10 Snowy Days of Sean

Day Nine

A mistake.

His voice saying those words kept being repeated in my head. I did not like it, but I couldn't help it. It was a sign. A sign that said he did not like me. He had just been caught up in the moment and had kissed me. Probably because of my puppy eyes. I mean, who could resist those dull, dark blue-greyish-not-even-a-real-color colored eyes?

It had been terribly awkward yesterday. First he had taken a shower, then he had decided to clean up the whole kitchen himself while we watched a movie and then he had come to join us on the couch. He had sat down on the other side of the couch, on Lilly's left side. Like nothing had ever happened.

But something had happened. He had kissed me. He had taken my first kiss. Oh, and I did not mind at all. For one second there, when I had not been stressing about what to do, I was happy. Because he liked me back. Or at least I thought that was the case.

So, what was I supposed to do today? He had told me, before my dad had come to pick me up, that he was planning on going to the orphanage to give them their presents and cookies. He'd pick me up around 1. But what was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to act?

Like nothing ever happened? Exactly. Just like he had done. Like nothing ever happened.

Getting out of my bed, I decided to wear the sweater Sean had bought for me when we went Christmas shopping together. I was ready to admit my defeat. Ready to act like nothing ever happened and to admit my defeat. This was not my day. It was very unlike me to be like this.

After I had taken a shower and got dressed, I put on the least amount of makeup. Everything just felt like it looked wrong, so I eventually went with filling in my eyebrows, eyeliner and a bit of mascara. I just felt like a pumpkin after I had put on a little foundation and I didn't think it'd be good to even feel worse about myself.

I wasn't in the mood for breakfast, so my stomach had to do with just a cup of tea. Around 11, the doorbell rang and I stood up, grabbing my stuff. My parents had gone out for groceries, so I had left a note on the table. Before I opened the door, I put a smile on my face.

"Morning," I said as I closed the door behind me.

"Good morning," he smiled back at me politely. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah, " I nodded, "of course." I followed him to the car and got in. Lilly was asleep in the back and I decided to not wake her up to greet her.

We only drove for a couple minutes until we reached the orphanage on the side of town. It was happily decorated with Christmas lights and a big Christmas tree stood in front of the building. As we got out of the car, Sean slowly waking up Lilly, I saw all the baubles were made by the children themselves.

"Noelle!" Lilly squealed when she saw me and she jumped out of the car to hug me. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

I picked her up and hugged her back, smiling. "No one ever wakes up a sleeping princess, except her prince." I put her down on the ground again.

"Sean's my prince then?" she said with a disgusted look on her face. "I thought he was yours?"

My eyes widened and Sean coughed, quickly opening the trunk to get all of the presents. "Go help your brother," I told Lilly and softly pushed her towards him. Together they carried the two bags with presents and I rang the doorbell, waiting for someone to open up.

A small woman with dark red hair appeared in the door. She was probably in her mid-forties and she had a lovely smile on her face. She clapped her hands and her smile went even wider when she saw us. "Oh god, I am so happy you are here! They've been excited to see you all week!" She opened the door further and let us in.

Sean and Lily put the bags on the ground and the woman gladly took our coats. When she took mine first, I saw a smile appear on Sean's face when he saw my sweater. I smiled back at him, with a little pain in my heart I have to admit, and turned to the woman.

"I am so sorry I forgot to introduce myself," I smiled and I extended my hand, "I am Noelle."

"Lovely to meet you Noelle," she shook my head, "I am Margaret."

She continued to take our coats and together we walked towards a big living room where it smelled of cinnamon and chocolate. I smiled, taking it in, and looked at Lilly and Sean, who seemed to be enjoyinh it as well.

"Sean! Lilly!" Ten children, all of the orphans who lived here, ran up to the two siblings. They all hugged each other while I stood at the side, smiling at them. I just couldn't get it off my face. My mouth would hurt at the end of the day.

"Who are you?" a small girl, even younger than Lilly, walked up to me.

"I'm Noelle," I crotched down to her level, "and who might you be?" I tugged at her teddy bear's paws.

"I'm Alissia," she smiled with a giggle and she leaned forward to hug me. A small gasp escaped my mouth before I hugged her back. "Merry Christmas, darling."

"Merry Christmas everyone!" Sean chuckled at the same time and he held the bags upside down so the presents could fall out. Everyone squealed excitedly, but no one dared to go first, afraid to come over as needy.

"Lilly, why don't you help me hand them out?" he asked as he noticed no one wanted to go first. While they did that, I went to Margaret to help her with the cookies and the hot chocolate. Together we took trays and handed everything out.

When that was done, everyone happily unwrapped their presents. Smiling at everyone, I know, again, it took a few seconds before I noticed Lilly was tugging at my jeans. I looked down at her. "Yes, Lilly?"

"Noelle, why doesn't Santa deliver their presents here? Sean always tells me Santa leaves them at our house, but why?" she looked at me with those big, sad eyes.

"Well," I started, trying to come up with something, "the orphanage doesn't have a chimney. Santa can't come into the building without a chimney, so sometimes other houses get the presents that should be delivered at other places."

I looked at Sean, who was nodding at me as a sign that I had come up with a good story. Lilly just nodded and sat down beside me. "I really hope our presents are somewhere else then as well."

"Why is that?"

"Well," she bit her thumb, "Sean and I are always alone now that grandma and grandpa are always on holiday for Christmas and mommy and daddy are also away. We are always with the two of us, so it would be awesome if someone else had our presents so we could come to their house."

My heart almost broke seeing her sad face. Sean was about to come up to her to give her a hug and tell her everything was just fine, but I decided to come with a solution, even though it would probably be really awkward for me and Sean, but what the hell? I needed to make Lilly happy this Christmas.

"You two can come celebrate with me and my family. I have two little cousins your age, a lot of cousins Sean's age, my grandparents and very nice aunties and uncles. We always unwrap Santa's presents on Christmas Day, together. Santa delivered your presents at my place today, so you can come open them tomorrow," I smiled at her.

Her eyes widened and she turned to Sean, "Really?"

Sean gave me a thankful smile and nodded. "Really, baby girl." He sat down next to us to hug her and mouthed a 'thank you' to me.

I just smiled a 'no problem'.

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