Belief

6.9

Maddie's POV

My dreams begin to fade, slowly the pictures in my mind deteriorate into whiteness and the sounds of the mental movie mute themselves until my eyes are fluttering open into the dim room. Luke is still asleep, his head resting on my stomach. I gently brush my thumb against his cheek, my eyes tracing over his peaceful appearance.

But then I remember what day it is.

Poking his cheek, Luke comes into consciousness, opening his eyes and lifting his head. "What?" he croaks, looking up at me.

"It's Christmas! Wake up!" I grin, poking his face so he wakes up.

A smile tugs at his tips, Luke lifting his head off of my stomach and moving up to lay down next to me. His eyes close, sleep taunting him.

"Wake up!" I squeeze his sides, making him chuckle and roll over to face away from me. "You are doing this on purpose!" I tickle his sides so he rolls back over to face me, trying to hold back his laughter.

"You are such a little child," he teases, looking up at my excited expression. His fingers brush through my hair, pulling me down towards him for a kiss. "Merry Christmas."

"Does this mean you will wake up now?" I smile against his lips.

"If you insist," he laughs, looking up at me with full eyes, his smile wide. His hands trail up my sides, pulling me close to him.

The door to the bedroom slams open, making Luke and I sit up in alarm. Michael and Grace run in the room. They pause in front of our bed, glancing at each other and giving a nod. Both of them climb onto our bed and start jumping by our feet. "IT'S CHRISTMAS!" They yell in unison.

"We get it!" Luke yells back, kicking Michael's leg. They stop jumping, landing on the foot of the bed with a big plop.

"Shuttup Luke," Michael sticks out his tongue.

"Come on lets go get presents," Grace tugs me out of bed. Luke slips on a shirt, following after us. Down in the living room Ashton is already sitting on the couch, Calum half asleep next to him.

"Where is Charlie?" I ask as Luke pulls me onto his lap on the couch across from them.

"We are all afraid to wake her up," Grace shrugs, laying her legs across Mikey's lap.

"She isn't that scary," I roll my eyes.

"False, you should be afraid of me," Charlie slugs down the steps, smirking at me and taking a seat on the floor by the Christmas tree.

"Okay so presents," Grace wiggles around in her seat excitedly. Everyone finds their gifts under the tree and hands them out to each other.

Luke catches my waist, pulling me over by the fireplace and holding out a small box. I pick it up cautiously, placing a bigger box in his hands. "Open it," he smiles, watching me closely. I remove the snowflake wrapping paper to find a little golden box. I glance up at Luke before opening the lid. A golden locket rests within it, my fingers brush the small diamond in the center of the heart shaped locket. I carefully open it to find a picture of me and Luke from the day we went to Disneyland. It was when the photographer took a picture when we weren't looking, my eyes were shut from laughing so hard, and Luke was staring at me with a bashful smile. I had almost forgotten about this picture.

"I love it," I say softly, tracing the locket with my finger. It was just beautiful. Luke takes it out of the box, brushing my hair to the side and resting the locket on my chest, clipping it on. "It's beautiful Luke."

"No, you are beautiful," he blushes. "There is something else in there too." I look under the tissue paper to find a small flash-drive. I look up at him questioningly. "It is the studio version of the song I wrote you, Everything I Want. I don't know if you remember when I sang it-"