Home and Holidays

chapter 11

Ella's parents exchanged hugs and hellos with David and Lisa, the four of them happy as ever to be celebrating together.

"Hi, Emily. Hey, Steve. It's always so good to see you guys." Lisa greeted them. "I mean, I know we see each other a lot, but on a holiday it always feels like a big deal." she laughed.

"I get what you mean." Emily replied with a chuckle.

"I'm glad we're having dinner at you guy's place this year," Steve started. "because Emily always makes her signature vegan mac and cheese to bring over here. It's the best thing ever." he mentioned, looking down at the dish in his hands that contained said meal as he smiled.

"Oh, I know exactly how you feel. Lisa made her green bean casserole too, and I'm getting hungry just thinking about it." David replied, both Lisa and Emily chuckling in amusement.

"Oh, and we brought our homemade banana bread too." Emily piped up, holding up the Tupperware dish with a loaf of banana bread in it. "I had Ella's friend, Noah bring some over to you one of these nights, but I didn't get the chance to ask you how you liked it." she mentioned.

"Well, it tasted amazing. We loved it so much, I'm so excited you brought it today." Lisa replied with a cheery smile.

Noah had just entered the room at that moment, waving shyly at Ella and her parents as they greeted him with huge smiles.

"Hi, Noah! Happy Thanksgiving!" Ella happily greeted her best friend, running up to him and giving him a hug as well. "I'm so excited to see you. I mean, I know we just saw each other like two days ago, but still. Are you having dinner here with us too?" she rambled a little, her excitement evident in her voice.

"Happy Thanksgiving. I'm excited to see you too." Noah replied, chuckling quietly at Ella's adorable enthusiasm. "And yeah, David and Lisa are letting me spend Thanksgiving with them this year." he told her. "You look amazing by the way." he added once he finally worked up the courage to say what he wanted to say the second he saw her walk in tonight. He couldn't help but admire how beautiful she looked in her deep orange, knee length dress paired with cute, black shoes that had a little bow on the front of each of them, her long, wavy hair adorned with a glittery black headband.

"Thanks, Noah. You look great too." she replied as she blushed a little, complimenting him as well with the cutest grin.

"Thanks...." Noah awkwardly trailed off, his cheeks tinted pink also, still not used to being complimented, especially on his looks.

Soon, everyone was sitting down at the table, enjoying the delicious food and each other's company. They had all said their grace and spoke about what they were thankful for before they started eating. Noah felt like he was at the best, 5 star restaurant ever with how amazing everything tasted, almost overwhelmed with all the dishes there were to choose from. After eating, everyone soon made their way to the living room to play some games, starting off with a Thanksgiving themed card game that Lisa had bought a while ago for this exact occasion.

As they played, Emily and Steve made small talk with Noah, wanting to get to know him better, which made him feel special. David and Lisa also made a point to redirect any awkward questions about Noah's home situation, expertly giving vague answers for him, so he didn't even have to discuss it.

"I can't believe you won again." David playfully complained when Lisa won yet another round of Crazy Eights. They had played at least three different games so far, and Lisa had somehow managed to win every single one.

"Believe it, babe." she teasingly responded with a smirk.

"Ella, sweetie, could you go in the kitchen and get the bag of lollipops from the cabinet?" Emily asked her daughter. "We'll need to use them as prizes for the next few games, since Lisa won most of the prizes already." she added with a playful roll of her eyes.