"You guys each get fifteen dollars," Dad tells Colton and I. It's Christmas Eve and Colton and I are supposed to get gifts for each other.

"Okay," Colton says. We look at each other and then look away. After my breakdown, Colton drove me home and we didn't say anything the entire car ride.

"We'll be back in twenty minutes," Alex says. "Have fun."

Colton and I get out of the car. Alex starts driving away. "So, how are you doing?" Colton asks as we walk into Target.

"Fine." I look at him. "What do you want?"

He shrugs. "I don't know. What do you want?"

"I don't know," I say. "Which way are you going?"

Colton points left. "I'll see you later."

"See you," I mutter. I walk around aimlessly. I don't know what to get Colton. I also didn't get much sleep last night, so I really have no idea.

I sigh as I keep walking around. I start trying to think about Colton. If we were in high school, I would have gotten him condoms and a smug card. But we're not in high school. And Colton and I aren't quite buddies.

I sigh as I start browsing through cards. What the fuck am I supposed to get Colton?

"Shit, what are you doing here?" Colton asks. I turn around and frown at him.

"The fuck are you doing here?" I mumble as I wipe my nose on my sleeve.

Colton looks at me. "Are you getting sick?"

"The fuck? No," I say as I sniffle.

"Your voice sounds stuffy," Colton tells me. He's hiding something behind his back.

I look at him. "What are you hiding?"

Colton shrugs. "Why aren't you hiding anything?" He leans casually against the display shelf holding all of the cards.

"You probably don't want to do that," I tell Colton. I sniffle and rub my nose again. Damn, maybe I am getting sick?

"Oh, yeah? Why?" he asks, raising his eyebrows in a smug way.

"Cuz your fatass is going to knock the display over." My eyes close as I sneeze rather violently. There's a loud crash. As I open my eyes, Colton's pulling me away. "Did you knock it over?" I ask as I look behind us.

"No," Colton says quickly. "It fell over."

I look back again. The display is toppled over, cards are everywhere and there's a very angry looking employee. "You knocked it over," I tell him. Colton sets something down and we walk out of Target. "And you ran away like a bitch?"

Colton looks at me. "Alright, fine. I ran away," he says. "Come on. There's a drugstore a block away. We can get you some cold medicine."

"Could've gotten that at Target," I mutter. "And hey! How the fuck do you know I have a cold, when I'm the one in Med school?"

Colton looks at me. "I don't know. Your voice is stuffy, you sound congested, your nose is red and you seem overly tired. Plus you keep rubbing your nose."

I sniffle and stare warily at Colton. "Damn," I mutter as I sigh. I think he's right. "So, what were you gonna get me?"

"I can't tell you," Colton says. We round the corner and I see the drugstore. "You're seriously getting a nasty cold."

"Whatever," I say as we walk in. "I'm gonna get your gift here, so don't follow me." I look at him. "And don't knock any more displays over either."

"Hahaha. You're so funny," Colton says as he walks away. I rub the bridge of my nose as I start walking around.

Shit. I must be getting sick. I blink and rub my nose again. I shake my head. I just have to find Colton something quickly.

I look around and then grin when I see a journal. It's simple, a hard navy blue cover and lined pages. I grab a pack of pens and start to walk over to check out. I grab a Vitamin Water and pay quickly.

I wait by the door for Colton. My phone starts ringing and I pull it out. I frown when I see Bryce's name. Why's he calling me now? I fumble with my phone and accidentally hit decline. "Shit!"

I sigh and shove my phone into my pocket. All I wanna do is go home and go to bed. Shit, I am sick. And I don't get sick very often.

Oh, God. And it's Christmas Eve. Mother's going to be at dinner and it's going to be a mess and I'm going to be sick. Shit.

"Hey," Colton says.

"What?" I ask. My ears are starting to hurt.

"I said hi," Colton tells me. He hands me a package.

"What's this?" I ask him, frowning.

"Cold medicine. You should take it before you start to go down."

I look at Colton. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," he says. "I texted my mom to let her know to pick us up here."

I nod. "You so excited for Christmas?" I ask. "My mom's gonna be there," I say as I yawn. "And she's gonna wreck shit."

