Dream Boy

Chapter Four

Tuesday December 20th: Arrival at eight. Pajamas put on, all ready for bed. Make a comfortable pillow arrangement on air mattress in front of couch (so we can lean our backs against the couch), and watch Christmas chick flicks all night.
Wednesday December 21st: Sleep until noon, wake up and make a Christmas breakfast smorgasbord. Then go for a walk outside while listening to "Winter Wonderland." Come back and have hot cocoa. Have a Christmas Comedy movie marathon, but don't stay up past midnight this time.

It's finally Christmas break. I was really excited for the days off, until Evan appeared. Now I'm going to be freaking out about him, and Taylor and I will be the only ones who know. I'm forcing myself to shake his perfect image out of my head (did I mention he's perfect?) and concentrate on cleaning my room. Taylor will be arriving soon, and I need to clear an area for her air mattress. Before we can start our movie marathon, we also have to clean up the guest room for Aaron's girlfriend. He may be 20, but my parents still won't let him sleep in the same room as a girl in our house. I am excited to meet her, but also nervous that I won't like her. What if she becomes my sister in law?

"SARAHHHHH!" Taylor bursts through my bedroom door. "HAPPY HOLIDAY BREAKKKKK!" I smile, and then I laugh at her ridiculous outfit. We had both worn crazy holiday outfits to school, but I had forgotten how silly hers was until now.

"TAYYYY-TAIIIIIII!" We continue to laugh for a solid ten minutes, and then I explain the whole Aaron's-girlfriend-is-coming situation.
"Ooooh. So we finally get to meet this Annamarie Claire. I'm excited." We've both seen her in pictures on my brother's social media, but we've never met her in person. She is really pretty, with tan skin and shiny dark brown hair. My brother looks so happy in all of the pictures with her, so she has to be pretty amazing. His past girlfriends were terrible, bratty (for lack of a better word) girls who made him feel like garbage. I really hope that Annamarie won't break his heart too.

We manage to get the guest room cleaned up and decorated for Christmas before ten o'clock, with fifteen minutes to spare. Aaron and Annamarie are supposedly arriving from college at 10:15, so Taylor and I decide to hold off on starting our sappy movie marathon until after they are settled in. We run upstairs and put our pajamas on, braid each other's hair, brush our teeth (even though we are planning on devouring a lot of junk food) and then eagerly wait in the living room.

Ding-Dong. The doorbell finally rings, and I spring up from the couch. I don't really know why he rang the bell; technically, it's still his house. But who cares, my brother is home!

"Aaron!" I crash into him, and he attempts to hug me while holding presents above his head. "I missed you so much!" He goes to school out of state, so I rarely get to see him.

"Hey Sarah. I missed you too. Hey Taylor." She is awkwardly standing behind me, and she offers a meek wave. Aaron clears his throat. "Guys, this is Annamarie."
"Hi girls. And please, call me Anna. It's nice to finally meet you." Aaron must've told her about Taylor too...she's basically part of the family.
"Nice to meet you too, Anna." We respond at the same time. I mean come on, we're practically twins at this point.
"AAAAROOON!" My mom comes running around the corner, my dad and Eric following close behind.
"Hi, Mom." Aaron rolls his eyes, but offers a hug. Annamarie, oh sorry, Anna, is introduced again, and soon everyone is settled into their rooms. Taylor and I have our pillow/air mattress movie-marathon-station set up, and select the first movie on our list. I'm about to hit play when Anna pops her head around the corner.

"Hi guys. Your mom told me you were having a movie marathon, and I was wondering if I could join. I was in the car with Aaron for eight hours--I need some girl time." We giggle and invited her to sit with us. I feel as if a part of me wants to be angry at her for intruding, but I can't make myself feel that way. I guess that's a good thing, right?

"So, you guys are seniors in high school, right?" Unfortunately, or fortunately for her, she waits until we pause the movie to get snacks to speak, giving me another reason to not hate her. Why I want to hate her, I do not know.
"Yes. Fun times."
"I remember those days. Trust me, college is so much better. But make the most of your last year. With prom and everything, it really turns out to be fun."
"Thanks for the advice. Ice cream?" She is trying to bond, which is interesting. Maybe this relationship is more serious than I thought. But they are only juniors....

We watch movies until well past two, and then sleep until our alarms wake us at noon, like planned. We make our giant breakfast, and hide it away from the hungry mouths of my brothers, who had eaten hours ago, and are already ready for lunch. The rest of the day goes by pretty quickly, and luckily, Anna doesn't tag along on our "Winter Wonderland" walk. Taylor and I have some serious catching up to do.

"Walking, in a winter.."
"Walking, in a winter..."
"Walking in a winter wonderlaaaaaannnnnndddd!"
We skip along to music for the two minute duration of the song, and then we decide to talk, about you know, life.
"I like Annamarie. You think they'll get married?" Taylor looks at me through snowflakes (I know right, how lucky--it's actually snowing). If she likes Anna, I have nothing to worry about, right?
"I don't know. I just want Aaron to be happy."
"He seems happy."
"Yeah." I sigh. "Yeah, he does."
"Well, what about you? Did you try to talk to Evan again after the incident?" We had decided to call the locker event the incident; it's just another term added to our secret-code-word list. I had called her immediately after I had gotten home that day. I mean, wouldn't you have called your best friend if the boy of your actual dreams appeared in your school hallway?
"Not really? I mean he borrowed my notes in English once, but that was it." I smile, remembering the moment he had asked. It was like he had proposed.
"Well, it's a start, right?"
"Yeah, it's a start."
"I heard he is going to Christine Rainette's party! She basically invited everyone. Including us. And we are going. And he will be there."
"I know, I know." I crack a smile. I can see that behind her eyes, Taylor is constructing a plan.