Beautiful insanity (Dylan O'Brien) | ✓

20 | An unexpected guest

"So how are things going with you and Dylan?" I walked next to Alex in the busy streets of LA as I scanned the large shops. I still needed to buy a gift for my mom. It was the day of Christmas Eve and I still hadn't bought my mom a gift. I had bought Mike's gift before all the things with Dylan came up and Alex' gift I had had for over a year. I just thought I could stop by a shop some time after work to buy her something but I had totally forgotten. So now I was roaming the streets, staring at almost empty shops in the hope I'd still find something. In the mean time I felt like being interrogated by my best friend. I hadn't told him yet that I was going to celebrate Christmas with Dylan and I was not sure how to bring it to him. 

"Things are going better actually. He's trying. It's not easy, but he's trying." 

"So he hasn't hurt you?" I gave him an annoyed look. I was getting tired of this question. "What?" He held his hands up in defence. 

"No Alex. He hasn't hurt me."

"I'm just looking out for you sweetheart. You never know." 

"I know you are--" I trailed off. My eyes landed on a smaller shop within the row of large ones. It was petite but it basically screamed my mother's name. "In here." I said, grabbing Alex' arm and pulling him with me. The small shop with white walls had a mirror covering one side and a large painting covering the other. In the middle stood a table filled with small things. Jewellery, candles, scarfs, etc. I walked straight towards the scarfs and grabbed a light blue silk one in my hands. It was beautiful. 

"It's freaking freezing outside and you're going for the thinnest fabric in the world." Alex said, grinding my perfect gift down. 

"Well Winter doesn't last forever, does it?" I snapped. Alex noticed the tention in my voice. He grabbed my arm and spun me around, forcing me to face him. 

"What's going on love?" He asked, a calm and nurturing tone in his voice. I sighed and looked down at the stupid scarf in my hands. All this stuff going on with Dylan made me nervous, tense and sometimes really angry. 

"I'm just so sick and tired of you and Tyler treating Dylan like trash. He's not all bad you know. I care for him." Alex expression changed from understanding to compassion. He pulled me in his strong arms, pressing me against his rock hard chest. "And he cares for me."

"I know you do honey." He whispered into my hair. "But can you blame us for wanting to protect you? This guy with this immense, negative reputation shows up and he goes after the one person I care about. He beats up someone that was supposed to be his best friend. That doesn't exactly scream Prince Charming to me." I pulled away from Alex. I knew that he would say these things to me because even though he meant well he didn't want me and Dylan together. I sighed and just nodded my head. 

"I'm going to buy this scarf." I said, ignoring our previous conversation. Alex nodded his head and waited for me to come back with the scarf wrapped in red wrapping paper and put in a fancy plastic bag. We walked out of the shop and into the busy streets again. Alex pulled me from shop to shop and not even to buy gifts but just to look at pretty things for himself. We ended up in a large store in which they had sections for everything. Men, Women, Kids, Home, etc. I told Alex that I was going to have a look around the store. He just sort of waved me off. I'd already lost him from the second we entered the section with cookbooks. Alex loved himself a good cookbook. My knowledge of cooking was limited to eggs and pancakes. I walked around the first flour in the section of office supplies. I looked at the pens and the coloured paper, getting pretty bored actually. Until my eye landed on something. A black leather bound notebook with in golden letters 'Things I can't say out loud' on. I took the book from the stack and noticed that there was only one left. I cocked my head to the side as I flipped through the pages. The paper inside was a soft beige color and in the bottom right corners stood golden numbers. This notebook was perfect. Perfect for Dylan. Maybe he couldn't talk to me about everything he felt but maybe this way, he could write it down. A plain, blank canvas. A way to say all those things he couldn't say. 
With the notebook in my hand I headed for the checkout. The lady placed it in a dark blue velvet box and wrapped a black bow around it. I had just put the gift in my purse when Alex came walking down the stairs. 

