Jim Armstrong and the Goblet's Curse

Chapter 24: Love Is The Best Christmas Gift

   I sat on the window seat, looked out at the brightly lit city. It was twinkling with white and yellow lights, but also had red, and blue and green because of the Christmas lights strung up everywhere. It seemed like every house was decked out in decorations, and a hush had fallen over the city, like everyone was waiting for Santa to come and deliver their presents on this brightly lit Christmas Eve. 

We had spent the day trying to get Davis to talk to us, but after our little conversation, he'd promptly shut his mouth and sat against the wall, glaring at us all. He hadn't said anything after that, which annoyed us all to no end. It was probably why he'd done it.

Night had fallen again, and I was staying up on watch this time while everyone slept. Everyone had gone to bed early, Davis' silence was making us all tired and irritable. My shift ended at 12 am, when I was supposed to wake Cecy to take over. It was near 12 now, and I moved away from the window over to where Cecy was sleeping on the edge of one of the two beds and shook her gently, waking her. She looked around for a moment, then slowly got up.

"What?" she asked sleepily.

"It's your watch, but if you'd rather sleep that's okay. I can make it until dawn," I said.

"Don't be stupid, you can't stay up all night," she said, sitting up fully. I noticed something folded into her hand, but I didn't ask about it.

"You should get some sleep," she said, pushing me back towards the window seat. There were only two beds in the room, and James and Shea shared one while Cecy and Noah shared the other. Davis got the floor, so that only left the window seat for me. I didn't mind, I liked sleeping there. I headed back there and got comfortable, hoping to get in a couple hours before the next morning, but tonight, I couldn't seem to get to sleep. The city was too brightly lit, the lights bleeding through my closed eyelids, keeping me awake. Another contributing factor to my wakefulness was that Cecy was humming softly to herself. Again. Before I could stop myself, I sat up and turned to her.

"Why're you always humming that?" I asked, and immediately regretted it. Cecy wasn't one to share her feelings or explain on her actions. She just felt and did. No explanation needed.

"What?" she asked, looking my way.

I bit my lip. I could shrug it off, leave her to her humming and try and go back to sleep, but something made me ask her again. "Why are you always humming that? And what is that? The song?"

Much to my surprise, she didn't rip into me. Even more to my surprise, she answered. "The song is A Thousand Years." Silence.

"Why are you always humming that?"

She sighed, and unfolded what was in her hand, looking down at it. "Because," she began, "it's a song about love."

I waited.

To my amazement, she continued.

"To me, love is not a thing. It's not something that can be easily found, and easily thrown away, easily bought, and easily sold. Because it's not a thing."

"Then what is it?"

"It's a person."

More silence.

"It's a person, who you're always happy to see. It's a person who knows you, knows what you're feeling without you having to tell them, a person who makes you laugh, a person who you love to be around. A person who feels familiar, and feels safe. A person who you can always count on, and who can always count on you. A person who feels like home."

More silence.

"I hum that song because it's about love... something that I've never had, never been able to have."