Needed You

Chapter Ten

"What does Christmas look like for you guys?" Levi and I stroll through the park, dressed in layers to face the brisk weather that has suddenly dropped from dreary to downright freezing. We rarely get snow in Merridge, as close to the sea as we are, but I imagine a small flurry can't be so unlikely today.

Levi shrugs, pulling me closer with the arm linked in mine, letting me burrow into his warmth. Our free hands nurse a takeaway coffee, warming our palms, mine through leather gloves. "Same as it looks for most, I reckon. Why'd you ask?"

I sigh, eyes tracking the strings of lights hung like a canopy high over the path. "My dads away again, and Frey... I think she expects it at this point, but it upsets her still. We have a tradition, getting matching pyjamas for Christmas Eve, but she doesn't even want to do that this year. It's not really Christmas for her. Just another day where we wake up on a morning and don't see anyone else but each other."

"Your dad goes away?" I nod.

"Till the first of January. It's just me and Freya." I pause to take a sip of my coffee. "She's been invited to an all night sleepover thing with her dance group this New Year's Eve, so at least she's got that to look forward to, but I wondered if maybe I could steal Jas away on Christmas Eve, have a girls night and I'd drop her back off in the evening?"

"No chance." Well fuck me, then, I guess. I go to apologise, for potentially overstepping, but he unlinks us and pulls me into a huge hug. "Christmas at the Keren's for you both this year. Bring all her presents over a few nights before. We have a big takeaway on Christmas Eve and a few drinks. Then you can be on roast potato duty for the dinner."

I pull away from him. "You're kidding right? Kade's only just warmed up to the fact he has to store a blow up bed now. But you expect him to be fine and dandy with me crashing his Christmas?"

"It's the only time of year he gets a little bit merry. He'll probably invite you into the annual games tournament on the night as long as you promise to lose." I roll my eyes, leaning into his side.

"I'll let you know, okay?" That's enough for him and we lull into a silence, filled with the mumbles of Christmas songs that drift from the speakers surrounding the town tree. We take a seat on a free bench, me wedged as tightly into Levi's side as possible. The pair of us watch people lap the seasonal skate ring, the children queue up for the grotto, couple laugh and joke as they stroll in each others arms. For as crappy as Christmas might be for Freya and I, it will always be my favourite time of year. Something about the joy it brings, for a moment it makes me believe that things could get better.

And if it could not get anymore perfect, I notice a small snowflake land on the black denim of my jeans. A smile breaks out wide across my face as I look up to the sky, marvelling at the thick whirls of grey clouds. "It's snowing!"

It grows from small, occasional flakes to something heavier, flecks of white spinning to the ground where they disappear.  I watch them land in my hair, clinging to the dark blonde.

"Dance with me," Levi says, placing down his coffee and standing.

"What?"

"Come on. It'll be like a Hallmark movie. Snow and a big tree and Charles Brown to serenade? When am we going to have the opportunity again?"

He doesn't wait for my response before pulling me up, and I barely have time to set down my coffee before he's twirling me beneath his arm and swaying with me side to side. We're hardly in any sort of rhythm to the song, but I dance with him, swirling among the snowflakes, doused in the gentle glow of the lit up tree. He has me do a turn once more before catching my waist, and leaving me to rest my forearms over his shoulders.