Jingle Bells and Parallels

18. Mae

Chapter 18

~Mae~

       "So I have a question," Ryder said as he sat down on my bed while I was wrapping up Christmas presents. I already wrapped up Ryder's present, knowing he was a huge snoop when he wanted to be. And Christmas was one of the times he wanted to be. "How much do you love me?"

       I looked at Ryder curiously. "What do you want?"

       "What makes you think I want something?" Ryder asked.

       "Because normally when someone asks another person how much they love them, it's because they want something," I said.

       "Normally, not always," Ryder said. I raised an eyebrow. "Okay, fine, you caught me. So we kind of need help with taking down Santa."

       I sighed. "Ryder, I told you, I don't want to get involved with that. And I thought you had enough people to do it."

       "We did," Ryder said. "But then Jerome dropped out for... reasons. Reasons I do understand but I'm in too deep to drop out right now."

       I furrowed my eyebrows. "Why did Jerome drop out? He loves the kind of things that you guys have been doing because of it."

       "Because as it turns out, Orchid was right about Alan and Brandon," I said. "Something happened between the two of them and it made Nolan upset because of everything Brandon has done to him. Jerome doesn't want to make Nolan even more upset so he's staying out of it now."

       "You know, as much as I thought I loved Jerome and Brandon together, it's clear that Jerome and Nolan are a better match," I said, going back to wrapping the present in front of me. "One of the main reasons why we moved here was because Jerome got into a lot of trouble. My mom and his dad wanted to give him a shot at a better life. When he's already in trouble, it's hard to get him out of it. But when it comes to Nolan, he'll easily stay out of trouble."

       "Nolan's the best influence someone could have," Ryder said. "So... Want to help us out?"

       "I think you can handle it with just the four of you," I said. "Do you even need a fifth person?"

       "Yes, we do, and we don't know anyone else who can help us," Ryder said. "If you truly love me, you'd help me."

       "What if I don't truly love you?" I asked.

       "Then why are we even dating?" Ryder asked.

       "Just because people are dating doesn't mean they're in love," I said. "It could take a while for someone to fall in love."

       I just liked proving Ryder's points wrong because he hated being wrong, and he hated admitting he was wrong. It was hilarious. Most of the time, I couldn't even prove his point one. It was mainly Jerome doing it because Jerome was probably the only one who wasn't afraid to challenge Ryder's arrogance.

       "Fine, I'll go find someone else to help," Ryder said. "Like April."

       "Nice try, Ryder," I said. "You and I both know you won't ask April for help, and she won't even help if you do ask. Maybe, and here's an idea, you just cut the whole Santa thing short by getting Alan and Brandon to tell the police they saw all the stolen stuff from the store."

       "That won't work when we took the sack in the first place," Ryder said. "Santa could turn it on us."

       "Then why did you take the sack in the first place?" I asked.