Chapter 30- Holiday Plans

Chapter 30 - Holiday Plans

Kim's POV

A few great things had happened of the weekend. One, being snowed in at Dylan's house. Dylan's house is fun and being snowed in with your friends- minus Tyler- is even better. From playing games to watching movies, taking naps and even making a snow man. The best part of that day? Putting a Sharpie to Tyler's face when he was napping. I don't know how on Earth he didn't feel that.

Second great thing that had happened that weekend, Asher's dad had come home. It was a surprise really. When I had gone over that Sunday to help him write his English paper his dad walked through the door, bags in hand and yelling: 'honey I'm home!' It was adorable really. With Bay and Shay in the other room watching Home Alone their dad came in at the same time where Kevin and his mom finally meet at the big Christmas in New York.

Everyone had a shocked smile on their face and lots of hugging and kissing involved. Bay and Shay screamed with joy, pouncing at their dad with hugs and kisses. Asher had gone over to him with a manly hug and I waited until last to greet him with a 'hello-welcome-back' hug.

That night, Kelly had made Scott's favorite Italian soup and I was persuaded to stay. I didn't want to impose on their first dinner as a family after months, but since Scott had insisted, I stayed. That wasn't enough though, after the girls were tucked in and sleeping in bed Scott thought I'd be staying the night, since it was quite late out. I had to hint to him that sleeping in the same bed as Asher was not okay anymore with my boyfriend.

I could have sworn Scott looked disappointed, but he tried hard not to show it. Weird.

To top it off, the third best thing that had happened was another snow day. That's right, a three day weekend. It was great not only to have a three day weekend, but to have Spencer with me the night before and now snowed in at my house was just icing on the cake. We made out, a lot. And slept a total of twelve hours from Sunday to Monday. We also baked, and made a slight mess in the kitchen while doing so.

Now we were in school, lunch time to be exact. We all sat together at one round table. So far, it hasn't turned out to be like the first time we all sat together. Some of us were actually civil, and when I say some of us of course I'm excluding Tyler.

"So, Christmas break is next week," Katie says, starting up a new conversation, "Anyone going anywhere?"

"I'm meeting up with my mother and younger brother in Florida." Maddi smiles, ripping a piece of her Fruit Roll-Up.

"Cool! I wish I could fly out somewhere, but it's tradition to throw a party with the family and all that other Christmas ritual stuff." I shrug, playing with the hoodie strings of Spencer's sweater. My long sleeve shirt and scarf didn't serve me any justice with the school's half broken heating system.

"Same here, I get bored after the same thing for seventeen years," Katie sighs, pouting a little. "What about you Spencer?" She asks, eating pretzels.

I caught him staring at Maddi with his lips slightly parted until I kicked his leg slightly under the able, "Uh, probably going to spend Christmas with my dad." He answers, looking over to me, and then turns to everyone with a simple shrug.

He talked about it yesterday, planning on spending Christmas with his dad down in Florida. He didn't seem certain though, but it made me feel just a bit uncomfortable now that Maddi had just stated she would be going at the same time.

"How is your dad?" Maddi asks caringly, a small smile on her face, "Still a firefighter?" She questions.

I knew about that much of Spencer's dad, that and he lives in Florida. Also, that his mother and him divorced when Spencer was ten. "He's doing good, same old job, same old Dan." Spencer snickers, "He has a new girlfriend though, and this one is his age." He jokes.

"Thank God." Maddi laughs.

"Are you coming to my house Christmas Eve?" I ask Asher from across the table. Usually his family does come over. They only spend Christmas day with Scott's side of the family.

"Yeah I think so, my mom was talking to my dad about it." Asher says, nodding his head.

"Don't get drunk, or Ivy drunk this time." I tell him, a slight smirk on my face even though I was serious. He rolls his eyes, sassy and amused. "What else is going on next weekend?"

"Par-tay!" Tyler yelled, high-fiving Dylan.

