43 | A Big, Huge, Giant Hat

"Isn't it too early to be decorating?"

We were at the cafe late on a Tuesday evening, and the customers had long since gone home. I had somehow been roped into stringing up forty metres of Christmas lights while Everett sat crosslegged on the floor.

"We're having our event in a week! Less actually," he counted on his fingers, "four days now."

We had both luckily gotten over the flu in record time—Everett had, of course, gotten sick the very next day after he had visited.

"What are you doing anyway?" I asked now.

Stacks of cardboard were piled up around him, along with rolls of bright red and green fabric. Everett held a dangerously large scissor in one hand and a big roll of tape in the other. "I'm making a giant hat!"

I looked at his creation again. "That doesn't look like a hat. What's it for?"

"That's because it's not done yet." He jabbed his scissors into the green fabric, tearing out a long jagged strip. "It's to put on top of the tree, instead of the star." Everett glanced up at me. "Do you want some help though? I can do this later."

"No!" I said, a bit too quickly. But I was on a ladder, and I preferred to stay on it. I said as much to Everett when his gaze turned questioning.

"I would never hurt you, Clementine," he said, his tone sorrowful.

"I beg to differ," I joked. "But you can help by decorating the tree. Start from the bottom and I'll join you in a bit."

Everett halfheartedly tossed a yard of tinsel on it. A corner of it clung onto a fir branch while the rest dangled off onto the floor. He then started placing ornaments on and between the branches. Not hanging, placing. Which meant he was simply keeping them on the tree instead of tying them securely with the strings. Everytime he added a new ornament, a previous one was shaken off and rolled on to the floor.

One thing about Everett was that he worked fast, and he had already finished with one side of the tree by the time I hung up the last string of lights.

"I'll take it from here," I offered, coming up behind him. "You can finish your hat."

"Oh, okay." He beamed. "I can help with the rest if you want."

"Noo...you've done a lot." I eyed the—frankly hideous—tree. Clusters of sparkly balls and Santa hats were all bunched up together while noticeable bald spots lay over the areas that he'd missed.

Everett happily went back to making his fabric hat and I busied myself with the tree. It took longer than expected having to untangle all the tinsel he had wrapped unevenly around. It seemed that he had used it to knot the decorations in place. His attention being turned away, I discreetly pulled off all the decorations on his side of the tree and redid that too. Everett was really more hindrance than help. My hindrance, I couldn't help but think fondly to myself, hiding a smile.

I finished decorating all that I could see, everything except right near the top of the tree which the hat would cover. I guessed it was about eight feet tall, I couldn't reach it even on my toes. I turned on the switch and the whole place lit up in twinkling lights, running down the walls and twisting round the tree.

"Wow that's amazing, Clementine." Everett's stared up, wide-eyed. "These are the prettiest lights I've ever seen."

I had to disagree. The lights shining in his eyes were far, far more dazzling.

"Thanks," I said anyway, nodding towards his project. "Need any help with that?"

He held up a sort of cylindrical shape that sagged to the side. Strips of cardboard were joined using a bulky amount of masking tape, torn pieces of fabric hanging off the edges. "I'm all done."

"Oh." I paused. "Okay, let's put it up." I figured his dad would switch it out for a star later on anyway.

Everett jumped to his feet and ran to the tree. I grabbed him around the waist as he neared, lifting him an inch off the ground. "Woah, careful!"

Everett struggled in my grasp, bouncing on his toes. His ribs jutted into my forearms as I held him from behind. "Let me at it!"

"You can't reach it. Let me get the ladder and I'll place it myself."

"But I want to do it, I spent ages making it." He pouted.

I hesitated. "I don't want you to fall. The one here is a little shaky."

Everett threw his head back so that it rested on my shoulder, blinking up at me with huge eyes. "If you could lift me, like a little, I can," he gestured at the hat, his arms raised high, "just pop this on."

I smiled. "Sure. Jump on three."

Everett jumped on one.

"Let's try again."

We tried again and he jumped before I even started counting.

"Never mind the counting," I finally said, tightening my arms around him. "You can probably reach it without having to jump."

I lifted him off the ground, stumbling a little as he threw his arms up. "Don't wriggle."

"I'm not," he insisted, wriggling some more. "I'm just trying to reach. Um, a bit to the left."

I moved to the left.

"No, my left!"

"We're facing the same direction!" I huffed, moving back to the right.

"Just try to go a bit higher."

"This is as high as it goes."

"Jump, Clementine!"

"How strong do you think I am?" I spluttered.

Everett leaned forward, knocking me off balance. I swayed on my feet, a string of expletives leaving my lips. Everett grabbed onto the tree, his sudden movement only causing me to stumble further. Handfuls of plastic fir snapped off the branches, clutched uselessly in his fists as we crashed to the ground. As always, I fell first and cushioned his fall.

"We always end up here," I said, staring up at the crisscrossing branches, dazed and bruised. Silver lights twinkled and reflected off glass ornaments. "On the floor."

"At least the tree didn't fall on us." Everett tried to look on the bright side. "And the ground is kind of soft here."

"THAT'S MY FACE."

"Oops. Sorry." He moved his head off to the side, twisting so that his cheek was against mine. His curly hair tickled my nose and made me want to sneeze.

"And you tried to make the tree fall on us, you grabbed the branches." I groaned. "Luckily they just snapped off."

Everett guiltily opened his palm, letting bits of green fir litter the floor. "Reflex action," he muttered. His brows drew together. "Are you okay?"

I tried moving my limbs a little, running my hands down my legs and pressing against my bruised elbow. "I'll be fine."

Everett bit his lip. "I'm always messing up your life, aren't I?"

"No." My eyes widened. "Where did that come from?"

"I don't know, I'm just constantly causing you to fall from stuff." His dark eyes glittered, red and green lights bouncing off his skin and hair.

I couldn't keep the smile off my face. "You have caused me to fall...unexpectedly." My fingers traced over his cheek, thumb brushing against the bottom of his lip. "I've fallen from ladders, fallen off trees." My voice lowered. "Fallen for you."

He still seemed unsure as I pressed my lips against his. "You're not annoyed, like at all?"

"I could never be annoyed at you." My fingers wove through his curly hair, tugging him closer. "You're sweet," I said. Because he was. Like a cupcake. Or a caramel banana upside-down cake.

He kissed me, as sweet as caramel, and I kissed him back. We kissed under the tree. Under the twinkling Christmas lights. We kissed while snow settled over the world outside.

A/n: Here's a giant hat I made last Christmas :D

The fabric kind of fell off when I tried to lift it but it looks okay on the chair :p