A Girl's Christmas: Part 2

He must have texted me a thousand times by now, and I can’t wait to turn my attention to that instead.

“Hey, I’m going out for a bit – you should stay home and eat those cookies while you have the chance – ”

“No! Don’t go! Stay with me!” I look up from my phone, startled, to see my mom holding onto my wrist.

“But mom–”

“Come on, I love cooking and baking, we could make hot cocoa and watch some stupid Christmas movies.” She looks pleading, pouting a bit and giving me one of her classic, doe eyes. “Please, baby? I need my girl today!”

I let out a defeated sigh, nodding, and I followed her into the kitchen.

A couple of hours later and we are sitting cross-legged on the living room carpet, my mom watches some sort of holiday movie with a mug of cocoa clutched between both hands, as we watch some ridiculous snowman being made.

Suddenly, my stomach growls loudly. My mother glances at me with raised eyebrows and I chuckle sheepishly. “Not sure if I missed dinner yet or not. I’ll be right back!” I stand up and walk towards the kitchenette, leaving my mother alone on the couch.

I rummage through the fridge, finally finding an old jar of peanut butter. I pop open the top and dig around for some saltines to snack on, grabbing a cookie for my treatment before I’m even halfway through.

After my snack is consumed I wander back into the living room, sitting on the floor beside my mom who is still completely transfixed by the movie playing before us.

As soon as I settled in next to her I heard my phone buzzing repeatedly with texts from the kids in my class that wanted me to hang out tonight.

I set aside my phone and glance back over at my mother, only to notice she is sleeping. Great, I should probably wake her up, since I didn’t have much else planned for tonight. But it was so peaceful just laying down here next to her and watching the snowman on screen, not having to think about anything at all –

Before I can even process what’s happening, she shifts, wrapping an arm around my waist and tucking herself against my side with a sleepy huff. A second later, her fingers brush gently against my arm, tickling me slightly and I squeak a little, jolting upright.

Mom cracks her eyes open and gives me a lazy, half drowsy smile. “Did I fall asleep? Sorry.”

“N-no! Of course, you didn’t, you’re the best!” I reply frantically, scrambling to push her off my lap and stand up, embarrassed. “Um, I’m gonna go take a shower now, okay? You want something from the bathroom?”

She shakes her head, waving my offer away. “Go on. Your father has plenty of pictures on his phone anyway,” she adds cheekily.

“Okay, fine,” I mumble, heading back up the stairs. I grab a towel from the linen closet and pad back into the bedroom to change, and before long I’m standing at the bottom of the staircase, towel wrapped snugly around my hips and hair dripping wet. I make my way across the hallway toward the bathroom, trying not to trip over any scattered pieces of clothing that will get wet now and ruin the rest of my Christmas outfit.

The sound of my phone vibrates in my hand, startling me. I pause, staring at the offending object in confusion. Who could that be…?

My curiosity quickly gets the better of me. I pull my phone out of my pocket and open up the message I received only a few minutes earlier.

To be continued...