Our Love (Advent Calendar 2015)

The 8th of December

Kristen calls Suzie and asks her if she wants to go for a walk with Cole. When Suzie hears the tone in her friend's voice, she immediately drops everything in her hands and drives to Kristen's place, buying a Snapple and a pack of cigarettes on the way.

"Awe, thanks, Suz," Kristen says after the two girls have hugged and Suzie has handed her the things. "Thought you might needed it," she answers, rubbing Kristen's forearm.

Suzie then pulls out two Santa hats and places one on Kristen's head and one on her own. "What the fuck?" Kristen mumbles, chuckling slightly at her friend's craziness. "Oh, come on, Kris! It's December, get in the mood!" Suzie encourages. "Whatever, dude. But I'm only wearing this in public if you do too."

"Duh, of course! Let's grab the gurl and get our sexy arses out of here," Suzie suggests. Kristen smirks at her. "'Arses'? Has someone been invaded by the British?" Suzie winks at her.

As they walk through the streets of Los Feliz wearing Santa hats, a Snapple dangling from Kristen's finger and a cigarette from her lips, they catch up since last time they saw each other. Suzie starts telling Kristen that her and Jack have been in England the past couple of days, visiting Jack's parents. She knows Kristen has something she wants to talk about, but she also knows she won't start talking about it right away. When they've been walking for twenty minutes and Kristen has only talked about her upcoming film and her plans for Christmas, Suzie is just about to just outright ask her; then Kristen says something.

"I carn't wait to see New York in Christmas time, all the snow and the-" Suzie's eyes widen.

"Hold on there for a sec, did you just say 'carn't'? And you were the one commenting on MY British guy rubbing off on me? How's Rob doing lately, Kris?"

Kristen looks down at the ground, blushing. She doesn't understand what is causing the blood to rush to her cheeks; Rob and her have just been hanging out as old friends.

"He's good," Kristen replies, trying to hide her smirk as she waits for her friend's reaction.

"Kristen Jaymes Stewart, have you been spending time with Robert Pattinson?" Suzie asks, a hand on her chest like she's trying to control her heart.

"Jeez, Suz, way to be a drama queen," Kristen mumbles, failing not to chuckle at Suzie's dramatic antics. She takes a swig of her Snapple.

"You're avoiding my question," Suzie states, looking at her friend. Kristen takes a deep breath. "Yes, I've been spending time with Rob. But it hasn't been- I mean, we're not... getting back together or anything, we're just friends," she explains. "For now," Suzie adds.

"No, seriously, Suz, literally nothing has happened. We've just hung out. He asked me to drop by a week ago and I helped him decorate the house. Sunday, we had dinner at his place and afterwards we just watched a movie." Kristen decides to leave out the part where her and Rob ended up sleeping, all cuddled up.

"You just watched a movie?"

"Yup."

"No kissing?"

"No." Kristen blushes slightly.

"No starring into each other's eyes?"

"Nope."

"No cuddling?"

Kristen hesitates at this one and Suzie's face lights up.

"Oh my God, you totally cuddled!"

"Well, yeah, but it wasn't like that. I was freezing so he put a blanket around me, and then he didn't remove his arm from my shoulder, and I got more and more tired and laid my head on his chest and when I woke up, we were lying on his couch with his arms around me," Kristen explains, trying to make Suzie see that there was nothing romantic about it.

"Awe, that's so sweet, you cuddled AND fell asleep in each other's arms," Suzie says like it's the cutest thing in the world, completely ignoring Kristen's arguments. Kristen rolls her eyes at her, bringing the cigarette to her lips. They walk for a couple of minutes in silence.

"Do you miss him?" Suzie suddenly asks.

Kristen takes a drag and then breathes out the smoke, looking out at the horizon as she thinks.

"I'm starting to," she admits. "Or at least starting to let myself miss him. But it's just that, no matter how much I miss him and what we had, I can't help but think that there's a reason why we broke up."

"Yeah, but there's also a reason why you started dating. Actually there're a lot of reasons why you started dating. I could name a few of them, but I'm sure you know them better yourself," Suzie reminds her.

Kristen thinks about that for a moment, then says, "it's different now. He's moved on."

"I would not be so sure about that, Kris. He asked you to have dinner with him, he put a blanket around you to make sure you weren't freezing, he let you sleep on his couch, snuggled up next to him; does it sound like he's moved on to you?"

Kristen just shrugs, playing with the lid on her Snapple.

"Kristen, I don't know what's going on between you two, but from what you're telling me, it really does not sound like either of you are moving on, nor are ready or planning to. Actually, it sounds like you're heading in the completely opposite direction of moving on."

"Is that a bad thing?" Kristen asks, unsure.

"Depends on what you want. If you want to move on, then it's not such a good thing. If you want to... keep going in the opposite direction, wherever that might lead, it definitely isn't a bad thing."

Kristen feels her phone vibrate in her pocket. She takes a last drag from her cigarette and throws it in a nearby rubbish bin. Then she pulls out her phone and sees that it's a text from Rob:

Hi Kris,

Just wanted to check on how you're doing. I'm about to meet up with Nick, but I'll be free in an hour or so, if you want to talk. Please take care of yourself while I'm not there to do it.

Rob

Kristen can't help but smile, a decision having formed in her head.

"Hit the gas pedal, baby, we're going in the opposite direction."