Escaping Love

Chapter 25: "C & J"

~ Charlotte's POV ~

I took my mom's car as I drove to Tim and Avery's house that morning. I went separately from my parents since I had a situating to take care. When I got a notification in my email that the principal had to check in and make sure we've finalized all grades. So I woke up at about 8:00am and looked on my laptop. I had to go through every class to see if all grades are completed, which took me half an hour, then I finally got the chance to change into a nice blouse and jeans, wearing the jacket Jackie and I had went to buy the other day. Mainly leaving the house at about 9:15am. My parents had left at about 8:30am.

Not that much traffic in the morning, not as surprised because most families were at home with their children opening presents. Getting there, I walked out and rang the bell. To my surprised Jackie opened the door.

"You're here!" She said in a bit of excitement and hugged me. I smiled and we walked into the kitchen where everyone was at the table eating breakfast.

"Hi Charlotte." My uncle said as he handed me a plate of food.

"Thanks." I smiled and walked to the dining table. "Sorry I'm late, I had some school business to take care of."

"Really? You still have things to do, even on break?" Avery asked me.

"No, I had finished, but the principal email all teachers to make sure all grades are final. And to also wish us a Merry Christmas as well." I chuckled, "so I spent half an hour going through everything."

"We'll that's unexpected." Mr. Blake had said.

"It kind of was, but it doesn't matter, live of a teacher anyway." I said.

After that, we just want off on random topics about moments during past Christmas times, then we all gathered around the tree to open presents. We usually don't do this as much, I rarely even remember doing it last year. But, I sat on the floor next to Jackie while the parents were on the ground looking at boxes and handing them to us.

I got a box from Jackie's parents, turns out it was a scarf I had always wanted. My parents got me a collection of five books, lastly, Tim and Avery (mostly Avery's idea) got me new hand bag. Jackie had gotten a new set of art material, involving color pencils, shading pencils, and a sketch book. We just sat there and chatted more about how they had to go here and there to look for it and all.

We broke off at noon, and the men sat there watching television, the women went back to gossiping and catching up about new things in the kitchen. I sat at the couch in the dining room looking out at the breezy winter Christmas Day.

"Hey." I heard, looking over to see Jackie coming over and sitting on the cushion next to me, seeing her having the art book in her hand, I knew she was catching up and sketching something new, like always.

"Hi." I smiled. I looked down as she held her pencil and stroked across the paper that formed a curve. I loved watching her sketch out things and thinking of ideas. "I have a gift for you." I said and she looked up at me.

"You didn't have to." She said.

"Yeah, I know, but I wanted to." I said, as I walked over to get my bag that was by my coat in the closet, opening it and pulled out a tiny box. It was also wrapped in tiny wrapping paper, and with a tiny bow on top. I handed it to her.

"Do I have to open it, this thing is so cute." She said and I chuckled. But she slowly peeled off the paper, not letting it tear. Pulling out a tiny box and there was a necklace inside, a silver heart with the initials "C & J" on the back. She smiled and looked up at me, giving me a hug. "Thank you." She said.