"It'll be okay," Colton says. "But you really should get home and take a nap. You honestly seem like you're going to pass out."

I look at Colton. "It's probably nothing. Just a little cold."

Colton shrugs. "If you say so."

I roll my eyes. "Whatever. You knocked over a display."

"And you never have?" Colton asks.

I shrug. "I broke a bookshelf once. I wanted a book on a top shelf, so I stepped on the bottom shelf, like in movies and shit, but the shelf I was standing on broke."

"And you ran away?" Colton asks.

I grin. "No. I lied and told people that worked there that someone else broke it."

Colton laughs. "That's pretty smart, actually."

"Yeah." I yawn. "Shit. I think you made me sick."

"I'm not...whatever," he says. Alex and my dad pull up. We get in the car.

"How'd it go?" Dad asks, looking back at Colton and I. Alex is driving.

"Pretty good," I say. I look at Colton. Normally I would snitch and tell the parents he knocked something over, but I don't.

"Andy's sick though," Colton says.

Dad frowns as he looks at me. "Do you have a cold or something?"

"Think so," I mutter. "I'm gonna lay down when we get home."

"Okay," Dad says. "Alex and I are going to start on dinner. We'll probably eat around six," he says.

I nod, but then frown. "Shit, when's Mom coming?"

"At five. It'll be fine," Dad says.

"And Rachel's going to be there," Alex adds, talking about my aunt.

"Yeah." I still know Mom's gonna wreck shit.

**********************

"Hey, you can't come in," I tell Colton as I shove his present under my shirt.

Colton frowns. "Why aren't you in bed? You should be sleeping," he tells me.

"Whatever," I mutter as I sneeze. We got back to the house fifteen minutes ago. I stared at Colton's journal for ten minutes before writing: MAKE TODAY YOUR BITCH on the inside cover. I thought it was pretty clever.

"You're going to lay down," Colton says.

"Yeah, whatever. Turn around for a second," I say. Colron turns around I put his journal and the pens into a bag with tissue paper. I set it on my desk. "You can look now."

"You should lay down. The medicine's gonna kick in soon," Colton tells me. I roll my eyes and I stumble over to my bed and lay down. "Do you want another blanket?"

"I'm good," I say. I pull the covers up to my neck. "Are you playing doctor or something?"

Colton shrugs. "I don't know."

"Well, you can take your present and leave it by the tree," I tell him. "Maybe I'll get lucky and sleep through the dinner party so I don't have to see my mom."

"Why are you so anxious about seeing your mom?" Colton asks. I pat the bed and he sits down on the edge.

"I don't know. I just know she's gonna do something bad, you know? She's going to do or say something to make my dad feel shitty."

Colton shrugs. "Maybe you should give her the benefit of doubt. She might be not terrible. It is Christmas."

"She never liked Christmas," I tell him.

"Don't worry," Colton says as he stands up. He closes my curtains, so the room is dark. "Can I get you anything else?"

"I think I'm good," I say. Colton nods. He grabs my present and lingers in the doorway. "Thanks though."

"For what?"

I shrug. "For taking care of me, I guess."

Colton smiles. "No problem. Feel better."

He closes my door and I stare at my ceiling.

It's weird. I have this feeling that something is going to happen at this Christmas. I don't know what, and I'm guessing it's going to be caused by Mother, but something is going to happen. I just wonder what.

***********************

"Shit," I mutter as I roll over. I yawn and rub my eyes. It's four, so I slept hard for three hours.

I push myself to a sitting position and check my phone. I have another missed call from Bryce. "Shit," I mutter again. I call him back and it goes to voicemail. "Sorry I missed your call. What's up?"

I sigh end the voicemail. The door to my room opens. "Oh, hey. You're up," Colton says. He's kind of hiding behind the door.

"Yeah. Just got up," I tell him. "You can come in, you know. I'm not contagious or anything."

Colton shrugs and pushes the door open. He sits down on the edge of the bed. "So, how you feeling?"

"About the same." I yawn. "Were you checking on me?"

Colton grins sheepishly. "Just making sure you didn't die or anything."

