadpanned.
"I'm with Derek." I started. "Too cold, I might just stay here and-"
"It wasn't a suggestion." Tori said. "You're both coming."
Liz's pleading expression filled my vision as I turned to her, just about ready to protest but her face shut me up all together. Instead, I turned to Derek. His face was blank, void of any expression whatsoever and I groaned.
"I'll go if Derek goes. Why should only one of us be miserable?" I mumbled the last part under my breath and glanced over at Derek. His lips twitched upwards in a slight smile, making me think that he heard what I said.
Tori, Liz and Simon all stared at Derek, awaiting his answer. They were met with a heavy sigh and he grumbled, "I hate you all." I couldn't help but giggle, because I knew that he was joking. Everybody else groaned at his lack of enthusiasm but were overall pleased that they had recruited the both of us.
Simon, Tori and Liz disappeared, leaving Derek and I in the kitchen. "Thanks for that." He nudged me playfully.
"I guess it's safe to assume you don't like bars then."
"Despise them." He grabbed a soda from the fridge and cracked it open.
"Great, that makes two of us. We can be those miserable assholes who sit in the corner and count down the minutes until it's time to go home."
"Sounds like you've done this before."
"You betcha." I confirmed. "Don't pretend you got through college without being dragged to a bar by your friends."
"Nope." He said, popping the 'p'. "Simon and Tori? Yeah, they were the social ones. I studied too much to ever go out."
"Huh. You got lucky then. Makes sense though."
"How so?" He asked quizically.
"You're very work oriented. I doubt it's something you picked up only after college." I told him and he nodded. "Well, I better go and get ready for this nightmare."
Retreating back to my room, I sighed heavily as I thought over what I had in terms of bar-appropriate attire. Most of my clothes were either too formal or too casual. However, I did have an untouched shopping bag of new clothes that I had bought a month prior. I dumped the contents of the bag out onto my bed and held up each article of clothing. There was a pair of ripped, white skinny jeans that I was still unsure about. In the fitting room, they looked pretty good but everybody knows that once you try them on at home, they'll show every little imperfection just enough to make you want to return them.
I pulled the jeans over my hips and checked myself out in the mirror. Not bad, they actually made it look like I had a butt and even some curves. They made me feel confident, and yes I'll say it, a bit sexy. On the top I threw on a khaki green shirt with a crisscross cut out on the front. The top was a little bit more risque than what I would usually wear, but I bought it on a whim. I felt content staring into the mirror. I didn't look like a young girl anymore, I actually looked like a woman. A woman with boobs and curves who knew how to dress herself to the occasion. I smiled triumphantly as I pulled on a pair of black heeled ankle boots and a faux leather jacket before digging out some make up. Nothing too heavy, just a bit of mascara and blush. I had only just managed to get the outfit right, I didn't need to look like a little girl that had raided her mom's make up stash and ruin it all.
Liz looked incredible as always, and Tori just as edgy as ever. The guys looked smart, both donning button down shirts and jeans. Derek's looked a little bit too tight for him, showing the contours of his muscles which surprised me. I would have guessed he was stocky, bordering on overweight underneath his typically baggy clothes. My eyes lingered admittedly a bit too long but I managed to avoid his gaze just in time.
"I didn't know you could dress like that." Tori said to me, almost sounding impressed.
"Uh, thanks I guess?"
"It's a compliment, dork." She said. "Let's go, I'm just about ready to down a cocktail."
Tori turned on her heel and headed out the door with Liz and Simon eagerly trailing behind. Derek and I exchanged pained glances before following them and shutting the door.
It was going to be a long night.
Had to stop it here otherwise it'd be way too long. Please read and review, I appreciate it so much! I'll have the next chapter up very soon xxx
