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33: Home Sweet Home

33: Home Sweet Home

Emmett and I had already decided not to give each other presents for Christmas. Our birthdays were so close to the holiday, and we had had a sort of war over how many presents we bought each other, so we just decided to call it a month. Yes, we would probably have the same war next month over absolutely nothing.

It didn't take a holiday to have a gift war.

I woke up early on Christmas after going to sleep early the night before. I hadn't really felt like doing anything after the depressing Christmas Eve, and Emmett had told me I should just go to sleep. It was about eight when I got up to see Emmett piddling around in shorts and a red Santa jacket with white fluff on the hems. I burst into laughter and he jumped, alarm clear on his face as he turned to face me.

"You scared me!" he said. I couldn't bite my grin back as I beamed at his costume. "Merry Christmas."

He was also grinning, his too-white teeth showing through as he watched me stare at the strange attire. "Merry Christmas," I said hesitantly. "Why are you wearing this?"

"Well, since you won' let me get a present for you, I'm just going to wear this. It's actually quite warm, and very fluffy on the inside."

"I can imagine," I said, still looking at the coat wearily. "What's going on?"

"I got you one when I got them," he said, ignoring my question. There it was. I knew there was a catch; there was no telling how awful what he had gotten me was. "Here it is," he said, opening a drawer and pulling out a dress that would definitely not leave much to the imagination.

"I am not wearing that," I said immediately. "I don't know if you noticed, but I'm not exactly the most showy girl ever. You can wear that all you want, but—"

"Look, it's just a cute little Santa dress. You can just wear it for fun."

"Wear it where? I'm not putting it on, Emmett." He sighed in disappointment. "Besides, aren't we going home tomorrow? Let's pack up, get the hotel rooms as clean as possible, and see if we need to go get plane snacks."

"I don't know if we should go back tomorrow," Emmett said unsurely.

"We should," I said, pretending to ignore the Walsh problem. "Selena has already decided that we have to attend the Christmas party she's throwing. It's tomorrow night."

"You want to go to a party on the same day as we fly back home," he said slowly. I nodded and grabbed an apple from his food drawer. "At Selena's house, the place where her father currently resides."

"No," I said. "She's found some place down the road and she, J.P., Kinley, and Spencer have been getting it party ready for the past few days."

"Some place?"

"It's like a warehouse type of thing, but it's kind of out of the way and deteriorating. She's been decorating it with Christmas stuff and all that."

"I don't know if I trust that," he said slowly.

"Well, J.P. checked it. No floors are about to fall through or anything and the windows are all intact. It isn't creepy. She sent pictures. And it isn't a Dirty Santa thing or White Elephant, so we can just show up."

"You should wear that dress."

"No." I gave him a look and turned to my room. "Get packed and stuff. What time's our flight in the morning?"

"Eight."

"Okay. We can get up at six thirty or seven and get our stuff and leave. Isn't the airport in walking distance?"