Abstinence x Grayson Dolan

nine

A B S T I N E N C E
N I N E

MABEL sat by the poolside at her childhood home, reading The Christmas Box. Margret having the audacity to chuckle at her daughter for reading a seasonally inappropriate book, but shut her mouth once Mabel corrected her explaining that christmas in July was a thing, taking a sip of her egg nog.

After feeling burnt to a crisp and frightened that she may have a case of raccoon eyes from her sunglasses, Mabel decides to jump into the pool.

From his bedroom window, Grayson sees his next door neighbor floating peacefully in the pool. He chuckles at the girl who he knows is pretending to be in some kind of music video, and changes into his bathing suit. He quickly grabs a towel and darts out the door, explaining to Lisa that he'd be over at the Falls if she needed him.

Mabel was greeted by an unexpected splash, soaking her almost dry body once again. When she sat up on her float, but didn't notice anyone else in the pool, she internally cursed for she already knew that the one and only Grayson Dolan, infamously known for flipping floats, was underneath her raft.

"You cotten-headed-ninny-muggin." Mabel splashed the younger boy the face, dipping underwater once more to her hair out of her eyes.

Grayson couldn't help but laugh at her choice words, "Cotten-headed-ninny-muggin?"

"It's Christmas in July," Mabel spoke as though this was the most obvious thing to the entire world. Grayson, however, chuckled at the adorable girl who admired the season of joy and giving, "After I was done swimming, I was going to bake cookies. Want to join?"

Thing were back to normal between the two. They dried themselves off and entered the house. Margret was finishing getting ready to leave for work, packing her dinner since she was forced to work third shift as the operator for 911. She warned to two to not make a mess of her kitchen or burn her house down, before kissing them both on the forehead and leaving for work.

Mabel and Grayson acted just as they did as kids. The speaker in the living room was blaring Christmas music so loud that Lisa texted Grayson and requested a song as a joke. Mabel and Grayson screamed the lyrics as they mixed dough for sugar cookies in the shape of polar bears, penguins, and snow globes.

When they were decorating the cookies in Mabel's signature frosting, they put on How the Grinch Stole Christmas then the first Home Alone to please Grayson. Occasionally the two would have excess frosting and accidentally wipe on the other as a joke, until Grayson smeared green frosting all over Mabel's face. It was full on war after that, both chasing each other around the house wiping frosting all over each other. They made a complete mess, exactly what Margret told them not to do, but they wouldn't mind being reprimanded if it meant they were previously having the time of their life.

Grayson had Mabel cornered once more, his face inching closer and closer to hers. Mabel wasn't giggling anymore, her chest heaving up and down so hard that she no longer cared if Grayson knew. He stated that she had some frosting on her lips and he inched closer, so close that Mabel closed her eyes. She could feel his lips hovering over her's, so close that all she'd have to do was lean the tiniest bit forward and they'd be connected.

Instead, Grayson wiped his slobbery tongue on the left side of Mabel's face and smeared blue frosting all over the right side of her face. She shrieked, disgusted by the younger boy's antics and managed to tackle him to the ground since he was too busy chortling. Grayson flipped them over so she was below him, the two grinning like absolute fools in love, because, well, they might've been. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers but only for a moment, for the last time he was too greedy, it was taken away from him.

Grayson nonchalantly stood up and held his hand out for the older girl, "C'mon let's clean up this mess that you made."

Mabel agreed with a giggle, and it was the first she had noticed all day that Gray wasn't really Gray at all. He hadn't laid a single hand on her that had any more intention than to bubble her with laughter and his dirty jokes seem to have been left at home. She enjoyed the Grayson that was gentle, that kept his hands to himself, and wasn't pushing to get as much as her as he could. This Grayson made her heart weak which did so much more damage than the Grayson that made her knees weak.

The two had changed into comfortable clothes, deciding to actually watch at least one Christmas movie while they ate their cookies. Mabel was cuddled into Grayson's chest and his arm was around her, but resting on her stomach, not moving anywhere else.

Scrooge finally came to the end, and the two detangled themselves from each other and began to clean up the rest of kitchen mess they made. Mabel's soft humming filled the silence until Grayson began to sing, very badly but at least he was trying, what she was humming, and spun her around. She giggled in retaliation, and watched Grayson dry the last dish.

Mabel didn't think the day could get any better, but then Grayson spoke once more, "How do you start a relationship with God?"

Mabel cried that night to God, praying that Grayson would finally open his heart to God.