"You've got to chill with that." Katie tells him, shaking her head lightly.

"Another?" I mumble under my breath lightly, rolling my eyes to Asher, "Are you going?" I don't even know how Dylan gets all these non-parental supervised house time. Where do his parents go? Especially during the holiday time.

"Correction." He smirked, "We're going." He says, raising his hand up for me to join in with a high-five.

"No." I exaggerated, rolling my eyes to the back of my head.

"Aw come on it'll be fun! Kate's going." He says pointing over to her.

"But this time Kate's not going take care of your sorry drunk asses." She says, talking in third person when she hears her name.

"But blondie." Tyler whines.

"Don't blondie me. You're forever in my debt for taking care of your drunken self last weekend." She tells him with a straight look. Tyler scoffs, rolling his eyes.

"See, now you've got to go." Asher insists, making an emphasis with his hands.

"How about I think about it," I suggest to him.

"Fair enough," Asher says, leaning forward on the table and folding his hands.

The bell rang, indicating that our lunch was over. Spencer grabbed my hand as we made our way out of the lunch room. I mention that I need to stop at my locker, like usual.

"You actually want to go to that party?" Spencer questions, as we make way to my locker, dodging other student walking in the opposite direction to get to the lunch room.

"If I have nothing to do." I tell him with a shrug of my shoulders, "It'll get me out of the house." I cross the hallway to get to my locker, slipping my hand out of Spencer's to turn the knob for my combination. "Do you know what Dylan's parents do? I feel like they're always out of the house and then Dylan's just throws a party."

"It's because his dad's a piolet and his mom is a flight attendant." Spencer says, leaning up against the locker next to mine. "Dylan said growing up his parents switched off every other week. One week his dad would be home and his mom was gone, the next week his mom would be home and his dad would be gone. Now that he's old enough to take care of himself they both work the same week and then have the same week off." Spencer explains, and it makes a lot more sense now.

"So you really going to go to Florida for break?" I question him, grabbing the last notebook, stuffing it in my bag. I close my look door, seeing a tentative expression on his face.

"I feel like I should. I haven't seen him since the summer, and the last holiday I spent with him was Fourth of July. I really haven't spent a Christmas with him since moving up here. It's trying to convince my mom that's going to be tough." He says, frowning a bit. I loop my arm around his as we walk down the hall.

Maybe I had a worried look on my face, but I tried my best not to. I tried to keep a straight face, but like Spencer once said before, my face is an open book. "You don't have to worry, alright?" He assures, patting my hand on his arm.

"Is that right?" I say softly, staring straight down the hall.

"I'm not worried that you're going to that party with Asher." He says with a shrug, "With all that alcohol and New Year's shit. I could make a big deal and say how I don't feel comfortable with you going knowing how close you two are; but I'm holding my tongue and trusting you."

"Oh really? Holding your tongue, huh?" I snicker, speaking sarcastically towards him. He smirks before kissing the side of my head and placing his hand over mine on his arm.

"I'll see you at the end of the day." He says, knowing my class was coming up. I gave a small wave before walking into my class. I just had this and physics and my day would be done.

*****

The next day I walked into school with Spencer. Usually a car ride with Spencer was full of conversation, and kisses, but today it was just the opposite. It was quiet and awkward. No one brought up any conversation and when I tried, I was given one word answers.

As I stopped at my locker with Spencer, he waited to walk me to homeroom, just like he usually does, "Hey, is everything OK?" I asked him as he stared blankly, across the hall.

"Huh? Uh yeah. Do we have English first today?" He babbles, as we start heading off.

"We do." I respond. He nods swiftly, then stares absently again. "Spencer, really what's wrong?" I pushed, grabbing his hand to come back to me. I know when something is wrong with Spencer; I figured that out a while back.

"It's- it's nothing. Really." He promises running his hand through his hair nervously.

"Oh it's something alright." I mumble, shaking my head.

"My mom's letting me go to Florida for Christmas," He mutters out quickly. I nodded at him, slowly biting my lip.

