Ethan
“When can we go Christmas shopping?” Lyla’s sweet voice reached my ears. I was shaving my face. It was getting too scratchy.
“It’s pretty late now, but we can leave first thing in the morning if you want.” I said loudly, rubbing the last of the shaving cream from my face. I didn’t want to go anywhere right now anyway; I was tired from hauling the tree up into the house earlier. Lyla just stood there and watched. I didn’t care. I didn’t want her to hurt herself. The tree wasn’t light, that was for sure. I brushed my teeth and flossed, and then I heard a banging sound. What the heck was that girl doing?
I tugged off my shirt and exited the bathroom. Yeah, I was ready to go to bed. I yawned, and midway through the yawn, I stopped to watch Lyla climb up onto my TV stand, and start tacking lights up along the ceiling. Her little butt wiggled while she reached, and I couldn’t help but stare at it. I was a sick pervert, yes, I knew that. It was Christmas time and I was getting off by watching my girlfriend string lights. What was wrong with me?
I chuckled, and startled her. She turned around part way and gave me a guilty grin.
“What?” she asked.
I smirked. “You’re totally caught. You can’t be sneaky around me, babe. I know you too well.”
She grinned. “Maybe you should put a shirt on so I can concentrate. If I fall off, it’s all on you.”
I shrugged. “Fine with me, that means I can play the hero and catch you, right?”
She ignored me, and moved on. Once she couldn’t go any farther, I got the stool out, and helped her finish. My room wasn’t small, so I couldn’t even tell you how many times I got off and on the stool and how many times I ran out of tacks and had to go get more from upstairs.
By the time I was done, I was sweating and breathing heavily. “I need to get in shape.” I muttered to myself just as Lyla’s hands came around me from behind.
“No, you’re perfect,” she whispered onto the skin of my back, making me shudder with unanticipated pleasure. Her hands were around my middle, resting by my belly button. I swallowed.
I turned around swiftly, and caught her lips with mine. She tasted of girl and snow, and it was perfect. She was so amazing that I couldn’t imagine my life without her. I didn’t want to. The only thing I knew was that if she ever left me, I would crumble from the inside, out. I didn’t understand why I loved her so darn much.
I pulled back. “Where did you get these lights from?”
She smiled shyly. “Uh… from up in the attic… when you were taking your time shaving, I ran up and got them.”
“Well, do the honors and plug them in just to make sure they work,” I said.
Lyla went over to the plug, and picked it up. “You know, maybe we should have tested these out first just in case.”
I cleared my throat loudly, put my hands on my hips. She looked at me and waited for me to say something.
“We? Maybe you should have thought of that. I was just being a nice guy and decided to help a pretty girl out.”
Lyla blushed and looked down, connecting the plug with the outlet.
When I saw the colors of the lights, I busted out laughing. I laughed so hard that my stomach started to cramp up.
“What, Ethan?” Lyla glared at me in a mocking sort of way.
I pointed while still laughing. “They’re orange and purple. These are Halloween lights!”
She quirked an eyebrow, and put a hand on her teeny tiny, hourglass waist “What the heck is Halloween?”
That made me laugh even more. First she didn’t know what Christmas was… then Halloween? It was too much. That freaking place messed her up. She had never gone trick-or-treating… Yeah, definitely next year we were going out. I didn’t care that I was almost nineteen. Lyla needed to experience all of this stuff.
I told her, and she sighed. “It doesn’t matter, right? After all that hard work, we should just leave them up.”
I yawned and nodded. Yep, I was drained. I went over to the bed and climbed in. The twinkling of the lights made me smile tiredly. Wait, who said orange and purple couldn’t be Christmas colors?
“You can stay up if you want, but I’m exhausted, darling. Turn out the lights before you go to bed… unless you want to leave them on.”
Lyla pulled the plug and came running and jumped onto the bed. She pressed a kiss to my bare back. Then she tugged the blankets up over my shoulders, and I snuggled into the pillows, shutting my eyes.
I felt Lyla settle in beside me. “Ethan?”
