An Imperfect Beauty and Her Beast

All I Want For Christmas Is... Some Decorations?

A/N Okay so we're going to have a few fluff chapters but then things will start picking up. School has been pretty hectic so updates might be slower, but I'll still try to update weekly.

I felt the excitement in my gut when I first woke up.

Christmas Eve

I jumped out of bed and carefully put on my sling. I silently hoped that David had some decorations in the attic or something because there was still nothing Christmasy around the house. I didn't bring it up before because I thought someone would eventually do it, but this is a whole new level of procrastination. I walked down to breakfast and David came in minutes later with a bed head.

"I'm guessing you got some sleep last night."

"Surprisingly I did. So what's the agenda for today?"

"Well it is Christmas Eve. It would be a good idea if we put up some decorations."

"Oh. Yeah I guess you're right."

"Did you forget about Christmas?"

"Not entirely, no. I'm just not a big fan of it."

"We don't have to if you don't want to."

I silently hoped that he would want to, I was just trying to be polite.

"No, we should. What do you usually do for decorations?"

"Well, first we need a tree."

"Oh, right."

"Do you think we can go out and buy one?"

I knew I was putting myself on a limb here. I haven't been beyond David's property since I've gotten here. I didn't try getting my hopes up, but I couldn't help thinking about seeing familiar buildings.

"I guess after breakfast you and Josh can go looking for a tree."

"Are you serious? We're actually going to go into town?"

"Yep."

"This is so exciting! I have to go get ready!"

"Yeah, exciting," David said very unexcitedly under his breath.

I didn't really catch his half-heartedness because I was rushing through breakfast thinking of what's changed since I've last seen it. Would I see Matt and Gina? Would I see anyone I know? The questions were bombarding me and I couldn't wait for them to be answered. I quickly finished eating and half jogged out of the room, but not without saying, "Tell Josh to be ready by 10:30 so that we can get an early start. Hopefully they still have trees."

I didn't wait for a response and instead just ran to my room without hurting my arm. I threw my pajamas off and put on jeans and a warm sweater. I slipped on a pair of shoes and put my hair into a ponytail. I rushed through brushing my teeth and all of the morning necessities and stopped to try to calm my beating heart. Now I wondered why he was suddenly okay with me leaving his house. I guess this past week we've been hanging out so much, that he trusts me a little more now. I would be lying if I said I wasn't having fun this week. Josh still doesn't know what happened, but I think he's just happy that we're talking again. But I didn't have time to think about reasons why for too long because I heard someone knock on my door.

"Giovanna? Are you ready?"

"Hell yeah!" I swung open the door to see Josh smiling from ear to ear.

"I'm guessing you're excited."

"Are you kidding? Of course I am!"

"Okay, okay. C'mon let's see if we can get lucky and find a tree."