"Oh, well that's nice," I decide to say, encouraging him. It's not like we had anything special planned, but it would have been nice to spend the holiday together. The only problem I had was him and Maddi possibly meeting up and rekindling old flames; but if Spencer said to trust him like he trusts me with Asher- which is huge for him- then I guess I had to respectfully do the same.

"You're worrying again, aren't you?" He sighs, flicking my lips out of the hold between my teeth.

"Of course not," I answered shaking my head, "I think it's nice that you're going to visit your father." I sigh, grinning up at him, "I'll miss you," I said, a little flirty, pressing my body against his.

"Yeah it will be. I haven't seen him for a while, it'll be good for us." He agrees, nodding his head, "I'll miss you too, maybe a little more than you though," He winks making me laugh.

I reach up to kiss him, brushing my thumb over his cheek delicately, I grin up to him, nodding my head, "I do trust you." I tell him, trying to convince myself. "Promise me you'll call and text me when you can?" I negotiate, pressing close to his side as we started walking again.

"Every night." He agrees, a goofy smile on his face.

*****

"So, it's just going to be you and me this holiday," I said to Asher as we sit in the back of the physics class room required to do our book work.

"What you mean?" Asher asks, looking up from the book and raising his brow at me.

"Spencer is going to Florida to spend the holidays with his dad. Maddi is going to meet up with her mom and brother for the holiday too. That still leaves Katie and Tyler though," I inform him, twirling my pencil between the pad of my thumb and middle finger.

"Nice, so that means we can all go to the party together!" He exclaims happily.

"I said, I'll think about it," I remind him, with a pointed look, "And what do you mean by all the parties? You only talked about one."

"Eh, you're going to go, so suck it up," He teases, nudging his shoulder with mine playfully. "Well, there's the Christmas parties, I've heard of a few of them. Then there's the New Year's parties. I heard a few guys on the football team are hoping around, kind of like bar hoping. Party hoping." He snickers, scribbling in the textbook.

I rolled my eyes, chuckling lightly, "What has your dad been up to since he's been back?" I ask, after reading number four quickly and not understanding a word I read.

"Back to work already," Ash mumbles to me as he grabs his water bottle from the corner of his desk.

I could just picture Scott in his home, sitting in his office or dining room table with a bluetooth in his ear, papers scattered in his own organized mess, and his laptop somewhere in sight. It was the picture of Scott in his own world, immensely deep in his work.

"Scott works too hard." I comment understandingly.

"Don't all parents?" Asher sighs tiredly, looking down at his book, but not really paying any attention to the subject of physics. "Promise each other one thing." He says, waiting for me to tell him to go on, "Let's not be like our workaholic parents. Let's actually be there for our kids even if they grow up to be teenagers who don't want to hang out with their parents because they think it's lame. I don't want to be that dad who doesn't even know what time his kids go to school or what their interests are. Let's promise to be better than that." He vows, looking up moments later from his textbook.

The corners of my lips turned up, agreeing with Asher. I didn't want to be like my busy parents. Of course I want a successful job and be able to support my family, but I want to be there to see my kids grow and know everything about them. I want to be a mom, not a mother, that women that comes now and then and sits with her children and catches up, hoping that will be good enough, and buying them whatever they want as guilt for not always being around.

"Promise." I hold out my pinkie to him with a smirk, "Let's change for the better." I say, waiting for his pinkie to wrap around mine. When he did so, with a smile, it was warm, the skin hard and rough unlike my soft smooth skin. "I'll tell you when you're pulling a Scott." I joke, winking at him for fun.

"I'd I'll tell you when you're pulling the typical Taylor habit." He agrees, nodding his head.

Something so silly and so random, yet it was weird, talking so seriously with Asher. It was different and unlike him. It was a conversation I thought Spencer and I would conjure up in one of our many deep talks at midnight. It was nice though, because for a moment it was a different side of Asher, one that I really liked.

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