Miles (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 4

A few weeks after seeing Julian, I stand in the classroom while Mia and I wait for the last few students to be picked up by their parents. We had a pretty bad day today since half of the kids were too excited about getting home to travel or do whatever their parents had planned for Thanksgiving break. We basically ended up just talking about all of the kid's plans over the break since they wouldn't focus on anything else.

Once all the kids were gone, Mia turns to me with a long sigh, collapsing in her office chair that was behind her. "Well, that was a disaster."

"We aren't the only class with problems. I talked to Mrs. White and she said that all of her students almost had a tantrum at the same time because of reading time, so at least we weren't alone," I tell her with a shrug of the shoulders as I sit down at my own desk with a sigh.

"Oh, just wait, it gets even worse before Christmas time. The good thing about then is that we just watch movies with hot cocoa and premade s'mores," she tells me with a small laugh as she gets up from her chair so she could come over to me and sit in front of me on my desk, crossing her arms over her chest as she looks at me.

"Yeah, that's true. At least, today wasn't as bad as Halloween day," I tell her and she puts her head in her hands with a groan as she starts to remember that horrible day that we had with a bunch of grumpy kids that wanted to just get home to get dressed up in their costumes and eat candy all night.

"That was an actual nightmare," she whispers before looking up at me with a laugh, which I join in on. When we calm down with a sigh, she gets up to start packing her stuff up into her bag. I follow her lead and stuff my laptop into my backpack along with my folders that were now spread around on my desk.

"So what're you doing for Thanksgiving?" I ask her.

She walks over to the whiteboard to erase everything that she had been written throughout the day. "Ned and I are going to my parents' house in the morning since they just watch the parade and then order food in since they aren't the best cooks. Then, we'll go to his parents' house in the evening for dinner. What about you?"

"I'm just going to my mom's house and we celebrate with just the three of us. Sometimes my cousins come, but this year, they went to New York to go to the parade, so we're all alone," I tell her, walking around the room to pick up all the trash that was on the floor and then wipe down the tables with the Clorox wipes.

"Thanksgiving can get a little overwhelming, that's why I loved it when I was little. While all the other families were stressing over the turkey and the other cooking, we just got comfortable on the couch as a family and spent time together. I loved that," she tells me with a huge smile on her face.

"Sounds really nice. I can't even begin to explain how terrible Thanksgiving was when I was little. All of my family would go over to my grandmother's house, which was so small, and bundle up in the living room while my mom, dad, and uncle would cook in the kitchen. It was literal hell and I'm glad that's over," I tell her and I notice her surprise when she hears me mention my dad since I never speak about him, for obvious reasons.

"Well, tonight, my mom is coming out to my house since we've started a tradition of going to bars before Thanksgiving since she knows I get a small bonus for the holidays, so if you wanna join, you're more than welcome to. You can bring your mother too, if you want. We're gonna have tons of fun," she tells me with a small smile.

I nod my head, thinking that it would be great to spend more time with my best friend outside of work and I also really wanted my mother to meet her since she's heard so many stories. "Yeah, that sounds fun, I'll ask my mom if she wants to join."

We discuss all of our plans as we walk to our cars and decide to meet at around 10 tonight at one of the fancy bars in the city. I knew my mom would be super excited to get out of the house after a long day of work and drink with me since we hadn't done it since my birthday. Once I get in my car, I call my mom while I back out of my parking space and go to my apartment to get Bailey. After the third ring, my mom picks up the phone. "Hello?"