Chapter 10: Chapter Christmas Day

Erica’s POV IN the morning I wake up all excited about it being Christmas morning probably more excited than I ever was as a child. As I happily skip down the stairs my parents groggily walk out of their room and walk into the kitchen to help me get breakfast ready. After a minute I let my parents take over and I decorate the house a little bit more and then set out the plates and utensils we will need.

When everything was just about ready there was a knock on the door so I rushed to go answer it so neither of my parents can and embarrass me.

“Hey Brett, come on in,” I say stepping aside and letting Brett into the house. A minute later my parents are walking up behind me to meet Brett and welcome him to the house for what they think is the first time.

“Welcome Brett and Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you too Mrs. Wagner.” he shakes my mom and dad’s hands before they return to the kitchen to finish getting the cinnamon rolls ready leaving me and Brett standing awkwardly in the doorway.

“Here breakfast is almost ready why don’t we go sit down,” I suggest not knowing what else to say. Brett only nods his head as he looks around as if it is his first time here. I lead him into the dining room and motion to one of the chairs and he takes a seat and I take the one next to him so my parents can have the seats next to each other.

“Alright breakfast is served.” my dad says as he places the pan on the table before taking a seat next to my mom.

“So Brett, tell us about yourself.” my dad says after taking a bite of his food.

“Uh well well I live near the woods with my mother and siblings but most of the time I am outside taking care of the dog some nights I sleep out with it in its kennel.”

“Really that doesn’t sound pleasant why do you do it?”

“Dad!” I exclaim as I know Brett probably doesn’t want to talk about it.

“It’s okay Erica. My dad died a while back and my family blames me so I am basically the outcast they don’t really want me around so they make me take care of the dog and I have to get my own food and I have to sneak into the house to sleep in a bed.” my parents stared at Brett stunned I somewhat look at him as to how he put some of the truth in a web of lies.

“That is terrible.” my mom finally says.

“It is actually not all that bad the dog treats me better than my family.”

“You poor thing.” we finish breakfast and my parents take care of the dishes and I show Brett to the living room where we will be for most of the rest of the day. We sat in an awkward silence for what felt like forever until my parents came into the room and it was time to open presents.

“Okay Brett here you go.” my mom said as she handed Brett his presents to let him go first as he was the guest.

“You didn’t need to get me anything.”

“It’s a tradition everybody at our house gets a present on Christmas.” my mom states. He takes the presents and glances at me but doesn’t quite meet my eyes he starts slowly opening the present to reveal the first 2 books of a series.

“We heard you like to read books like that one.” my dad says “Thank you.” he goes on to open the next present and when the paper is all pulled away it reveals a box with a nice new phone. He just stares at it not quite sure what to do.

“It may not be an iPhone but we heard you didn’t have one so we got you one we will be paying for it so your family doesn’t have to.”

“You guys didn’t have to do this for me I am fine without one.”

“We know we didn’t need to but we wanted to. Not only are you neglected in your house but you are the first real friend Erica has had in a very long time, and we greatly appreciate that.”

“Thank you.” the rest of us finish opening our presents and then we clean the wrapping paper and bags up and pull out the games and movies and decide what to do while dinner cooks.

We get out this random game that we had never played before and probably got at a family Christmas party one year. After a while of playing my turn rolled around again the spot I landed on had me draw a card I picked the designated card out of the pile and flipped it over to read.

I looked to my right where Brett was sitting, with him acting weird around me lately I wasn’t sure how well this would go over. I read the card out loud and felt Brett tense next to me slightly. We got up and went to another room to plan out what we were going to do.

“Okay, so I am going to guess you haven’t seen many romantic movies.”

“Only a few when the pack would have a movie night but romance ones were rare.”

“Okay so have you seen .”

“No.” he states devoid of emotion as he stares at the floor.

“Okay, what about The Princess Bride have you seen that?” I suggest as that was always one of my favorite movies even if it was a long shot.

“Of course it was my parents’ favorite movie they would always make me and my siblings watch it with them. I actually quite like it.”

“Okay, it looks like we have a movie.”

“Now we need a scene that is easy to do.”

“Towards the middle when Buttercup pushes Wesley down the hill and he says as you wish and then she throws herself down after him.”

“And how would we do that we don’t have a hill and can’t speak.”

“I have an Idea.” I go on to explain how we would at least somewhat reenact the scene and then we headed over to do it.

As we walked back into the living room he had a hold of my arm and came to a stop turning to face me. We pretended to exchange some words like in the movie and then I push him and he takes a few steps back as he mouths the words as you wish. And then he falls on his back, it was at that time that I gasped and then stepped forward as if I threw myself down the hill.

I land pretty much on top of Brett as there wasn’t enough room to do the fully correct scene. He looks into my eyes for the first time tonight and we hold the contact he lifts his head up a little and I lower mine we were so close I could feel his breath on my skin and it sent a tingle throughout my body “What movie is that from?!” my dad’s voice breaks the silence that had fallen and me and Brett quickly get up. While my parents guess movies we take our seats and I am sure my face was firetruck red from that encounter as I am pretty sure that if my dad hadn’t said anything I would have had my first kiss.