Drawn To You

•29•

I wake up, turning on my side and rubbing my sleepy eyes before opening them. An instant peace washes through my body when I see my boy, looking at me with his beautiful brown eyes. His finger tips glide down the side of my face, and push my hair back.
"Are you okay?" He asks quietly, searching my eyes for any sign of upset.
"I'm just fine, Tom." I assure him.
"I didn't mean to yell at you my love.." he sighs and I feel my heart tighten at him calling me that.
"I know. It'll be better now that you've slept." I say.
His forehead rests against mine, and I feel my heartbeat quicken. Everything about him is suddenly so intoxicating, and it makes it hard to think straight.
Just tell him Eliana.
"Tom.." I breath out nervously.
"Hmm?" He hums.
"I..." I try, but struggle to get the words out.
"What is it?" He encourages, pulling his head back to look at me. I notice how the corner of his mouth curves up as he scans my face, looking for a tell.
"Tom.. I think that- no. I know that-" I shake my head and he giggles to himself at my inability to speak.
"Tom wake up!" I hear Harry bang on Tom's door, and my eyes widen.
"He can't see me." I whisper.
"Why?" He whispers back.
"Because he likes me he doesn't want to see me in his brothers bed!"
"Not a good time Harry!" Tom calls back.
"Why?" He asks.
"I uh- I'm watching porn!" He announces.
"You better not have sent the bill to my card this time!" Harry says and my hand slaps over my mouth to keep from laughing.
"Yeah I'll come by later bye!" Tom says quickly, and we hear Haz leave with Harry.
"You buy porn?" I laugh.
"I may have been subscribed to a few only fans.." he mutters.
I start to feel a bit insecure. Sometime I forget that Tom is a very sexual person and every girl he's been with has been a sex only relationship- so why would he want to be with me? The virgin Christian girl that doesn't get to have sex until marriage.. even if he did like me the way I like him, it probably wouldn't work for that very reason.
"What's wrong?" He asks.
"Oh nothing." I shake my head. "Just lost in thought."
"So.. what were you going to tell me?" He questions and I feel hesitant now. I woke up ready, but after thinking it through, and thinking of all the issues that would arise, maybe it's better that I don't say anything.
"I think that we should have Christmas Eve together." I say quickly, which isn't total bullshit because I was actually thinking about this. "We could invite the twins, and April and Gianna, Tuwaine, maybe even lily and paddy so they can get together."
Tom smiles widely at the suggestion, and nods.
"I think that's a great idea."
I get really excited, I love Christmas so much, I love decorating and making gingerbread and watching the grinch which I know word for word. This will be perfect.
"Wanna go get a tree with me?" I ask.
"Yeah, just gotta take a shower." He says, and jumps up from the bed. As he goes through his drawer, grabbing some clothes, he looks back to me with a smirk.
"You coming?" He asks.
"I- in the shower? Tom-"
"Eliana.. I was kidding." He laughs, and I force out a very uncomfortable laugh as he leaves the room. Thank god that's over..
___
We walk around the tree lot, trying to find the perfect one. I sip on my chai as we go through each row, and I decline every tree Tom points out. I'm very picky with trees. They can't be too tall, but definitely not too short. They have to be thick and full, but also even on all sides. It's very difficult to find the perfect tree.
"Hey remember what day it is?" Tom grins at me.
"What? Oh-" I groan. "Wonderful. Friday. The day my little sister becomes a hooker!"
"Oh come on, it's not that big of a deal." He says. "Not everyone waits until marriage."
"So.." I trail off, wanting to use this conversation to get information. "You think it's dumb?"
"Well no, not dumb. It's a personal choice. why is marriage so sanctified? You can know that you're committed to someone for the rest of your life without getting married. I just think that if you believe that, then it needs to be about the relationship between you and your partner, not a piece of paper legally binding you together."
I stand in awe of his answer. I would never expect him to give me an answer like that, it was beautiful, and so well thought out. And weirdly, I completely agree. It shouldn't be about a piece of paper stating that you're married, it should be about the couple, and how they feel.
"Eliana, I think I found your tree." He says.
I follow his eye line, and my gaze lands upon the most perfect Christmas tree I've ever seen. It checks off every box on my list.
"Oh my god this is it!" I squeal happily.
Tom watches me with a smile, as I attempt to grab the eight foot tall tree and move it. I start to stumble backwards a bit, Tom quickly grabs onto the tree, taking it from my hands.
"Why don't you let me take that Darlin." He says.
"Now what kind of feminist would I be if I did that?" I scoff.
"You can be a feminist, and still let the person who works out five times a week do the heavy lifting." He laughs, and starts carrying the tree off.
"Hey! I workout!" I exclaim.
We buy the tree, and take it back to my place to get everything set up. I feel like I've barely been home.. I'm always with the boys. They've practically become my family at this point.
"I'll get the tree inside, and you can start pulling the decorations out." Tom says.
I skip off to the garage, excited to get all the Christmas things out once again. As I look through the boxes, I see my little pink lock box from when I was little hidden behind the Christmas stuff. I've been looking for this for ages. The key is probably missing somewhere..
I pick it up, and to my surprise I see the key sitting right under the box. That's weird.. I don't ever remember putting this here.
My curiosity leads me to unlock the box, and open it up.
"Oh my god..."
I look inside, seeing a small bag of weed, joints, and a little bag of pills. Where did all of this come from?!
I see a little piece of bleach blonde hair, and come to the realization of who's stash this is.
Lily is doing drugs...
•Toms Pov•
I get the tree untied from the car, and pull it down.
"Need a hand there?"
I turn to see a man standing quite tall with a baseball cap on. He seems friendly, must be Elianas dad.
"You must be Mr. Gray." I say.
"And you must be one of those Holland boys." He says.
"Tom." I introduce myself, standing the tree up with one hand to jut the other one out.
He shakes my hand, and gives me a once over.
"So.. what are your intentions with my daughter?" He asks.
"I- um I-" I stutter and he starts laughing loudly.
"I'm just messing with ya." He laughs. "My wife told me about you. Said you really helped Eliana these past few months. I appreciate you looking out for my daughter."
I smile, loving that her parents think highly of me. Normally parents hate me.
"Uhh what's going on out here?" Eliana asks as she walks out with a couple boxes.
"Just meeting the boyfriend." He says.
"Dad he's not my boyfriend." Eliana rolls her eyes.
"I'm just joking peanut, don't get so riled up." Her dad says.
I can tell they have a really great relationship. He's pretty cool.
"Yeah okay bye dad." She shoos him off and he shakes his head at her, turning his attention back to me.
"I better go before she rips my head off. It was great to meet you." He nods, and walks off.