Home and Holidays

chapter 22

Ella stood in front of the full length mirror in her bedroom as she stared at her reflection, overthinking about her appearance and her outfit. She was about to go next door to have lunch with Noah, David and Lisa at their house, and she wanted to make sure that she looked cute. This was the first time that she was seeing Noah since the two of them had become an official couple, and so she figured it was important that she impressed him.

Right at that moment, Emily softly knocked on Ella's slightly opened room door, getting her attention. "Ella, sweetie, I found your bracelet that you were looking for earlier." she told her, coming into her room and handing her said bracelet.

"Thanks, mom." Ella replied with a smile, putting on the gold bracelet right away.

"Your outfit is so cute, sweetie. You look beautiful." Emily complimented her.

"Thanks. Are you sure it doesn't look like I'm trying too hard though? We're just having lunch and then going to do some last minute Christmas shopping, so I just want it to look casually cute, but not like I'm purposely trying to look cute. You know?" Ella over explained, looking over at the mirror again as she skeptically examined her outfit choice again.

"Ella.... you've been obsessing about this for twenty minutes. You've changed your outfit three times already." Emily pointed out, an amused smile on her face.

"I know.... I just really want Noah to think I look cute. I'm nervous." Ella basically whined, her mom trying her best not to chuckle at how dramatic she was being.

"Honey, I think it's adorable how much you care about impressing Noah, but he's going to think you look cute no matter what outfit you wear. Remember, he may be your boyfriend now, but he's still your best friend too. He likes you for who you are. There's nothing to be nervous about, ok?" Emily encouragingly  advised, soothingly placing her hand on her daughter's shoulder.

Ella smiled. "Ok.... you're right. Thanks mom." she finally said.

"You're very welcome. Now you should get going. I'm sure Noah's really excited to see you."

"Alright. I'll see you later, mom." Ella said before rushing down the stairs. "See you later, dad, I'm going to see Noah!" she cheerfully called to her dad as she dashed to the door.

"Ok, have fun, princess. You look adorable by the way." Steve replied with a smile from where he was seated on the couch, watching tv. It made him feel good to see that his daughter was so happy to be with Noah, especially since Noah seemed to be a pretty good kid.

"Thanks, dad. I'll be back later." Ella spoke before heading over to go see Noah.

Meanwhile, at David and Lisa's house, Noah had just come out of his room after being in there for about half an hour, making sure that he looked ok. He was really excited that Ella was coming over, and he found himself smiling at her text messages all morning as he waited for her to arrive.

Once he was in the living room, he walked over to Lisa to get her opinion on his outfit choice, though it was a fairly simple one anyway.

"Do I look ok? I checked the mirror in my room at least four times, but I wanna be sure." Noah asked her, straightening out the non-existent wrinkles in his clothes as he over thought about his appearance.

"You look great, Noah." Lisa replied with a smile. "Is that cologne you're wearing?" she asked, noticing the light, pleasant scent that he had used.

"Maybe...." Noah shyly responded. He had asked David to take him to the store earlier to get things like cologne, body wash, and body spray, since he really wanted to impress Ella today. "Do you like it?" he hopefully asked her.