XXIV

Christmas

☆彡𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑎

Narrative

☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★

The next few days felt like a dream, something straight out of a movie. Me and Paige had done almost every couple things we could think of. Unfortunately, it was a dead giveaway for everyone else on the team and now they never stopped talking about us. Always saying something when we are together.

"We should go live." I hear Aubrey say from the small kitchen in their dorm. "Yes!" Cameron pops up appearing beside her. "Are they live right now?" Ice asks sitting on the couch next to me and Paige. "Yup," I respond, adjusting my head resting on her shoulder. "where is Paige?" I hear Cam say talking to Aubrey's phone and quickly move away from her before we can be seen. As if she had read my mind Cameron moves out of the frame revealing Paige who gives a quick wave. "Anyways," Ice continues, "Some of the guys on the basketball team invited us to a New Year's party, y'all interested?" "Oh for sure," I say a bit too loudly looking over at Paige who looks unsure. "Oh come on, it'll be fun." I shake her arm. "Okay, we'll go," she says looking from me back to Ice. "Okay, cool."

As Ice walks over to the kitchen I pick my phone back up. Shit. Christmas is in a week and I have no one's gift. "I need to go Christmas shopping," I say looking up at Paige. "Right now?" Right now would be smart, or I could just stay here with Paige. I sit and think for a moment. "I'll do it tomorrow." "Okay." She laughs to herself getting back on her phone.

"All they do is ask about Paige" I hear Cameron whisper to Aubrey as she read the comments. Paige pays no attention to the three on live so I get up and join them. I sneak into the frame next to Cameron. "Oh hey." She says turning the phone towards me and I wave. She was right, all they do is talk about Paige. "What is Paige's favorite color? I'm making an edit." Cam reads from the comments. I don't understand how she read that fast, the comments go by so quickly. "Purple," I respond without hesitation. Cam giggles. "What?" Paige is then next to me reading comments herself.

✰✰✰

The next morning I woke up surprisingly early. At some point, I do need to go Christmas shopping, which is going to be annoying because I'm sure everything is gone. Instead of doing what I should I pull open TikTok to do a little rotting. When I open up the app the first thing I see is Paige's face causing me to giggle, but to my surprise, I was in the edit too. It was a ship edit. I jump out of bed and rush into the kitchen to find Cameron leaning on the counter looking at her phone. "Look at this." I shove the phone in her face and she takes it. "What is it?" "Someone made an edit of me and Paige. Do you think they are on to us?" "Of course they are." Well, shit. "Paige is like a celebrity of course people are going to be analyzing everything she does with anyone, and I'm not surprised with the way you two were acting on live yesterday." "How were we acting?" "In love." She laughs pulling the carton of almond milk out of the fridge.  "Great ." I sigh putting my phone away. You know what? maybe I should just go Christmas shopping and stop overthinking everything.

"Okay, I'm just gonna go Christmas shopping." I turn towards my room. "Wait. You haven't gone yet?" "No...have you?" "Yes." Of course, she has. "Well good luck," she continues, "wait do you want something to eat before you go?" "No, I'm not hungry right now, and I can just get something while I'm out. "Okay!" She says as I close my bedroom door.

Another Christmas, another year of last-minute scrabbling with what's left. If all else fails, amazon will unfortunately have to do. After the first two stores, I was only successful for two of the players. if I had known one year ago I would be shopping for Christmas for the whole UConn women's basketball team I would have lost my shit.

After hours at various stores and thrift stores, I had gathered a decent amount of gifts for everyone, all that was left was wrapping them. As I realized how much wrapping I would have to do I felt a piece of myself crumble under the pressure.

✰✰✰

The days leading up to Christmas went by quicker than I could comprehend. I was now adding the last presents under the tree as Cam stirred the Hot chocolate. Any minute now the team would come over and our apartment would be packed with a bunch of ugly Christmas sweaters. "I think everything is perfect," Cam says hands on her sides looking at all the decorations that took us hours to perfect. "Yeah, I agree." As if on cue there is a knock on the door and the small group of girls fill into our apartment. I hadn't realized I wouldn't be able to give everyone their gifts since some could be home with family.

I can't help but laugh as I look at everyone's uncomfortable sweaters. The bright colors and the itchy cotton are so cringy. I hug Azzi, Ice, Aubrey, and Nika before I am met with Paige who I give a small peck on the cheek. She wraps her arm around my waist causing my ears to heat up. I notice all the other girls standing awkwardly not sure what to do. "You guys can sit," I gesture to the couch. I grab out the boxes of board games and set them on the coffee table. "We can play any games if you guys want- Oh! I forgot something very important!" I practically jump over to the record player slipping out the Nat King Cole record carefully placing it on the platter and moving the needle on the grooves. "Oh my god, this is perfect!." Cam says from the kitchen. I should probably go help before everyone eats some protein food that does not taste well. The Snow slowly falling outside the window feels unreal. I  never thought of it like this before, this is the life I've been dreaming of. This is why I went to college.

"How about you let me take over and go say hi to everyone." I slip into the kitchen stirring the mashed potatoes before plopping them into a bowl. "You sure?" "Yeah, go ahead Cam, these are your friends too." She takes off the apron we both wear as a joke- handing it to me before leaving the kitchen.

"Need any help?" I hear from behind me. "No, I got this." I feel arms wrap around my sides. "P..." She chuckles in my ear squeezing tighter rather than letting go. When I turn around she is leaning against the counter, her arms holding the weight behind her. "Okay fine since you want to help so much, take the rolls out of the oven." "Yes Ma,am." She says slipping on the oven mits and grabbing the pan out of the oven.

The rest of that evening was filled with lots of eating, gift exchanging, and glances between me and Paige. I know what Cameron meant now.

I am in love.

˚. ✦.˳·˖✶ ⋆.✧̣̇˚.

Christmas!! okay if you haven't seen already I published my other story. which is an arcane one..... hey I'm a girl of diverse interests. but don't worry. I will still be updating this one. I am finishing this story. I am not a quitter.  :)

Also thank you sm for 44k reads, 800 votes, and #1 in photography??? I never thought this story would get that many reads so thank you so much!!

-J