Make A Wish(One Direction Fanfiction)

9: Knock Yourself Out

CHAPTER 9

*Mia's POV*

"Are you excited for Christmas?" my mom asked me nonchalantly. I blinked in surprise as I realized tonight was Christmas Eve.

"I guess." I replied with no emotion. It had only been a few days since I kicked Amy out, and I was totally out of it. I went shopping with Grace once and Taylor and I saw some stupid chick flick to try and get my mind off of Amy, but I was only reminded of her. We used to go to the mall all the time, most of the time to look at cute boys or weird people, seeing as I didn't have much money to spare, and Amy was too caring to spend her's in front of me. We also liked to spend our time watching sappy movies, making fun of them and how corny they were, even though we always ended up sobbing in the end.

Anyway, I really wasn't very excited for Christmas. Every year since my dad died has been the same; church in the morning, opening my one present when we get home. I've never really been one for Christmas carols and major holiday spirit or anything, but I really do like our decorations. We still use the same ones that we used when my dad was alive, and they remind me of him. He loved Christmas. Looking up at the angel on top of our little plastic tree, a memory came to my mind.

{We were spending winter break up at a cabin in Tahoe, and we got totally snowed in on Christmas Eve. I was 9 or 10, and I was pretty upset because we were supposed to go skiing with all the Christmas lights twinkling around the ski resort. My dad noticed my frustration, and tried to cheer me up. His tactics ranged from trying to get me to play candy land (my all time favorite game) to goofily singing and dancing around the little log cabin. Nothing was working, and he was getting desperate to give me a happy Christmas Eve. I sat on the couch with a sour expression as he dissapeared into another room. When he came back, he was gently holding the angel we always placed on top of our tree, which we had previously hunted down and chopped down all by ourselves (it was a tradition that we gave up after my dad died). I gave him a "are you stupid?" look.

"We don't even have a tree." I reminded him.

"Or do we?" he grinned mischievously. He tossed me the angel and scampered away once again.

"A little help, dear.." I heard my dad's struggling voice a couple minutes later. My mom glanced up from the turkey she was preparing in the kitchen and hurried towards my dad's voice. Once she reached him, I heard her gasp but then release a bark of laughter.

"How did you even-" my mom began.

"Shush, I'll explain in a second." my dad stopped her. I couldn't see them, and I refused to get up from the couch, so I just sat there fiddling with the angel's wings. My head jerked up when I heard a crash, and my eyes widened as I saw the tip of a Christmas tree coming through the hall. My parents faces appeared as well, and a grin spread across my face as they set up the tree. Once I got a closer look, I frowned, noticing it was plastic.

"I know it's not our normal kind of tree, baby girl, but this is all we can do." He said sadly.

"It's perfect, Daddy." I have him the tightest hug I could muster. I skipped back to the couch to pick up the angel, and quickly made my way back again. My dad lifted me up with his large, protecting arms so I could place the angel on top of the tree. We stood back and admired its simple beauty. I sighed and leaned in to my father, soaking up the moment. }

"Mia? Did you hear me?" My mom asked. I snapped back to reality, quickly wiping the tears from my eyes before they fell. Crying wouldn't bring my dad back, I learned that a long time ago.

"Sorry, I zoned out. What did you say?"

"I asked if you wanted to go shopping. You know, for part of your Christmas present or something." Her eyebrows were raised hopefully.

"Yeah, that sounds fun, mom. Let me grab my sweater."

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"Okay, honey, where to first? What stores are 'hip' these days?"

"Mommmmm." I groaned, laughing. The mall was bussling with last minute Christmas shoppers, mostly guys looking in their 20's and totally freaked out. "I think Forever 21 has a good sale going on, same with Charlotte Russe, but those are almost exactly the same store so we don't have to go to both. Then there's another sale at-"

"Who needs sales? You get whatever you want, Mia. It's Christmas." My mom winked. I looked at her in surprise- we never bought anything full price, especially during the holidays when everything was more expensive.

"Sweetie, you know that we have a college fund going for you. Well now that that may not be- useful in that purpose, I still.. want you to have... the money." she choked out, a sad smile sitting on her face and her eyes pooling with tears. I held back a sob by squeezing the living day lights out of that woman with a hug.

"Go knock yourself out." She said, placing a feathery kiss on my cheek. I gave her a ready smile before scooting into Pink, a store I usually avoided due to the higher price tags. I had only tossed a couple things into my bag to try on when a sweater fitted on a mannequin caught my eye.. it was perfect! I reached out to grab the last one on the shelf, but when I went to put it in the bag, it seemed to be caught on something...or someone. Another hand was holding on to the sweater.

"Um, excuh-use you, but-" I huffed, but abruptly stopped when I saw the girl's face.

Amy.

We stood there for what felt like hours, both our mouths hanging a tiny bit open in surprise.

"Hi." Amy said in a tiny voice, bringing me back to my senses. I dropped the sweater and threw my arms around her neck and caught a whiff of the familiar coconutty scent I hadn't smelled in so long. Amy squeezed me back and let out a sigh of relief, and in that moment, everything was mentally forgiven for both of us.

"I missed you. I'm sorry, I was dumb, I just.. got mad. I guess." I said stupidly.

"No shit, Sherlock." Amy giggled, and I joined in. "Here, you get this. It'll look better on you anyway."

I smiled again as I took the sweater Amy was offering out to me. I knew good and well that top would have looked far better on her than I, but it seemed like somewhat of a peace offering, so I accepted it.

"Make sure to drop by tommorrow. After you do whatever with your family, of course. But we need to make plans to hang out again." I said. Amy agreed and we hugged once more before I left for the fitting rooms and she to the other side of the store.

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After hitting every cute store in the mall, my mom and I made our way back to the car, arms full of bags.

"It's so great that you and Amy made up! I've missed her, too." my mom said for about the thirtieth time.

"I know, mom." I smiled. I heard a can skitter across the road close behind us. I didn't notice anything weird when I glanced over my shoulder, so I shrugged it off and kept talking to my mom.