I blinked my heavy eyes open, trying to see her in the dark. “Huh?”
“Please, please, please don’t get frost on my pillow tonight. Try not to freeze my hair, either. I hate when you do that. Because when I have to move, I end up ripping out tons of hair, and I take the whole pillow with me. It’s somewhat maddening.”
That worked a fatigued chuckle out of me. “I can’t promise, but I’ll try. Goodnight, sweets.”
“Night, night,” Lyla whispered, pressing her warm lips to the side of my face.
I smiled, and drifted off to sleep.
The next day we got up bright and early to go Christmas shopping. Lyla picked up her check from work, and she pocketed about a hundred and fifty dollars. I gave her a wad of cash, and she tried to decline it. I ended up throwing it at her, and she reluctantly tucked it into her purse with a scowl.
We ended up at the mall. That was the best place to shop because usually they had everything since there were so many different kinds of stores.
She and I went our separate ways after I explained to her that she just had to buy things for people that she thought they would like. She had never done this before, so I had to make sure she knew what she was doing…
Oh God, that meant I was going to have to teach her to wrap. I bet she didn’t know how to do that either. It shouldn’t be that hard of a job. It was pretty self-explanatory. Just cut the paper, cover the gift in it, and wrap. Oh, and put nametags on.
I ended up buying Lyla clothes, CDs, movies, and a few gift cards. I also got my mom, Katie, and Hannah something. Lyla had a lot of different things, and I really didn’t remember the stuff that she already had, and I sort of forgot all the stuff that she told me she hated, Hopefully I got things that would please her.
We met back up in the front, and I was glad for the un-see-through bags. At least I didn’t have to take my coat off to hide anything. There were a few times I’d had to do that when I went shopping for my parents when I was little. I always used to hide the bags in my coat. I even got busted for trying to steal when I hid something in my pocket because my dad was in the store. It was like, come on, a five-year-old kid didn’t know any better—they don’t think, they just do.
After we got back into my truck, I saw a sign for the zoo. I got to thinking… I could take Lyla to see all the Christmas lights when it got closer to the twenty-fifth… yeah; I think she would like that. I didn’t know if any of the animals would be out since it was literally freezing, but she might get to see some polar bears and wolves. Those things were always out in the cold.
“Did you want to help decorate the front of the house when we get home? We still have to do a few stops yet, and I’m pretty hungry,” I said.
Having nothing to eat this morning was really wearing on me. I had no energy.
Lyla put her hand over her belly, and I think I heard it growl. “Me too… So, are you going to teach me how to wrap the gifts?”
Bingo, I knew she didn’t know how! I nodded. “Yeah, that was the plan. It’s rather easy.”
“Ethan, is Christmas supposed to feel like presents and lights?”
I glanced over at her. “I don’t know what those two things feel like to be honest with you.”
She gave me a “yeah, right” face.
“I’m dead serious, babe. I can’t tell you what it’s supposed to feel like, because that is all up to you, ya know? Whenever you figure it out, truly figure it out, I want to know. Okay?”
She shrugged, and continued looking out the window. I drove in silence to Applebees, wondering what she was thinking. Sometimes, it seemed like she was upset when she didn’t say much. I didn’t think that was the case, but you never knew with women. They got mad over the littlest things.
My phone rang. I huffed and pulled it from my pocket. It was Miranda. “Yeah?” I answered tersely. I didn’t wanna answer her, but then she would keep calling and calling if I didn’t. I didn’t wanna put up with her crap today.
“So… you guys are at Applebees,” she said. It wasn’t a question.
I swiveled in my seat, and saw her car pull out of the lot. Are you kidding me?
“Are you following us?” I asked, looking over to
Lyla who was watching me with wide eyes. I mouthed, it’s Miranda. She rolled her eyes and sighed loudly, smacking her hand against the door handle. Lyla shook it and mouthed the f-word because it hurt. I tried not to laugh. I just held my hand over my mouth, hoping she wouldn’t notice that I was trying not to laugh at her.
