"I just feel like having pasta," Morgan announces as she enters Charlotte's house where we're all at.

Charlotte grabs the menu from the best Italian restaurant in town and is on board with her idea. We're all on board, actually. We're all starving and we've spent the last 10 minutes trying to decide, but no one said what they were feeling so thank God for Morgan coming in and saying exactly what she wanted.

Pasta it is. Well, Italian food.

Morgan takes off her coat and comes over to where I'm sitting, "I can't believe Christmas is in a week. Where did the time go?"

Seriously. I have NO idea. "I'm so excited. We still need to go ice skating."

"Yes!" Savannah exclaims, taking her eyes off her phone, "with our boyfriends. Three of us have boyfriends. That'll be so cute, don't you guys think?"

The ones that don't, Charlotte and Morgan, look at each other and roll their eyes. Ha. I don't want to exclude them ever and of course they're invited. It's our tradition. But I think it'll be cool and cute to bring our boyfriends along. Usually Morgan and Brendan go on their own since they've been together for a couple Christmases now, but she'll come with us, too. And now that Savannah and I have boyfriends, what do we do? We should just do like a double date with them, huh? And still do our girl thing.

"I think we should just keep tradition," I suggest, "and then just do what Morgan and Brendan do. They go separately."

"Fine," Savannah agrees.

Charlotte goes over to her kitchen and comes back a minute later with a container of chocolate covered strawberries. Thank God. I'm starving and this is definitely going to hold me over until dinner.

It was girls' night. I don't know what Troy's doing because well, during girls night, we cut off communication with our boyfriends.

Sounds a bit dramatic, but it's not. It's only for a couple of hours. Like, obviously after a couple of hours, maybe around 9 or so, I can text him and ask what he's up to. It's nothing mandatory. But it's just something we like to do. My friends are everything to me and of course I'm not gonna cut them off because I now have a boyfriend. Cassie struggled with it a bit at the beginning since all she wanted to do was spend time with Brendan, but she realized friends are always gonna be there.

It was different for me right now, though. Troy's in Chicago. I flew back by myself and he stayed because well, Christmas is soon. He wasn't gonna come home just to fly again. So he was there and I was here.

And we've been away for a day now and I don't miss him yet, but by tomorrow afternoon, I probably will. It sucks.

"So, how was Chicago?" Cassie asks me, taking a strawberry from the bowl, "you literally just got in yesterday night, huh?"

"It was better than I had anticipated," I instantly smile, "yeah, I had a lot of fun. The concert was amazing. We were SO close. And um, his family's really cool. Really nice. It was nice."

"Yeah, you got along with them?" Savannah smiled at me.

I nodded and felt giddy just talking about it. I did and I can't wait to see them again. "Yeah. His sister's the cutest thing in the whole world. And his mom could not have been nicer. Either Stacy was lying to me or I don't know, but I could feel she likes me."

They all looked happy for me, of course. They're my best friends. What else would they be?

Charlotte went around the room and asked everyone what they wanted to eat since she was about to order it. Morgan went with the angel hair pasta, I went with the lasagna, which Cassie did, too. Charlotte and Savannah are sharing this one plate and getting a salad for each of them or something like that. I don't know, I zoned out after my order. I just couldn't stop thinking of Troy.

Just because we're not allowed to talk to them doesn't mean I'm not allowed to think about him, right?

So here I am, thinking about him.

How I had the best time with him in Chicago.

When he took me to get the best waffles in town because he knows how much I love them.

How I met some of his family and family friends at Sienna's party, who could not have been nicer if they tired.

How we left the party to go to the John Mayer concert and we had the best time. I danced around alllll night while he swayed to the music and danced along with me at some songs. Stealing kisses here and there.

How his mom made us the best brunch ever before I had to take a flight home that day.

I can just go on and on thinking about that weekend. It was one of the best I've ever had. And it's so crazy it's with my boyfriend of a few months family. Like, it was SO simple, we barely did anything adventure, yet I had the best time with them all.

"Hello, Gabs?"

Fuck. I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to Savannah, "yeah?"

She gave me a stupid smile, and I knew she knew what I was thinking about. "What'd you get Troy for Christmas?"

I haven't gotten him anything, actually. What a shitty girlfriend, right? "Nothing," I slip off my boots and bring my feet up on the couch, "I literally have no idea what to get him. What do you get your boyfriend of less than two months?"

"It's tricky," Cassie answers me, probably knowing the most out of all of us. Her and Brendan got together a month before his birthday so she was actually the perfect person to ask. "You obviously can afford to get him a nice gift, but that can translate to feelings you know? Like, typically a husband gets their wife diamonds. A boyfriend does not give a girl he's been dating for a month diamonds. But I don't know. What does he need?"

"He says nothing," I sigh, which is so frustrating, "it's so annoying. I seriously have NO idea what to get him."

Cassie nodded, understanding my dilemma, thank God. "You can never go wrong with any sort of tickets. Or clothes. Maybe some shoes. What do you think he's getting you?"

