Stacey and I headed to the living room around five in the morning, knowing the kids would wake up within an hour from excitement. Anna and Presley still believed in Santa, so they were generally more excited on Christmas morning than the rest of us.

We sat on the couch, inspecting the wrapping paper on presents. I spotted a sheet draped over something "Santa" must've brought last night. It looked a lot like a small table.

I felt bad for the sucker who was receiving a small table for Christmas.

Soon, I started nodding off and I noticed Stacey was, too. She passed out with her head on the arm of the couch and I almost felt bad for keeping her up all night, but forgave myself, knowing if I hadn't, she'd still have the cold shoulder towards me.

I went ahead and plugged in the tree lights so they'd be ready when everyone came in. I sat back down and looked at Stacey. I'd never seen her sleeping before. She looked so peaceful and, yeah, pretty.

I heard a snicker from the staircase and noticed Anthony had been watching me watching Stacey. Awkward.

"Oh, you just wish Faron was here for you to stare at," I said.

"I sure do!" he said, walking over and sitting between Stacey and I. I tried to shush him for talking so loud but he didn't listen.

"Why are you even up?" I said. "You never wake up before noon."

"I'm offended. I haven't slept till noon since spring break last year. Get your facts straight."

I rolled my eyes.

The sound of squealing children told me that everyone was awake and soon the living room would be full. I looked over at Stacey, who was still out cold.

Anthony poked her arm. She didn't budge. "Goodness, Loganberry," he said to me, "what did you do to her?"

I didn't answer him, because kids and tired parents and preteens (sorry, teenagers) were now entering the room.

Anna and Presley rushed to the tree and began pulling presents out. The next twenty minutes were a blur of flying trash and squealing children. Stacey woke up from her snooze and began joining in the festivities.

"Logan," my mom said. "Why don't you go remove that sheet?"

Oh, I was the sucker receiving a small table.

I took a breath and removed myself from the couch and pulled the sheet from the object and found...not a table, but a snazzy electric keyboard.

I found myself tearing up (out of happiness—I was not allergic to keyboards). "Thanks, Mom."

Mom scoffed. "It was Santa, Logan. You must have been a very good boy." She winked.

Stacey smiled at me from the couch. "Are you crying, Loganberry?"

"No, I'm...allergic to keyboards."

She snickered and waved me back over. I sat by her and she poked my leg.

"We're leaving tomorrow," she said.

"And you're coming back," I told her.

"Well, yeah. We're flying to Oregon and someone needs to watch our vehicle."

I smiled. "Well you'll come back after leaving after coming back to get your vehicle."

She blinked. "I'm not going to try to understand that sentence, but yeah, I'll try to come back."

"Give Brody a broken nose, also."

Stacey glanced around to make sure no one was listening. Turning back to me, she said, "Winter formal is this January."

I took a moment to just breathe before I answered. "You going to go?"

"Well, it's my last chance to go to a dance at my school. I wouldn't want to end my dance experiences at that school on a bad note."

"Are you going to ask somebody?"

Stacey bit her lip. "No. I don't think I could. I'll just go and hopefully meet up with this nice girl from English, probably. You know, since Kathryn is too embarrassed of me now."

"Well, Kathryn can eat an onion."

"She can eat two onions."

"With wasabi."

"Maybe a side of ghost peppers."

I just looked at Stacey and laughed. She looked back at me, smiling. I looked away and saw Mom holding a camera in my direction.

"Mom!"

"Glad you two are friends again!" She snapped another photo and bolted to the kitchen.

Anthony laughed. "You gotta make it public soon. People are beginning to notice."

As someone who had never seriously dated anyone before, this proposition did not appeal to my fancy.

I mean, we weren't even officially together...

I blinked and stood up. "I need water."

I found Mom in the kitchen snickering with Pamela.

"You don't need to assume anything," I told them, filling a glass with water.

"And you don't need to hide anything," Pamela said.

I raised an eyebrow. "What if I have nothing to hide?"

"Then we must have missed all of the flirting taking place this past summer."

I narrowed my eyes. "You think you know everything?"

Pamela just smiled (thankfully, because I was scared I was too rude). I hurried back into the living room with a blush on my cheeks.

"Was that water too hot, Logan?" Anthony asked, wearing a smirk. "You're looking flushed."

"Yes, actually." I looked away.

"Logan?" Stacey said. "Can I talk to you in the hall?"

"Sure?"

She grabbed my arm and led me to the hallway. She crossed her arms but smiled. "Are you embarrassed?"

"Of course in embarrassed! You think I have a lot of girls in my life?"

Stacey smirked. "You could've fooled me."

I smiled nervously.

"What are we gonna do?" she asked.

I knew what she meant. Was I going to ask her to be my girlfriend and make it all official or was I going to keep doing whatever I was doing?

I was terrified of the former, and just barely getting comfortable with the latter.

The truth was simple. If I didn't ask her to be my girlfriend she had no reason to hang on to me if someone else came along. It wasn't like we were exclusive. We never said we were.

"I'll tell you what," I said, pointing a finger. "If someone asks you to that dance, you tell them no."

With nothing else planned, I walked back to the living room.

__________________________

Hello! Sorry I haven't updated in like...seven months. I've been having a really rough year.

Anyway, here's an update! I'll work on this story as much as time permits, hopefully. It's kind of hard when I have no time but yeah, I'll try.

Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter and if you did, give it a vote!

-Hannah ∞