Ethereal Love

Chapter 13

I woke up to my mum knocking on Mia's door, "Girls, are you awake?" I looked to my right and saw that Mia was no longer next to me. I sit up and question, where did Mia disappear to? Within seconds of questioning, Mia walked through the door and says, "Mornin' thank you for last night." I looked up at Mia as she hugged my head, "No worries, are you feeling better today?" She let go of my head and nodded, "I received a text from my mum yesterday when I was in the bathroom. She sent me a family photo of them all in front of the tree in their matching Christmas Jumpers, and captioned it 'Missing Mia this year, can't wait to see you in Spring!' and it made me realise how homesick I am. I realise how stupid that is, sorry for making it a huge deal."

I stood up, faced Mia and said, "Stop undermining yourself, I completely understand how you must feel right now. You can always FaceTime her." I try comforting her as I could tell she's still heavily homesick. Mia hugged me again and cheekily shouted, "Oh my God Maddy, get out of my room you perv! Go and get dressed!" I could feel my face going red as I heard her and my little brother laugh. I leave Mia's room and start getting ready. After showering and brushing my teeth, I decided to wear my white high-top converse, grey joggers, a white sweater, a black puffer jacket and some rings. I sprayed my neck with Jimmy Choo Blossom Perfume and headed downstairs. I caught Mia drooling over me, it looked like she couldn't take her eyes off me, "Aww, you look nice Hunny" mum said, meanwhile flipping over some pancakes.

It was the 22nd December, the day we go out and do our tradition of each one of us buying a new bauble each year. We headed over to the Christmas market to grab our baubles and out of nowhere a frozen ball of snow hit the back of my neck, shivers shot through my body as the icy water ran down my back. I turned to see Corey with two snowballs in his hands. I hide behind a fake snowman and shout, "Mum, dad, Mia get to cover! Snowball fight!" People laughed at us for being immature and acting like children but it was iconic. I jumped over a snow stack and threw the snowball at Corey, it hit him right in the face! We all had a blast until we got in trouble. We bought the baubles and headed home to have some hot chocolate, turn the fire on and watch a Christmas Movie - Home Alone, a classic.

Before we settled down for a movie afternoon, I hopped in the shower to quickly heat myself up. I put my hair in a messy bun as I didn't need to wash it again, I wrapped the towel around me and walked to my room, I bumped into Mia on the landing and my towel dropped! Mia turned so fast I'm surprised she didn't get whiplash. I dropped to the floor and wrapped my towel back around me again, embarrassment filled my aura. Mia sniggered to herself, "Well, Merry Christmas to me." I gasped and my eyes widened, "Mia!" I slapped her arm and ran to my room. I could hear her laughing five minutes later. I stood in front of my mirror and said to myself, "You fool" I put on my pyjama bottoms, a black jumper and my white Adidas socks. I walk downstairs, head held low with shame, I still hear Mia's laughter coming from the kitchen, "Are you still laughing at me dro-" I stopped in my tracks and saw that Mia was baking some cookies with Corey and Malia. Corey was throwing flour at Malia and Mia... I felt embarrassed again. "Is Mia still laughing at what?" Malia asked,

"Oh nothing, it doesn't matter ahaha," I say trying to brush that mistake off.

A few moments passed now, the cookies were in the oven and Mia and I were now making the hot chocolate for everyone. I was at the sink washing up all the mixing bowls and stuff used when they were baking, then Mia held my waist and squeezed past so she could get the milk from the fridge. Her hands were warm, soft and gentle on my skin - at the moment I didn't want her to move her hands off me.

I'm so confused.

Christmas music was playing on our google home speaker, it was quiet but loud enough to boogie too. Mia put the milk in each mug and put them in the fridge to heat through. She put them in for three minutes. To kill time, I turned Mia around and held her hands, I pulled her close to me and we started to dance. Still holding her hand, she lifted her arm in the air indicating me to twirl, I rolled out then rolled in, we swayed side-to-side and sang along to the song: I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday by Wizzard. Mum and dad walked into the kitchen and said, "Go on girls!" Dad grabbed mum's hands and they started dancing like Mia and I. Mum spun over to me and I started dancing with her while Mia danced with dad. Then Malia and Corey came in, they started bouncing around too and singing along too. It was a beautiful moment we all shared.