Transformed || l.h.

Chapter 22

 “Are you excited?”

“Is that even a question, Aliza?” Georgia scoffs. “Christmas is in two weeks, of course I’m excited!”

Aliza rolls her pretty blue eyes and hefts the shopping bag further up her arm. “But Luke and Ashton are leaving tonight.” Georgia nods, “So are the other boys, what’s your point?” Aliza’s eyebrows furrow together in confusion as they slip into a skate shop. “Aren’t you at least a little upset about it?”

As she looks through a rack of jeans, Georgia smiles sadly, “A lot more than I let on.”

[MORE]

“Honestly I think Ashton is more distraught over it than I am,” Liza laughs, picking up a shirt out of a cubby. “We’re leaving for California in two days and he won’t be back in time.” Georgia chuckles, “So you won’t see each other on Christmas to be able to kiss under the mistletoe?” With a shove, Aliza pouts as Georgia gets back her balance. “Shut up, why don’t ya,” she teases in a grumbling way. “Luke’s only gone for three days, and then he gets to come home and be with you the whole week. I don’t get to see Ashton for two more weeks.”

There’s a long silence, a lull in the conversation, and then Georgia speaks up. “We are so pitiful.” Aliza’s pout continues as she throws a sweater over the crook of her elbow. “Look at us!” Georgia reiterates. “We’re sitting here whining about how we aren’t going to see our boyfriends for a little while.” Aliza nudges Georgia’s hip, “So he’s finally asked you?!”

She shakes her head, her eyes connecting with the slowly ripping toe in her right shoe. “No, not yet.” Aliza loops her arm through Georgia’s and drags her towards the hat section of the store. “I can’t believe he hasn’t,” she speculates, pulling a gray beanie off of a shelf. Georgia shrugs, “Maybe he just doesn’t want to be linked to me, I don’t know.” Aliza flashes her an incredulous look with flat blue eyes, “Seriously?”

“What?!” Georgia asks, throwing her arms in the air.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Aliza rolls her eyes. “All Ashton complains about anymore is how Luke has turned into a big baby who won’t shut up about you. I doubt what you’re saying is true.”

Georgia shrugs, “It’s possible. It isn’t that hard to just ask me to be his girlfriend.” She puts her arms over her chest as her eyes scan over the snapbacks laying on a separate shelf. In an awful Australian accent and a deep voice in order to imitate Luke, she grumbles, “Georgia, will you be my girlfriend?” Her eyes widen as she glances back up at Aliza. “See?!” she exclaims. “Not that hard!” Aliza merely rolls her eyes again and continues picking up different beanies and stretching them and feeling them.

“Just shut up and look for him a Christmas present, won’t you?” Aliza snaps playfully. Georgia laughs and slugs her in the arm lightly before pilfering through the different snapbacks and beanies to try and find something suitable to be wrapped up and slapped with a pretty bow and shoved under the tree. “I don’t even know what to get him,” she groans, tossing down another snapback that she doesn’t think Luke would like. “He’s a boy, Geeps,” Aliza tells her obviously. “He’ll like anything you get him.”

She pouts, running her fingertips over a beanie to feel the scratchy but warm fabric underneath her touch. “But I don’t want to get him something he’ll just like,” she says as she bites on her lower lip, pulling and tugging the chapped flesh. Her nose burrows into the scarf wrapped around her neck in order to warm back up, and she pulls the jacket she’s wearing further around her body.

“Would you look at that!” the two girls hear from the entrance of the store as they stand at the back.

“I’m going to kill him,” Liza seethes from behind her teeth.