Holiday Cheer

The List Part 1

"So, have you written a Christmas list yet?"

The seemingly innocent question made me cringe. What the hell was he talking about? A Christmas list? What, were we still in grade school? It was this sort of minor insanity that had once endeared my best friend, Craig Smith, to me. It had seemed harmless at first. Until he began to nag me about it every year, on every holiday. Now it was hardly endearing and more of a mental head shake with an eye roll in prayer to a higher power. The prayer consisted of pleading for an intervention, an SOS in fact. Why do I hang out with this person again? Oh, now I remember. Craig had shown he was a loyal friend and a great partner in a purely platonic, familial way. Despite the fact that I ranted to him about our gender being heart breakers and that he was as straight as a pole.

"No, I have not." I stated as calmly as I could, though I hated my voice as I spoke. I could never speak firmly and be taken seriously. My voice was much too soft and melodic to ever sound firm or to be taken notice of. Unless it was to be cooed over like a child. A curse in itself.

Craig bumped his hard, muscled shoulder against mine, gently as I was nearly a foot shorter than him. That I was tiny for a man, barely reaching five foot two, was another reason why some people rarely took me seriously.

"Come on Kyle." Craig whined like a petulant child complete with the puppy eyes and pout. It was a ridiculously, hilarious sight, a man that was nearly six four and built like a tank trying to look like a kicked puppy. "I still write my Christmas list every year. Its fun!"

"You think Santa is still real too?" I was sarcastic but Craig brushed it off as he usually does. Craig knew that I wasn't as mean as I sounded when I mouthed off.

"No," Craig smirked. Showing off his movie star worthy smile. Craig was the typical beach boy with beautiful blond hair and to die for body. He was hot but he most definitely wasn't Kyle's type. Well, he was close but Kyle liked his men a bit darker and, if possible, with dark wavy hair. "That's not the point of it. Its so that you can be greedy for once in your life Kyle. I do it simply because I get a kick out of it. I get to write long, greedy lists that I wish I had. Some of it was completely impractical but I had a great laugh about later. It also released some stress. Kinda like therapy but free."

"I watch documentaries for 'kicks' too but I'm not gonna be a history major or field biologist." I snapped back and almost instantly felt guilty about it. "I don't understand your fixation with these lists."

"Come on." Craig pleaded, ignoring the strange looks he got from the other people in the mall as he fell to his knees and hugged my slender torso. That he was almost as tall as me when he did this was a blow to my ego but, due to best friend privileges, I couldn't be mad at him for very long. "Just one list! I won't even make you put it in Santa's mailbox. I could, but I won't if only you'll just make a list! Say that you will actually make a Christmas list for once in your life!"

The strange looks were increasingly more obvious and frequent. It was making my skin crawl to have so many eyes focused on me. And the idiot at my feet knew it. I was sure that it was all part of his yearly plan to bribe me into doing childish things, the Christmas list was a prime example.

"Alright!" I snarled as I pushed at Craig's tree trunk sized arms. I was about to murder him for doing this to me in a public place. Since I had finally agreed Craig beamed at me before standing and doing a short but ridiculous happy dance.

"Yay!" I cringed at Craig's happy but loud shout. "I finally get to see your Christmas list!"

With my hands on my slightly curved hips, another fault of mine that I hated, I snapped my fingers at him sassily. "Who said that you'll even get to see my list? If I even make a stupid list."