"What did you get?" He shouted to me. I bit down my lip. I didn't want to tell Alex I got Dylan a gift but somehow I felt like I needed to. I couldn't keep this a secret. I would've to tell him one moment or another that I was going to celebrate Christmas at Dylan's instead of wasting my time watching movies and eating pizza or getting drunk with him. 

"It's a notebook." I said, walking towards the door. Alex ran behind me. 

"For who?" 

"Dylan."

Let's just say that Alex was everything but pleased with my plan of celebrating Christmas with Dylan. I believe his exact words were: "Christmas is a a celebration of faith, it's sacred, and you're going to spent it with the devil?" He was furious. He had shouted at me in the middle of the busy streets. He had insulted me, even made me cry. Eventually he apologised but I still wasn't sure how I felt about his sudden outburst. I had handed him the gift I had bought for him and told him that he shouldn't call me for a couple of days, that I needed time to figure things out. The gift I had bought him were tickets for two to his favourite musical 'Wicked'. Once home I let myself fall onto my bed, sobbing into the pillow. It took me a good twenty minutes before I had pulled myself back together. I had just enough time to get myself ready for dinner at my moms. 

It had been awhile since I had felt pretty and with everything going on lately I hadn't been taking care of myself. I had been so busy looking out for Dylan and Tyler and Alex that I hadn't taken a day to make sure I was alright as well. But in my light beige dress I actually felt pretty cute. Dinner at my moms started at six and of course I was there by 5:30pm, whilst Mike took his time and arrived a little after 6:30. By the time he walked through the door dinner was ready. 

"Merry Christmas to my two favourite women!" He shouted. He kissed me on the forehead and then pulled mom into his arms. 

"Merry Christmas darling." My mother said. 

"How's dad doing?" My mom looked down at the ground, her brows furrowed. It was the second Christmas in a row that my father couldn't come home and that always made things harder for us, especially for mom. With Mike working on Christmas day and me going to Dylan, she was all alone. 

"Your father has promised to call whenever he could." My mother said. She headed back to the kitchen and brought out the last bowl of food, mashed potatoes. "Now sit and eat!" She shouted with a laugh. "I don't want this getting cold." Christmas with my family wasn't the same since my father didn't come anymore. He felt awful about it of course and I felt sad that he had to spent Christmas by himself, without his family. At least my mom still had my brother and I. We tried not to think about the sad things and instead focussed on the good, my mom focussing on my studies of course. "So," She started. "How's school going?" 

"It's going fine." I said. It was. I was not studying as much as I had planned to but I wasn't failing either. "I've got Christmas break now, two weeks, then my final exams start. 14 more months and I've got my business degree." I said with a smile. 14 more months... that is if I don't fail any classes. 

"And what about you sweetheart?" My mother looked up at Mike. He shoved a fork full of mashed potatoes in his mouth, avoiding the question. Mom wouldn't give up though. She looked at him and patiently waited until he had swallowed his food. 

"It's a bit harder than I had expected. I've got a lot of expenses that I hadn't thought about..." He explained. 

"Oh well darling, I can always lend you some money. You know that." Mom placed a hand on Mike's arms and smiled at him. 

"Thanks mom, but I've got to do this myself." Dinner went on as usual. We talked about work, family, school and hobbies. We exchanged gifts and by the time my mother had put the chocolate cake on the table, the bell rang. I looked towards the hallway.  

"Are we expecting someone?" My mother asked, looking at the both of us. I furrowed my brows and looked at Mike as Mike looked at me. 

"I'm not." I said. 

"Neither am I." Mike replied. I was about to get up from my seat but Mike beat me to it. "I'll get it." He said and disappeared in the hall way. I heard the sound of the door open and then male voices echoing through the hall. Seconds later Mike appeared again. From behind him peaked a mob of dark brown hair, a big smile on his face. I looked up, surprise written all over my face. 

"Tyler?" 

[Y'all.. I can start with apologising for not updating in forever but honestly you know me by now. Hope you enjoy reading whatever comes next. This is kind of a filler.]