“No, I just saw you and wanted to let you know.
Like, why in the fuck are you still with her? Remember our Christmas together last year? Tell me that didn’t mean anything to you, Ethan. Remember how good I suc—”
I cut her off. “You know what, Miranda? I have nothing to say to you. Goodbye.” I hung up and shut my phone off. She’d better not turn her stupid car around either. I really didn’t want to deal with her right now. I didn’t want her to ruin this treasured time for Lyla and I. She’d better not even call me on restricted either.
After we got to our booth and placed our order, Lyla and I talked about what we would decorate the house with. I knew we had a lot of stuff—more than enough. It was going to be cold as hell out there, but whatever. We were going to have a lot of fun, and that was all that mattered. If our fingers, lips, and toes turned blue, we would deal with it then.
My face paled at the thought. The thought of Lyla being near-frozen again tugged painfully on my heart.
When our loaded plates of creamy noodles and chicken arrived, we spent more time eating than talking, which was fine by me. The warm food felt good settling into my empty belly. I started to get boosted up just after a few bites. I slurped on my Mountain Dew, which seemed to disappear just after a few minutes. I was glad for the extra refills. I could drink this stuff all day long and never get tired of it.
After ten minutes, my energy level spiked, and I didn’t know if it was the food to blame or the drink.
Probably the drink, considering it had both caffeine and sugar in it.
When we were both full, we left and went home. I had other stops to do, but it was getting late and I didn’t want it to be dark out when we adorned the house with lights and the works.
By the time I got done hauling everything outside, I was sweating so much I would probably get sick from being in the cold. My shirt clung to my stomach, and I was panting like a freaking dog. This time Lyla helped, but she didn’t really do much other than bring down the strings of lights.
“So, what do we do first?” she asked, dragging the ladder across the ground. She had her pink coat buttoned up, and her cheeks were a nice pinkish color.
“Uh, you can start putting up those deer and inflatable snowman. I’ll take care of climbing the ladder and stuff.” I didn’t want her up on the ladder considering it started snowing five minutes ago. If she got hurt, I would never forgive myself. The thought of her lying on the ground clutching a broken arm or leg physically wounded me.
Going up onto a ladder was a man’s work, anyhow.
The snow sparkled as it fell, causing a riot of sensations to enter my body. I was really decorating my house with a girl. That was something that I never thought I would ever do. Happiness and merriment swept through me, and I smiled in gratification. Lyla caught the look on my face and grinned back.
A little bit later, while Lyla was bent over trying to get a white tree to stand up. She was huffing, puffing, and cursing, and it was so hot that my traitorous body started to respond—again. This was the tenth time in an hour, I think.
But, I had an evil plan. I bit my lip, and made sure she wasn’t paying attention while I swooped down, catching a large fistful of snow into my gloved hand. I stalked toward her, feeling like I was a mountain lion sneaking up on a rabbit. I tried my hardest not to laugh. I tiptoed. When she heard my foot crunch in the snow, she turned slightly.
The snow was then extracted from my outstretched hand. I grinned widely. This was going to be great. I haven’t had a snowball fight in years. The last time I did, I was probably twelve, and it consisted of Hannah, Katie, me, and my mom. It was fun.
Within two seconds, the snow made its impact onto the side of her face. She swiped it off, but laughed.
“Seriously, Ethan?”
I scooped up another soft, cold white ball, beginning to pack it between my palms. “You wanna go, shorty?” I teased, throwing it at her stomach. It bounced off, leaving white residue.
“Who you calling shorty, Sears Tower?” She bent down, and grabbed her own small pile of snow.
“I’m not that tall.” I said, slowly bending over.
Wait, why the heck was I picking up snow when I could create it with a thought? I took my gloves off one by one, and tucked them into my pocket.
“You’re over six foot. That’s tall. Now shut up.”
She hit me in the face.
I closed my hands together, and opened them up to find a solid ball of ice… Okay, I needed to tone it down a little bit. I don’t think getting hit with a ball of ice would feel very good, or make Lyla too happy. She would probably light me on fire.