"Aww," I say. "That's sweet."

Colton shrugs, but I see his cheeks redden slightly. "That's what friends do, right? Take care of each other?"

"Yeah," I say. "What are the parents up to?"

"Cooking and flirting," Colton says. "I finished decorating and they kicked me out of the kitchen."

"Sounds about right," I say. I scoot over on the bed and pat the space next to me. "You wanna watch a movie?"

Colton's eyes light up. "Yeah," he says. He gets up and sits next to me, but leaves an inch of space in between us.

I pull out my phone. "So, what do you wanna watch?"

"Whatever you want to." I start scrolling through movies on Netflix.

"You wanna watch Blackfish?" I ask. "It's a really interesting documentary."

Colton has a weird facial expression that I can't figure it out. "I guess. But we watched it in Burton's class."

"Did we...oh. Nevermind." My cheeks redden as I click play. We watched the movie in Biology towards the end of the year when I was with Bryce. I think we made out when the movie was playing and I remember being rude to Colton or something. I swallow and look at him. "I'm sorry all the shit in high school."

Colton looks at me. "Don't be sorry," he says. "We both did shit, and we've moved on. We're friends now."

"Yeah," I say. I look at Colton and he grins.

"Possibly friends with benefits."

I grin and hit his arm. "Shut up."

"I had to try," Colton says.

"Whatever. Let's just watch the movie," I tell him. We're both grinning.

After a few minutes, Colton says, "You know, I really wanna see a fucking Orca whale. In Seaworld."

I shrug. "They eat people in captivity."

Colton shrugs back. "So? Seaworld isn't gonna free them anytime soon and I really wanna see one."

I grin. "Me too."

"There's a Seaworld in San Diego," Colton says. "We could road trip there sometime."

"Fuck yeah we should!" I say. "I'll even buy you a little Orca plushie."

"Sounds good," Colton says. We go back to watching the movie.

The more time I spend with Colton, the more I realize how many issues Bryce and I are having. It's not because of Colton in a romantic way, it's more of Colton in a friend way. Colton makes me laugh and have fun. He makes me live in the fucking present, but somehow also make plans for the future.

But Bryce doesn't.

He makes me stress out and worry and go through his things. And I don't know, we just don't work anymore. Maybe things will be fine when we finally talk, but maybe they won't. It's just a confusing mess.

"You okay?" Colton asks, looking at me. His face pales. "Oh, shit. You're not gonna throw up are you?"

"No. But I'll aim directly for you, if I have to," I say, grinning. Colton shakes his head. "I'm fine, though."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

Colton sighs. "You can talk to me, you know."

"Fine," I mutter. I rub the bridge of my nose. "I'm just confused about Bryce and our relationship."

"You'll figure it out," Colton says. He goes back to watching the movie and I frown.

"You're not gonna make any remarks?" I ask.

Colton shrugs. "I don't need to."

**************************

"Stop eating all the little olives," I hiss at Colton. Dad, Auntie, Alex and Colton and I are all in the living room having appetizers before dinner. My dad, Alex and Auntie are deep in a discussion, and Colton and I are lingering by the snacks.

It's almost five, which means Mother's going to be here. I'm not quite ready to face her yet. And it's stupid because she's just a bully, but I'm still slightly intimidated. She's so unpredictable.

"They're so good," Colton says, his voice muffled by the olives.

"I'm serious. You literally ate all of them."

"They're so good though," Colton says. He swallows. "They're the good little ones."

"One or two is good. But fifteen is way too much salt," I tell him. They're the salty little green olives with a red pit.

"Whatever." Colton reaches for the bowl and I pull it away. "Hey!" he says.

"You should eat the crackers," I tell him. He reaches for the bowl and I move it farther away.

"Can I get another one? Please?" Colton asks.

I shake my head. "No. Friends don't let friends eat too much salt."

"Friends don't keep food from friends," Colton says as he reaches for the bowl again. I take a step back. Colton glares at me as he lunges forward. "I just want some damn olives," he mutters.

I'm about to hand him the bowl when the door opens and I see Mother. The bowl drops from my hands as I gulp. "Oh, shit," I mutter.