Nothing. "Oh, nothing, I told him not to get me anything. The party and the tickets were enough. I mean, he JUST spent money on me. My birthday and Christmas should count as one thing, don't you think?"

"Maybe," she shrugged, "I'm sure he's still getting you something."

"Ugh, now I feel even more stressed out and pressured to get him the perfect gift."

Charlotte then walked back in the room and head the last tidbit, picking up on what we were talking about. "I thought you guys weren't exchanging gifts since he won't even be here?"

True. I had told her that yesterday when I called her while I waited to board my flight. "No, yeah, but I just feel like I should get him something. I mean, he got me tickets to John Mayer AND threw me a birthday party. I feel like I have to."

"Yeah, but Gabs, I'm almost positive he didn't do that just to get something in return," Morgan chimed in, "so I think you're stressing out over nothing. He probably truly means it."

Ugh. He probably does. He probably doesn't want anything, but I feel like giving him something. Even if it's something small.

I have to think about it. I have a week to do so, thank God. "Yeah, I'll see."

And all of a sudden, I miss him.

"I've missed you," Troy grabs my face and kisses me ever so gently, "kind of a lot."

"Well, good," I chuckle and walk away from him to the kitchen where I just was, "because I've kind of missed you a lot, too."

He laughed and took off his jacket and hung it on one of the chairs around the counter before taking a seat, "what are you baking? It smells really good in here."

I went to the sink and washed my hands and then looked back at him, "pumpkin bread. I wanted to surprise you, but I didn't think you were coming for another hour or so, so that's out the window now."

"I'm still surprised," he tries to make it better, "I didn't end up going with my aunt so I was bored. I'm sorry."

"NO," I say a little too loudly, which earns a laugh from him, "I mean, no, it's fine. I'm happy you're here. It's totally fine."

I go over to my counter and take out the vanilla extract and baking powder that the recipe calls for and then to one of the drawers and take out my little measuring spoons. I should have gotten everything ready so I don't have to scramble all around the kitchen, but whatever. I put everything into a bowl and then took out my mixer and mixed everything together.

Troy watched as I mixed everything, but we couldn't really talk because the mixer was so loud, nothing would be heard.

"How was Chicago?" I asked him after I poured the batter into two different pans.

"Really good," he smiles, leaning forward a bit and sticking his finger in the bowl, tasting the batter, "yeah, it was weird. It was the last time I was ever going to be in that house so it was bittersweet. Everyone was ready to leave. And now we're all here."

"How do you guys like your new place?"

Troy shrugged, "I was only in it for, like, five minutes because we were all hungry so we went to eat and after that, I came here."

Well, I'm dying to see his new place. I LOVE looking at places. I think about getting into real estate all the time, but eh, I don't know if it's my true calling. But that's beside the point right now. I don't even know what the point is, actually.

Oh. Troy. His family here. Sweet, adorable little Sienna. "Do you think Sienna would be interested in ice skating?"

"What?" he smiles, "you want to take her ice skating?"

"Well, yeah," I grab the pumpkin bread and put both pans in the oven and put the timer on, "it's so much fun. I go every winter a couple of times and I don't know, thought she'd have fun. You, too."

Troy nods and takes out his phone from his pocket and sets it on the counter, "I think she would love that. My mom has actually wanted to take her, but I think she was a little too young last winter. Well, not young, per say, but not really coordinated."

Oh. His mom wants to take her. "Oh, then um, she can take her if she's been planning on it. I don't want to step in and just..."

"No," he laughs, "I mean, yeah, she's been wanting to take her, but because she wants her to try it. I don't think it holds much importance to her or anything."

"Maybe she can come too, then," I suggest, not wanting to come off too strong. I shouldn't just inject myself into their family and hang out with them without them asking, but I don't know. I want to be friendly with them. "If you want. It doesn't matter."

He smiles, like he's actually completely on board with that idea, "yeah, yeah, I'm sure my mom would love that."

I looked over at him and I just had to stop and take him in for a second. I couldn't believe it.

"What?" he asks with a weird look on his face.

Nothing. I'm just admiring him. His beautiful cheekbones, his bright blue eyes, his smile, his messy hair, everything that just makes him so beautiful. And his equally beautiful soul. And thinking about he way he makes me smile and laugh. The way he holds a door open for me no matter where we are. The way he looks into my eyes when he's about to kiss me. The way he moves my hair out of my face. How he texts me every night to tell me goodnight. How he holds my hand as if he never wants to let it go.

But most importantly, thinking about the way he makes me feel.

How did I get so lucky?

"Nothing," I tell him, "I just... I missed you more than I thought I would." It's not a lie at all, but it's not what I was thinking about just now. I just didn't want to potentially scare him away. I think my feelings are way stronger for him than his are for me.

He got up out of his seat, came over to me, looked down into my eyes and gave me a kiss. "I missed you, too."

I'm falling for Troy Bolton and I'm falling kinda fast.

And that scares the shit out of me.