It took a few tries to get it precise, but I eventually got it. I wasn’t used to using my powers. Lyla seemed kind of flabbergasted that I was making snow out of absolutely nothing… maybe us Ice Bringers and Fire Bringers were evil. Magic wasn’t normal, nor was it natural to create something out of nothing at all. It was almost a sin.
Lyla heated up her hand to a glowing red, and reached out to block the snow I threw at her. It melted instantly, and she smiled like she had just won a trophy or something.
The snowball fight went on for over an hour before we were both breathless. We fell onto the icy ground and leaned against the other. I wrapped my arm around her slender shoulder, and held her tightly. I don’t remember a time when I’d had so much fun. It felt sort of good after everything that had been happening lately. From the calls to the stupid shadow people, everything has been sort of overwrought.
I laid my head on her shoulder when an idea popped up. I smiled an impish smile, and grabbed some snow. I fake stretched, and then shoved my whole fist down the back of her coat, into her shirt. I let the snow fall. Lyla jumped up, screaming.
“You son of a gun! Why in the heck did you do that? It’s so freaking cold!” she shouted, jumping around frantically, trying to shake the white powder from her clothes.
I started laughing and laughing. I rolled over onto the ground with tears streaking down my face. I clutched my stomach. The laughs kept coming and coming. Lyla was standing there, biting back a grin. She fell down next to me and gave me an awkward hug.
“Aww, you didn’t mean to do that, did you, Ethan?” she asked.
I looked her in the eyes. “Actually, I did.”
She pursed her lips, and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
“Well, that’s all right. I forgive you.” Her lips met mine, and the kiss was one of those that can register as “barely there,” but it was amazing.
I started shivering. I noticed Lyla’s fingers were sort of purple, and I knew we had to go in before one of us got frostbite. Not so much me considering I can make ice, but I was worried about her. She can make fire, so that probably meant she was more at risk.
“Did you want to go in?” I asked, standing up and dusting myself off.
We’d been outside for hours. The only time we went in the whole time was to grab all the stuff we put up.
“The yard looks good. You did a good job, baby. I love—” you, I wanted to say, but I didn’t. “I love it.” I said instead.
She grinned knowingly.
I turned around and started walking back to the house. It was getting late, and that meant I had to get some stuff done—
Suddenly, there was a hard shove to my back. My foot hit ice, and I was going down. I yelped, spun in the air, and landed with a hard impact. I felt the burn start in my finger immediately, and I cursed.
I lay on my stomach, trying to figure out how this happened. Did Lyla just… push me? Her amused laughter gave me my answer. I looked at my burning finger, and found blood flowing freely down it, staining the pure, white snow. It started to melt it, and I lay my head down on the cold ground. I breathed heavily, trying to shake the sick feeling away before I made a move to get up.
“Oh my God, Ethan! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know you would get hurt!” Lyla said loudly, coming over to me, helping me into a sitting position.
I gave her a “really?” look. “Lyla, I think when you push someone when it’s this slippery out, they have a good chance of hurting themselves. Don’t you think?”
She picked up my hand to inspect my finger. Damn, it stung like a bitch.
Her bottom lip quivered. I pulled her to me so fast that I didn’t even worry about getting blood on her new coat.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s just a cut.” I said soothingly to her. Please don’t cry, please don’t cry! I thought frantically.
I didn’t like seeing her with tears running down her face. I was such a sap. She was my girlfriend and I loved her so freaking much, even though I was hesitant and couldn’t tell her those three thrilling words. I wanted to so bad, but I just couldn’t.
She pulled back, and she had a few tears come down from her eyes. “But I hurt you! I never wanted to hurt you…”
I chuckled. “It’s okay, trust me. I just need a Band-Aid. It wasn’t like I snapped my neck or anything.”
That made her cry harder.
I wiped the wetness away before it froze to her skin.
“I’ll patch it up when we get inside, okay?” she said.
I nodded. “How does some soup sound? I was thinking about making a really huge pot of it.”