Salty Licorice

Chapter 49

Liz's POV

It's Friday, the last day of school before break and today we are supposed to exchange gift's next period in art. I already gave Leo his gift and Spencer will have to wait till break when I see her away from Avery. I'm sitting in Lunch with Avery, Marisa, and Emily talking about Christmas, well more like I'm asking Marisa about it.

"What song is that, you're always humming it like 20 times a day," I ask her.

"The best Christmas song ever," She smirks at me. "'Grandma got run over by a reindeer'."

As she says the name I look up the song and start playing from my phone. Marisa grins wide and starts to hum along. Avery just sits eating her burrito not even bothering with listening. I can't help but giggle at some of the lyrics and can picture all the reasons why Marisa loves this song.

When the song ends I look at Avery curiously and can't help but ask. "What's yours?"

"My what?"

"Favorite Christmas song?"

"If I had to pick, I'd have to say 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas'," She shrugs. I look it up and play the first one but she shakes her head and takes the phone from me and plays a different version, a slower one. "Has to be this version, it's calming," She admits handing the phone back.

I let the song play over the table and hear a slow foot tap under the table and know it's Avery. She doesn't give anything away that this would be her favorite except the tap of her foot and the subtle movement of her lips as she mouths along to the lyrics.

"What about you Emily?" I ask to catch her looking through her phone.

She meets my eyes with a dazzling smile showing off her bright white teeth. She doesn't answer me but steals my phone and taps away before Mariah Carey's 'All I want For Christmas' starts to play. She sings along proudly to the song, or more like squawks the song to Avery who just stares at her plainly as she slowly chews her food. I look at Marisa who looks at Emily with her awkwardness skewed on her face before looking at me with a look of disbelief all I can do is match her with agreement. I almost feel embarrassed for her, but I won't say a word. Once the song is over we look at Avery but she doesn't seem to show any emotions on her face until she meets my eyes and she smirks.

"What's your favorite song kitten?" She asks. "Is it some German song?"

"Nope, it's in English and I think you might like it," I chirp excitedly.

I looked up my favorite which wasn't hard to find since I've listened to it a few times this season already. I mouth along to the words 'Santa Baby', meeting Avery's eyes as she watches me and forgets about her burrito. I capitalize on this and tease her a bit. I run a finger down her arm that's on the table while my other hand squeezes her thigh. She visibly gulps as she tries to keep her red ears and cheeks from getting deeper as the song continues. I lean forward watching her eyes flicker to my chest before looking back at me as I trail a single finger over her jaw and pressing my palm against her abs over her shirt. As I whisper the last sentence into her ear leaving a feather light kiss on her cheek. She fumbles in her seat from getting flustered and probably turned on but all I can do is lean back giggling at her bumbling state.

"Do I hear talk about Christmas songs?" I hear Spencer's voice from next to me as she takes a seat on the table resting her arm around my shoulder and neck pulling me towards her. "I have one that I think you'll very much enjoy." She slips my phone off the table holding eye contact with me.

Avery's demeanor immediately switches from bumbling idiot to protective very quickly.

"Are you about to kiss me?" I ask with a raised brow.