Blue Christmas

Chapter 7- "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Later that night, in Zeke's apartment.

I sit on Zeke's couch, reading a book that I had dug out from my suitcase. Instead of listening to my usual music, I listen to the water hitting the bottom of the shower in the bathroom.

After a little bit, I hear the fast splashing slow to small, quiet drips. I place my panda bookmark in my book and listen to Zeke's wet feet sticking to the hard floor in the bathroom. He emerges from the bathroom dripping wet and his towel covering the lower half of his body. My eye catches his toned, tanned stomach and I feel my face go hot. I move my eyes to his lips, nose, and then his eyes, "hey," he says.

"Hi," I say awkwardly.

"I should get dressed, the game starts in a couple of hours. The bleachers are going to fill up quickly for this game."

"Wait!" I place my book on the cushion next to the one I was sitting on and walk over to Zeke. I look in his eyes as I walk to him, wearing my jeans and a giant, red sweater, supporting our school.

He wraps his arms around me, getting my clothes all wet, but I didn't care. "What," he says to me playfully, a smirk present on his face.

I pull away from him and shakily put my hand on his abdominals. I trace the muscles with my long, thin, index finger. He grabs my hand turns me around, pulling me in so that he got my backside wet as well, "sorry," I say.

"It's fine. Let me get dressed and then we'll head out." I watch him walk away, into his room, closing and locking the door behind him.

I walk back over to the couch and grab my book that I planned on attempting to read at the game. Zeke comes from his room a short while later in his basketball uniform, showing off his muscular frame that he usually hid. I walk over to him, holding my book to my chest. We walk silently to his car, I open my book and continue reading from the page that I had left off on, "what are you reading?"

"To Kill a Mockingbird."

"Is it good," I shrug, still reading the words on the pages.

"Are you really going to try to it at the game?"

"I planned on it."

I feel the car start to move and sit silently next to Zeke, "have you tried getting a hold of your mom yet?"

"No."

"What's up with the one word responses?"

"I'm reading."

"Oh, I get two words from her now!"

I slam the book shut and glare at Zeke, who starts laughing, "what," I ask, annoyed.

He continues to laugh, "have I mentioned you're cute when you're annoyed?"

"Yes. You certainly have."

His laughing dies down to a simple, contagious smile. I smile in return, "there she is."

He comes to a stop at the school once again. We both get out and he takes my hand in his. Instead of going through the front doors, he guides me towards the back of the school, "you're going to get me sick."

"How?"

"You got me wet and it's cold outside. Add the two together, and you get a cold."

"Then it's a good thing that we don't have school for a couple of weeks."

He continues to guide me to the back of the school where I see a table and two chairs set up in a parking lot. He walks over to one of the chairs and pulls it out, gesturing for me to sit in it. I awkwardly walk over and sit down. He takes his jacket off and lays it over my shoulders before taking his seat across from me. He types something on his phone and almost immediately, two of his friends emerge from their cars, hot chocolates and Arby's bags in their hands. One of them hands me a bag and I smile at them, a form of a thank you. Zeke waves them off and they drive away in their cars. I turn to Zeke and smile, "what's this all about?"

Zeke smiles at me, his teeth as white as the snow on the ground, "don't say anything, just eat." He takes out a sandwich from his Arby's bag and takes a bite from it. I do the same thing and start to slowly eat my double roast-beef sandwich. Once I finish the sandwich, I grab the to go cup with hot chocolate and take a drink. "Do you like it?"

I smile, "yes. Zeke, this is really sweet, but what about your basketball game?"

He let's out a soft laugh, "there is no basketball game."

"Then why are you in your basketball uniform?"

"To do this," he grabs his phone from his back pocket and opens up Skype. I watch him type a name in and he clicks the video chat button. It rings a few times, and finally, someone picks up on the other end.

The picture isn't the best, but I can make out my hair color, my eyes, my nose, my chin, my face, and I realize who it is, "Dad!"

I yank the phone from Zeke's hand and sit in the snow, ignoring the possibility of me getting sick, "hey Ally," I watch my dad's mouth form into a pixelated smile.

"Dad! What are you doing? How?"

I hear his laugh and tears start to form in my eyes, "I only have a few minutes. How've you been?"

I look at Zeke and smile, "I'm good, how about you? How many lives have you saved?"

"I'm as good as I can be when I'm away from you and your mom, as for the lives, I'm not supposed to tell you that."

I push my hair behind my ear and watch as Zeke comes to stand by me so that he can see my dad, "this is Zeke, Dad, from my very first day as a freshman, remember?."

"I remember Ally, in fact, he's the one who reached out to me."

Zeke waves, "hey, it's nice to finally formally meet you, Mr. Johnson. Ally's a great girl."

"I know Zeke, I did fraise her."

"When will you be home," I interrupt their conversation.

"I think they're going to try to get me home before Christmas."

"Really!"

"Don't get your hopes too high, I don't want you to be upset if I'm not there. How's your mom?"

I bite my lip, "we kind of got into a fight. I don't want to talk about it."

I watch a frown form on my dad's face, but he quickly gets rid of it, "don't worry, I trust you know what's best for you."

"Thank you, Dad."

"Johnson, time's up, get back to work!"

"That's my cue, bye Ally."

"Bye Dad," I watch the video feed go black and I give Zeke his phone back. I stand up and brush the snow from my clothes before tackling Zeke back to the ground, "thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"No problem."

"How did you do it? Was it hard? I don't even care! I can't believe he's alive! He's completely fine! There wasn't a scratch on him! Well, the video feed wasn't very good, but I didn't see any scratches on him. And it didn't seem like he had any PTSD symptoms, if he did, I couldn't tell. You're the best boyfriend in the entire world!"

He leans up and kisses me gently on my lips, getting me to stop rambling. "I'm glad you're happy," he says to me with a smile, "now we should probably go before the cops come."

I give him one last smile and lead the way back to his car.