Ben

(This is the second half of chapter 8, sorry it got cut off but together it was over 4,000 words so I had to cut it.)

I walked back over to where Dev and I were sitting and plopped down in the chair.

"Here's your water, I hope you wanted a cold one cause that's what I got you." I handed the plastic water bottle.

"Thanks!" He took the bottle and tried to twist the top off. I took a sip of the eggnog and savored the light taste of the whiskey while Devin still struggled to open the cap of his water. (Did you know that traditional eggnog has ither rum, whiskey or brandy? I didn't.)

"Want me to get that for you?"

"No! I'm fine. I can open it. I've opened water bottles before. I got it." He reassured, continuing to try to twist the water cap off. I watched Devin relentlessly tried to twist off the cap for a couple seconds before he placed the bottle at his feet and leaned back. "You know, I wasn't even thirsty to begin with." I smiled, shook my head and reached down to pick up his water.

"You could've just asked." The cap opened with a pop and I passed it over to him. Devin took the water back with a slight blush dusting his face.

"Thanks." He said quietly, clearly still defeated. I got a sly idea and ran with it.

"What was that?" I asked jokingly, cupping my ear with my hand and an obnoxiously large smile on my face.

"Thank you so very much, oh powerful one!" He said much louder, struggling to hold back a giggle. I flipped my hair around.

"Thou is very welcome, young Devin." With that, he burst out laughing and I joined him. It took a second, but we finally calmed down from our laughing fit and Dev tried to take a sip of his water then immediately started laughing again and nearly choked on the water. "Don't die on me now! I joked, patting his back so he didn't choke.

"Q-Quit making m-me laugh!" He choked out; half coughing-half laughing.

"I didn't do anything." I chortled. "You can't drink water on your own." I tried to hold back from a full-fledged laughing fit; then he took a couple deep breaths and attempted to drink water again, but this time succeeded. We sat in silence and sipped on our drinks, not quite knowing what to talk about.

After a couple minutes of silently vibing to whatever music was playing, it suddenly changed to the iconic whistle beginning of Moves Like Jagger.

"Oh! I love this song!" I blurted, a smile growing on my face.

"Sweet, do you wanna go dance?" Dev asked, already standing up and crumbling up the plastic water bottle from earlier.

"Well, I guess it's not really an option whether I want to or not." I replied with smile and standing up from my chair.

"Nope." He responded gleefully, nearly skipping out onto the softly glowing dance floor.

Devin

"Just warning you, I'm not a good dancer." I laughed, trying to find the beat in the song.

"Well, you're probably better than me, so that's something." Ben said, awkwardly starting to sway forwards and backwards with the melody. As the chorus began, I tried my best to sing along in a not-horrible way and, a quick thank you to my voice for cracking right in the middle of it, very helpful in the situation. Ben snickered at my majestic cracking voice and began to sing along with me and dance a bit wilder. By the end of the song we were singing as best as we could and throwing our limbs out in a variety of directions. As the ended, we stood across from each other, breathing heavy with large smiles on our faces.

"So much for not looking like a fool tonight." I joked, swaying lazily.

"Oh, come on. We were fools together." He replied, reaching over and gently touching my shoulder, then awkwardly put it down and letting it dangle by his side. A new song began to play, this one much slower. My face immediately turned as red as my sweater as we both stood on the dancefloor, waiting for the other to make a move it was obvious that neither of us wanted to. "Well... do you want to continue dancing?" Ben asked, holding out his hand. ("Do you trust me?" Bros my Aladdin is coming out.)

"S-Sure." I silently cursed myself for stuttering and cautiously took his hand. My heart beat a million times a minute as I felt his fingers wrap around mine.

"Do you want me to lead or..." His voice trailed off at the end, waiting for a reply.

"Uh... sure I-I guess." Ben rested his hand a bit above my waist and I put mine on his upper arm and started to sway with him.

Lizzy

"I'm so confused." I vented, dancing across from Steven. "You said they are still friends."

