Winter's Bliss

Chapter 3hree

3

Jake and Chrisember finally walked out of Walmart, holding onto a plastic bag filled with two objects: A Christmas Story and Chrisember's charger. In his pocket, Jake had the mistletoe he bought that Chrisember had not known about. The sun was setting, casting a pinkish hue in the clouds, but it wasn't dark enough to turn on the twinkle lights that slithered their way around the mall. Chrisember looked around, distracted and eager to see the lights turned on. Jake cleared his throat, attempting to grab hold of Chrisember's attention but it didn't work. Chrisember smiled, still looking above her at the lights that crisscrossed in the sky to act as a canopy. "When do they turn on?" She asked him without looking at him.

"I have no clue, but I think they should be on right -" At that moment, the twinkle lights flicked on. They were on the bare trees lining the sidewalk, wrapping around them as if they were strangling them in beauty. The whole outdoor mall was lit with the beautiful lights, making Chrisember gasp in astonishment. "You're magic!" She complimented Jake. He just laughed, he did read the Harry Potter series as a child.

"Shh, the Muggles don't know about wizardry." He set his index finger on his lips jokingly, at that Chrisember looked at him in silence with her mouth agape. "What?" He questioned.

"You're the first guy I know who reads Harry Potter!" She squealed.

"Really, that's weird."

"Wait, are you gay?" She asked, one of her blonde eyebrows raised quizzically.

"What?! No!"

"Oh, I just thought since you like Harry Potter then you must be gay."

"Just because a guy likes Harry Potter doesn't mean he's gay." Jake rolled his eyes.

"That's not the only reason why I thought that, I'm not stupid." She huffed, making a cloud of heat float out of her mouth.

"Oh yeah, why'd you think I was gay?"

"You're hot and you don't have a girlfriend." She rolled her eyes, "You can't be that stupid to not know that you're attractive."

"Hmm, maybe I didn't want to have a girlfriend." He teased, hoping she'd catch his play on words.

"What guy wouldn't want to have a girlfriend?!" She flailed her arms.

"Because they are crazy!"

"Ouch." She frowned, her heart dropping.

There was a moment of silence before Jake asked, "So, are you gay?"

"Yes." Her face remained neutral as Jake's stomach plunged to the ground.

"What?"

"Yes, I'm gay." They just stared at eachother until Chrisember burst out laughing, "I'm not gay!"

"You're not?" He looked relieved.

"I mean, yes I am."

"Which is it? Yes or no?"

"Yes I'm gay, which means you like boys. I think you meant lesbian."

"You knew what I meant, you cruel person!"

"Why am I so cruel? Did you want me to be not lesbian?" She questioned, making Jake blush.

"Do you want me to be gay because you secretly like me?" She questioned further, making him turn a deep crimson red. She giggled, "You're blushing!"

"Shut up!" He teased, then he tried to dismiss the situation at hand. "Let's walk around, I heard there was an ice skating rink around here."

They started walking along the sidewalk, dodging the few people who were outside. Eventually they found the ice rink and Jake turned to Chrisember, "We can charge your phone here, they have power outlets. I'm sure of it." She nodded and they walked up to the booth that stood with all the ice skates. The woman in the booth smiled at them as they approached, "Hello." She greeted.

"Hi." Jake smiled back at her, "How much is it?" he asked as he pulled out his black leather wallet.

"Ten bucks per person, so twenty for you and your lady."

Jake pulled out two crisp ten dollar bills, "Here you go." He said as he handed them to her. She popped open a grey metal box and set the money in it then she closed it. "Do you need skates?"

"Yes please, could I get some hockey skates in size 11 in men's and..." Jake looked at Chrisember, she took that as her time to speak up.

"Figure skates size 8." At that the woman left and came back shortly after to hand them their skates. Jake took them from her and gave Chrisember her pair, "Thank you." Chrisember kindly added to the woman.

"You're very welcome, you two have fun!" She smiled, then went in the back of the booth carrying on what she was doing before Jake and Chrisember arrived. They walked through the gate that was beside the booth and proceeded to find a power outlet. They found one behind the booth that wasn't being used by a heater. Chrisember took the bag and grabbed the charger box, she opened it easily and took out the charger. She took out her phone and plugged it in the white charger, then she reached down to plug it in but stopped.

"What's wrong?" Jake asked, she can hear his frown.

"Dang, we forgot the plug in thing."

"The plug in thing?"

"Yeah, the box thing that connects to the outlet."

"Oh, that thing!" He was quiet for a second in thought, then he had a pretty obvious idea, "Hold up, I'm going to get one for you."

"You don't have-"

"What's a charger without the box thing?" Chrisember looked up at him, he smiled then left out the gate. Before he was out of Chrisember's hearing range he turned to face her and gave his best Terminator voice, "I'll be back." He could hear her laugh from where he stood and gave a satisfied smile then turned back around and began walking in the direction of Walmart.

Chrisember sat down on a white plastic chair as she waited for Jake to come back. She sighed as she saw at all the couples out on the ice rink, she could just imagine her and Jake out there. As a couple, or possibly just friends if he didn't like her that way. She smiled at the thought of the mistletoe, would it not be the cheesiest thing if Jake bought one of those things and used it to ask her out? She started to giggle, that was something you saw in a Hallmark movie but it wasn't something you saw in real life. She looked at her dead phone and would have frowned but then if it hadn't died and her family hadn't left her then she wouldn't have met Jake. You could say she was grateful for this specific bad luck.