I purposely took the extra shifts at Bob Evan's the week leading up to Christmas. I just didn't want free time to either be upset about Leo, or for him to try to mend things. Deep down I knew that he wasn't going to change his mind, so nothing could fix us. I felt disappointed that the restaurant closed earlier on Christmas Eve, so I was forced to be home alone for awhile. I had made plans to spend the day with my parents and family tomorrow, but I dreaded them asking where Leo was. I just sat in my living room in the dark with blue, green, red, and yellow holiday lights glittering around it. I heard a soft knock on my door, so I gently took Pooh Bear off my lap and into my arms to answer it. He was already squirming like he already knew who was on the other side.
"Hey," Leo greeted, tiny snowflakes littering his hair.
"Hey," I echoed, forcing my weakest smile.
"I thought you might want to come over to Ned's. He won't be home until late, since he wanted to get all his work done before his break, but we can still hang out..."
"What would we do together?" I rolled my eyes from frustration, since his nice gesture wasn't helping my mood.
"We could make sugar cookies or gingerbread men, or hot chocolate, and then we could watch any Christmas movie you want. You could even stay the night if it got late."
I glanced behind me as I realized that I would rather be doing that than feeling sorry for myself.
"Okay," I nodded. "I guess I'll pack a duffel bag real quick. I don't actually want to be home alone tonight."
"You need any help with packing," he offered, taking Pooh Bear from me, so my hands would be free.
"No, I don't need to pack much. Just basically pajamas, my brush, nothing exciting." I ducked into my bedroom to do just that, even adding my makeup in case I overslept. That way I could just get ready for my Christmas celebration over there. I stepped out as my face fell when I realized something. "Wait a minute, wasn't your mom supposed to come out here for Christmas?"
"Yeah, but there's too many cancelled flights because of bad weather, so I'll just see her when I get back to California."
"I'm sorry," I apologized, giving him a sympathetic expression.
"It's alright. I'm just glad you agreed to spending Christmas Eve with me. I would've been alone too," he softly chuckled, him still carrying Pooh Bear as we ventured into the cold weather. My white combat boots crunched in the partly frozen snow on the ground, thankful to be in Ned's warm house shortly after.
"Could we make gingerbread men and sugar cookies and hot chocolate," I hesitantly asked once I set my bag down in the living room.
"Alright, it's whatever you want to do." He appeared amused as he chuckled quietly, leading me into the kitchen. "You want to get in our pajamas before or after we do this?"
"After, just in case it gets messy," I decided, him nodding as we both put on a festive, full body apron to be on the safe side. Mine was bright red, while his was a dark green, which was fitting since that was his favorite color. We purposely baked the sugar cookies first, so that we could ice them while the gingerbread men were in the oven. We knew that they would require more frosting on top. "Do you care if I take some of these to my family tomorrow?"
"Not at all," he said, adding green sprinkles to his cookie loaded with yellow icing.
"Thanks. What are your plans for tomorrow? I figured they must've changed now that your mom's not coming."
"I thought about getting with Ned and his family, but I haven't decided yet."
"You could... come with me to my family get together," I finished.
