Their Christmas Arc

On The 9th Day of Christmas

On the ninth day of Christmas, we celebrated our anniversary.

My alarm kept on blaring in the background and instead of shutting it, I simply stared up at the ceiling above me. I barely had any sleep and that was because of this special day.

Rolling off to my side, I reached out to grab my phone and get rid of that annoying sound. The date and time was flashed across the screen and I gulped, remembering once again why I wanted to wake up early today.

Throwing the covers off of my body, I rubbed my eyes to get rid of any remaining sleep. Standing up, I walked over to the window and pulled the curtains open to allow a bit of sunlight into my room. The fact that there was now something illuminating showed how messy my room was, photo albums and memory boxes littered the floor. Sighing, I side stepped past everything so I could go to the bathroom and take a shower.

Today was a special day so I decided to dress in my best clothes. After grabbing my keys and wallet, I started my descent downstairs where my family was getting ready to start the day.

"Morning son," dad greeted from his spot on the couch, sipping on his coffee while his attention was glued to the news anchor chatting away onscreen.

"Hey dad," I replied, going straight the kitchen where I knew my mom was preparing breakfast. She turned from her position by the stove and gave me a smile, handing me my plate of food, "Hi mom."

As I hopped onto a stool by the kitchen island, I could feel the way she was observing my movements before finally exhaling loudly at the way I was dressed up, "It's been a year, hasn't it?"

It had been a year and a half since I met Annie and exactly a year since we're shared a promise to be together. As corny as it sounded, she made me believe that there was something worth fighting for and today, I planned to see her first thing.

"I'm so sorry!" I kept apologizing to the girl who was fanatically trying to wipe the orange juice from her blouse, "It's my fault, I wasn't looking."

Finally realizing that it was hopeless, she just hugged her jacket tighter around her body, trying to conceal the stain, "We all have those days."

"Let me at least treat you to coffee or something as an apology," I offered.

Despite what I did to her, she managed to smile kindly, not a trace of anger or annoyance was present in her face, "I'll take you up on that then."

"So what's your name?" I asked as we started to walk side by side.

"Annie," she said.

"You cleaned up good," my sister commented when she entered the room, her phone screen showing a concert of one of the celebrities she loved.

"And it seems like you're still hypnotized by that chick," I quipped back just as she took the seat next to mine.

"Alright, not only is her family like Hollywood royalty, she insanely talented," she defended, placing her attention back onto the video, "And people are speculating from her songs that she's in a relationship so as one of her biggest fans, I can't be left out on the news."

Rolling my eyes, I allowed her to get sucked into that blackhole of getting interested by another person's life. It's just phase, it will pass soon enough.

I finished my breakfast and drank the glass of water mom handed me, "I better get going, I can't keep her waiting."

My sister laughed softly before waving me goodbye while mom simply nodded in acknowledgement with a smile. As I passed by my dad, I said that I was leaving and he only responded with a hum of recognition.