buzzcut season

17.

Mal walks out into the hall when her sister calls.

Luka and I continue to decorate the tree.

We put it near the couch and next to the wall near the front door.

The apartment is pretty dark and the only thing letting out a small bit of light is the fairy lights Mal put up.

This year we didn't go out and buy one because the process is a little inconvenient considering we don't have a vehicle or anyway of moving a prickly tree up several floors.

We have a small box filled with ornaments and glittery Christmas things.

The bottom of the bin has accumulated quite a bit of sparkles so I pinch a bit between my fingers and pour it on Luka's head.

He's busy trying to reach to put an ornament on so he doesn't notice. At least he doesn't till he hears me chuckling.

"What?" He asks.

He looks to my sparkly hand.

"What? Oh don't tell me—"

He runs his fingers through his hair and looks at his sparkly hand.

"You're such a brat," he says. I can tell he's trying not to smile.

When I'm putting another ornament on he scoops up sparkles from the bottom and puts some in my hair.

"Great now I'm going to have to buzz my hair off again," I say.

I wipe my sparkly hands on his shirt.

"Hey I like this shirt!"

"Then wash it."

"Then everything in the wash will be sparkly!"

"I'm just enhancing your wardrobe.," I shrug, chuckling a bit.

"Yes because sparkles go great with leather jackets and black jeans."

"Personally, I think it looks great and now you look two percent less miserable and instead, festive."

"I hate Christmas."

"Of course you do. How could someone as edgy as you enjoy such a happy holiday?" I joke before I hear Mal walk in and slam the door.

"Sisters are ridiculous," she groans.

"Care to give some context?" I say as I hang another ornament.

"Nothing," she huffs out. "Just Kate drives me insane sometimes."

"Twenty six days to go," she says once she's finally walked up to the tree. She squints her eyes a bit to see in the dark as she's poking at us. "Are you guys... sparkly?"

"Want some?" I smile holding out my hand to her, it's covered in glitter.

"Seriously Koda," she says in monotone. "The sparkles are going to here till next December."

"Great. It'll save us from having to decorate next year."

She rolls her eyes but I see her smile.

They continue to hang ornaments on the tree but I quickly get bored. I have low attention span.

I walk into the kitchen looking for the gingerbread house that Mal bought. We've yet to build it and it's in a box.

"Can we build the gingerbread house now?"

"Koda, we can't just leave the Christmas tree half done," Mal says.

"Yeah we can," I call out. "No parents, no rules."