For the second night during her visit, Marley went to bed with a smile. And for the second time, it was because of a certain boy with piercing gray eyes and a lopsided smile.

Only this time she didn't fall asleep. She hadn't spent the day wandering around the city, weaving her way through traffic. She had gone from the breakfast table to a make-up table to a car to another dining table to slowly swaying around an empty ballroom to yet another car.

And now here she was, staring up at the ceiling of her grandmother's house, watching what shadows there were dance across it.

The ceiling lit up blue with an excuse for Marley to avoid sleep just a little bit longer as the church bells in town tolled out the hour. Eleven o'clock, Marley's phone confirmed when she leaned over to check the cause of the sudden blue light.

Two words and her smile widened.

"Look outside," the message read and Marley obeyed. She climbed out of bed, her bare feet barely registering the ice-cold floor. Pressing her nose against the glass, her warm breath billowed clouds onto the panes.

Down below was a lone figure, looking up at the house, glancing from window to window. He looked... normal. Gone were the neat pea-coats and expensive shoes, the bow-ties and tuxedos. Even at the senior center he had looked polished and put together.

But standing in her grandmother's driveway, trying to see which room was hers, Felix looked like any other guy she might have come across at school, the beanie, down jacket and plain old sneakers would have made him blend right in.

He finally saw her and waved. Marley returned the gesture and held up her pointer finger; she would be down in one minute.

She was out of her room, jeans, and a sweater in place of her pj's, in thirty seconds. She waited until she had reached the kitchen door before she pulled on her jacket and slipped on her snow boots. She was pulling her beanie down low over her ears and wrapping her scarf tight around her neck to combat the bitter chill of the evening when she rounded the corner of the house and hurried towards the driveway.

"Hi."

Her greeting floated out in front of her.

"Hey."

"Couldn't sleep?" She asked. He shook his head, no.

"Me neither," she said.

"Wanna go for a walk?"

Felix gestured to the long winding driveway behind him. Marley nodded and fell in step beside him.

"Do you often spend your winter nights wandering around someone else's neighborhood?" Marley asked.

It had taken the trek to the large black gates and out of the side gate for Marley to accept that this was actually happening and think of something to say.

"Not really, no. I do, however, usually end up wandering around my own neighborhood."

Felix answered the questioning look on Marley's face why pointing down the street to the right as their footsteps took them left.

"We're neighbors. That's my house right next door. Did you not know that?"

"I had no clue."

"Our grandfathers were still friends when they bought the land and things only fell out once construction had started. Instead of giving in, my grandfather put in a hedge that can only be crossed by the use of a chainsaw. It's only grown over the years."

"Seems a bit extreme."

"You never met my grandfather. If you did, you would have said that sounds just like him."

The light gray clouds above that had been looming over the town all day finally realized what they were there for and started sprinkling down a light dusting of snow as Marley and Felix's trek led them into the heart of town.

"This place is ridiculous," Marley sighed, a smile stretching across her face as she looked up into the hanging garlands overhead, wrapped in Christmas lights, illuminating Main Street in a warm glow.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so."

"I mean, seriously! It's like it's out of a fairy tale! Look at this place. The lights, the ice skating rink. And now the snow?"

"You get snow in the city," Felix countered.

"Not like this."

After a long moment, Marley could finally put into words her experience thus far living in her grandmother's, in Felix's, world. It was a word that they had used before, thrown casually into conversation. But walking among what could only be described as a Winter Wonderland, there was no other way to describe it.

"It's just all too...surreal, you know what I mean?"

Felix nodded for Marley to keep going.

"My mom used to tell us these stories when we were little. At first, I figured they were just fairy tales. Eventually, I got old enough to realize that they were her stories, from her childhood. But I was old enough to think that she must have been exaggerating. Turns out, she wasn't. There really are Christmas trees as tall as giants and mansions that look like old English manors simply transported across the sea. This place, this life, it's..."

"Surreal," Felix finished for her.

"Yeah. I mean, look at this church."

Their trek had taken them down Main Street, around the park in the heart of town and they were now rounding the furthest edge where a tall white steeple completed the idyllic picture they walked amongst.

"Is this even a functioning church or is it just here because it's supposed to be?"

Felix looked up to the bell tower where just a hint of gold could be seen of the giant bell housed inside.

"No, it's a real church. My grandmother goes here. I do, too, when I'm in town."

"Really?"

They had stopped in front of the neat white steps that led up to two perfectly painted black doors but Felix was the one to make sure they moved on.

"Do I not seem like the church-going type to you?"

Marley shrugged, at a loss for words.

"I wasn't until I took my gap year. My grandmother moved out here for good when she had my dad, determined to raise her kids away from the city. She started going to church at this church and hasn't missed a Sunday in over forty years. I try to go with her as much as I can. It helped, going, especially after I left school."

"How so?"