"Yep." He replied, watching Devin and Ben almost as closely as I was.

"So, they aren't dating."

"Yes."

"But they are dancing together!" I protested, as Steven proceed to spin me. "But how are they still 'just friends'?"

"I have no idea. I told him to make a move, but I expected more to come out of it."

"I'll bet that they'll get married and still be friends." I scoffed.

"I'm willing to take you up on that offer."

"Deal."

/-/

I stood over by the drink table and slowly poured myself some punch as I watched Devin and Ben talk. As much as I desperately wanted Devin to leave Ben by himself so I can go talk to him, I'm also happy that Devin is staying by him for so long. At last, Devin mouthed something about needing to use the bathroom so now I could finally get a word out to Ben.

"Howdy." I started, sitting down next to Ben.

"Hey, what's up?" He replied, relaxing a bit.

"Did you get a Christmas present for Devin yet?"

"You know it." A sly smile appeared on his face and I suddenly got VERY nervous.

"W-What did you get? Should I be nervous?" I leaned in, visually begging for an answer.

"You'll see in the morning." Ben laughed, taking a sip of his drink.

"No, please!" I begged. "I need to know!"

"If you didn't wait so long to ask me, maybe you would have gotten an answer."

"Oh, now your pinning it on me." I leaned back on the chair and rested my hands on my hips.

"Yes I am." Ben snickered.

"I'm going to laugh in your face if you get something terrible." We sat in silence for a moment before I spied Grace and Ivy on the dance floor and immediately got up to join them.

Ben

The party ended around 11:00 and me and Dev met up afterwards to walk home together. Since our houses are so close together, and by close, I mean less than a mile; I didn't seem weird and needy to walk home with him, even though I'm pretty sure he would've wanted to come with me anyway.

"Well, see you tomorrow I guess." Devin said, standing on the porch of his house. I insisted that I drop him off first, rather that we go to my house and have Dev walk home alone in a dark forest. "We're going to be meeting at Steven's, right?"

"Yeah, at 10 I think. I'm so excited for you to see what I got you." I smiled, looking up at him. (For the first time in forever.)

"Right back at ya." A sly smile grew over his face as he no doubt remembered my gift. "By the way, thanks for... like, everything I guess." He laughed nervously, a slight blush dusting his cheeks. "I-I had a really great time tonight, dancing with you and all."

"Me to. I hope that won't be the last time." I flirted, looking into his eyes that seemed to be smiling with me. I didn't know what to say now, so I just stood across from him. "Well, Ziggy is probably getting hungry." I brought up.

"Oh, right. Well, I'll let you go, I guess." He ended, taking a small step back towards his front door.

"Good night and Merry Christmas in, like, an hour or something." I replied with a laugh and taking a step back.

"G'night, Merry early Christmas."

I decided that I would walk home that night, rather than fly just because I needed the crisp winter air to help me to think. Tomorrow was the real Christmas and since it would only be is four that live around the south side so, Steven could do some hardcore pestering. How would I even ask him out anyway? I hardly ever have the courage to compliment him, or much less make move.

I came upon my small modern house situated in a large field near a small cliff that lead straight to the ocean. I yanked open the door to see my living room with Ziggy, under a blanket, watching Friends on TV.

"You hungry, Zig?" I asked him. He immediately jumped up from under his blanket and trotted over to the door that lead to the garage where I kept his food. "I'll take that as a yes."

-screaming-

SAVE ME. School makes me actually dead inside and I've only been back for like two days. (and I'm totally not writing this in Language Arts class. @Tomato0428 got assigned to the seat right next to me so they are totally not looking over my shoulder as I write this.)

Oh wait. Writing stuff. 1,546 words, mostly writing in school and/or online church school. In case you haven't noticed, I will be uploading much less frequently, but know that I am still working. Well, that's it.

Also, check Realms Alternate, I'm starting to add some stories to that book. (I've already uploaded one!)

Love y'all!

--Kio