Marley's question was soft. She didn't want him to stop talking and was afraid if he noticed that he was, he would stop. But he looked to her, met her gaze, and continued.

"It took a lot of convincing to get my dad to agree to a gap year. Columbia would defer my acceptance, so that helped. And so did my Gran. She could see I wasn't ready to get locked into the path my dad had planned out for me. And then my grandfather died. Weirdly enough, that kind of helped my case. Now my grandmother needed someone to help her take care of all his things and my dad needed me out of the way. He sent me out here to live with her part-time, keep her company, help go through my grandfather's mountain of old paperwork."

"And the church?"

"My life changed, essentially overnight. I had wanted it to. I was getting disillusioned, bored. Everything I did, all the places I got to travel to, the parties, the people, everything, it felt meaningless, a waste of time. Going to church, finding my faith, it helped me realize that there's more to this life than just money and cars and friends and parties. That's not really anything worth living for. But God?"

"That's what living's for," Marley finished for him.

Felix looked down at her, his eyes half-closed as he studied her face.

"You know what I mean."

Marley nodded.

"That church reminds me of a red brick version we have in Brooklyn. My parents made sure faith was a part of our lives growing up, that we knew there was a bigger plan involved."

"It's nice knowing I'm not the person in control of my life, that there's someone bigger out there looking out for me."

Marley's gloved hand had somehow made it out of her jacket pocket and found his. She nudged his shoulder when he looked down to find her hand intertwined with his.

"Tell me about your grandmother," she said, as they left the magical little downtown behind.

"She's...." Felix paused, a smile lighting up his face. "She's the most complicated person I've ever met. A woman of extremes, she would proudly say. I'm glad I've gotten to spend so much time with her. She's helped me realize that the life my dad has mapped out for me isn't what I want. And the fact that I don't know what I do want is okay. She's aware that this life we live is a fairy tale, that there's more to reality than what we experience here. But she still buys in somehow, still gives in to the expectations while encouraging me to break free of them."

"She is a woman of extremes."

Felix laughed and looked down at his hand in Marley's.

"She's smart as a whip and very clever. She's very caring but can be cold as ice once she's been crossed. It's hard to win her affection but it's forever yours once you do. She got bored playing the socialite a few years ago and so started her own Senior Center a few towns over just because she wanted something to do."

"The Senior Center that had the Christmas lunch the other day, that was hers?"

"She wanted to give back to the community somehow. Part of my job in helping her is helping run the senior center."

"I was gonna ask. I was curious why it looked like you ran the place."

"Probably because I do."

Marley laughed and the cold carried it out in front of her. Their feet had led them back down the lane and they had returned to Thea's front gates once again.

Felix followed her as she started up the drive. They walked in silence as their nighttime excursion was coming to an end. Marley finally spoke when she stood on the bottom stair leading to the kitchen door and Felix stood one step down.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," he answered.

"Why..." Marley had to pause to find the right way to ask what she knew she needed to ask.

"Why....me?"

There was that crooked smile again.

"Do you mind that I showed up at your grandmother's house to go for a walk at..." He looked at his watch. "11:55 at night?"

Marley shook her head.

"No, of course not. I'm glad you did. I would have just laid in bed staring at the ceiling if you hadn't. But I'm serious. Why me? It's not that I don't like hanging out with you, it's just that..."

"We have nothing in common," Felix finished for her.

"No. I wouldn't say that. We just don't live very similar lives. You live here and I live in a small apartment in the city. I go to NYU while you've got a spot waiting for you at Columbia, a job waiting for you at your father's company. I'm just a waitress with a pipe dream."

Felix frowned at her words, he even shook his head to disagree with them.

"Maybe that's why I like hanging out with you. You're the most normal person I've ever met. You're allowed to have a pipe dream. And I envy you for that."

For the first time all night, Marley became aware of the cold. Her hand, especially, since letting go of Felix's felt almost numb from it.

"It's my birthday tomorrow-"

Marley cut him off.

"Really?"

"We're having a family dinner. Over at our house. Just family. Small. Would you come?"

"Will your dad be there?"

Felix huffed out half a laugh.

"It is his house so yes. But it's my birthday. It's the one day out of the whole year I could get away with having you as my date."

That word seemed to hang between them for a long moment. The silence was then replaced by the sounding of the bells ringing out the hour. Midnight.

"Okay. I'll be there."

Felix's face was filled with what looked like relief, from what Marley could see in the low light. His shoulders relaxed and he was smiling again.

"Happy birthday, Felix," Marley said, leaning down to kiss him lightly on the cheek.

She glanced over her shoulder only once before slipping back inside the house and raced up to her room to watch him slowly walk down the drive. He stopped before disappearing into the night and looked up at her room to wave goodnight.

A/N:

Everyone's thinking it,
I'm just saying it....

Felix = babe.

There. Now it's out in the open. We can all be honest with how we feel.

So tell me, how do we feel about Felix? And please, be specific.