By Chance (Dolan Twins)

Oh, Christmas Tree

That night you and Grayson had went to bed really late, but had to wake up early because the camping trip had ended all too soon. You and Grayson packed up all the supplies, finding the tent extremely difficult considering it was not only huge for the tiny box it was in originally, but it also was soaking wet. Eventually you had everything packed and you started the very long journey back to L.A. It was less silent than the first time, involving talking, singing, and stopping to eat instead of drive through. About two hours away the exhaustion from the night before caught up and you were lulled to sleep by the passing trees, cars, and cities out your window.

"Ally, Ally" you were being lightly shook awake by Grayson, after looking around you saw that you had made it home. You were still slightly disappointed the trip had to end at all, it was fun that you thought could never possibly happen again. For now it was back to normal life, or at least as normal as your life could get with your extenuating circumstances.

You get out of the car and Grayson runs up to the door and rings it at least seventy times, you laugh as you hear a distant groan and, "Grayson stop!" coming from Ethan inside the house. When Ethan made it to the door Grayson flew into him and they gave each other a big hug. You couldn't help but feel strangely left out. They had such a strong bond and you felt a sting in your heart wondering if you had a sibling somewhere that you used to love like that. This feeling did not last for long though, because the next thing you know Ethan ran out the door and hugged you as well. You smiled feeling happy to see him again after a crazy couple days with Grayson.

You and Grayson unpacked the car, you were in the laundry room shoving all your dirty camping clothes into the washing machine when you hear Ethan calling you, "Hey Allison!" you follow the sound to the living room where him and Grayson were busy moving over their giant couch.

"You called?" you asked as you watched them re-arrange their living room. 

"Yes" Ethan replied breathing a little heavy, "We were going to go pick out a Christmas tree and were wondering if you wanted to come."

"Yes, of course I'd love to!" you reply, for such a small and simple gesture it meant a lot to you, almost enough to bring tears to your eyes. You were a random stranger living in their house and they wanted to bring you along for holiday traditions.

You, Grayson and Ethan all headed for their truck and you hopped in the back. 

"Hey Ethan," you ask as he starts the car, "could we listen to Christmas music?" Grayson automatically starts laughing and you laugh too,

"Uh, sure" Ethan replies tuning into a radio station that plays Christmas music even this early in the month, you and Grayson start singing as you did in the car, but Ethan doesn't join in, he just drives with a straight face and you felt bad, you had no intention of leaving him out.

"Okay," you say at the end of White Christmas, "I think I've had enough" you and Grayson start laughing again.

"She can really sing huh?" Grayson turns to Ethan,

"Yeah, that was crazy good" he looks at you from the rear view mirror smiling, "You should consider going into a career for that" you blush at the compliment, he then turns to Grayson, "You not so much; you suck" the three of you laugh, because of how true that really was.

Eventually you all get to a little local Christmas tree farm. You get out of the car and are honestly overwhelmed with the sheer amount of trees,

"Wow" you turn to Grayson, "I think they have more pine trees than our campsite did" He laughs and shakes his head, "For now, but wait until the last week of December, they are so empty you'd be lucky to find half of one." you laugh again with him as you all get closer to the hundreds of trees.

The boys lead the way looking at all the trees, fighting over which one they wanted, you got to sit back and watch the show. They had very creative insults for each other, not to mention the sometimes physical aspects of a flick to the back of the head or punch to the arm. Honestly watching them was comedy gold. Eventually they had narrowed it down to two trees and they were arguing over which one to take. You got bored and wandered off to a really nice tree a few down from the twins. You were offhandedly playing with one of the branches and humming to yourself. In your daze you didn't even notice Grayson until he was right behind you,

"Hey Ally we can't decide which tree to choose and we were wondering..." he trails off looking at the tree you had just been playing with,

"Hey E!" he calls, Ethan makes his way over and Grayson points to the tree, "look at the one Ally found."

Ethan inspects the tree for a second, "Wow! This ones perfect"

"I know," Grayson agrees, "the ones we picked are scrawny compared to this guy"

"Thanks Allison" Ethan turns to you, "Honestly that's probably the best tree we've ever had"

You laugh, "Yeah no problem" you thought it was so funny how two boys could get so excited over a pine tree.

After paying for the tree the twins rustle it to the car, "Would you take some pictures for us? for Instagram?" Ethan asks as Grayson finishes tying the tree down,

"Yeah of course!" you respond taking his camera as Ethan and Grayson climb in the back of the truck with the tree. You took a lot of photos until they both found one that they liked,

"Lets get some of you" Grayson says jumping off the back of the truck bed

"Yeah get on back there" Ethan agrees pulling out his camera again, 

"Oh I don't know" you say feeling very nervous about taking pictures,

"It will be fine" Ethan reassures you, "You should probably get your first post up on your Instagram account"

You decide to just go for it, I mean what the hell? It couldn't hurt. They help you into the back of the truck and you take some sitting back there with the tree. It was kind of fun. After a couple pictures Grayson lifted you to the ground again,you take a look at them. You were surprised by what you saw, you actually liked them! Ethan got the perfect angles and caught you at just the right times, it was crazy.

"Thank you!" you say smiling at the pictures,

"Anytime" Ethan says sending you the pictures and pocketing the phone.

You all get back in the car and head back to the house, once there Grayson and Ethan fought with the tree and wrestled it through the doors. They were not very gentle and they probably ripped enough needles off of it to create a new one, but once they got it in the house you had to admit, it looked really good. 

Grayson went to the kitchen to make hot chocolate while Ethan pulled in a giant box,

"Oh what's that for?" you asked as he brought it right in front of you, 

"The decorations" he said ripping off the tape at the top,

"I get to decorate the tree too?" you ask staring wide eyed at the box,

"Of course!" he straightens himself up, "Why not?"

"That's a good point" you both laugh and Grayson brings in three steaming mugs of hot chocolate. You sit on the couch watching them wrap up the tree with lights, sipping your drink. After they got the lights up the three of you cracked into the box and started hanging decorations. They were all gorgeous, a color scheme of red and silver. It was a lot of fun, the three of you talked and told jokes, and watched a Christmas movie. It felt warm and welcoming, almost like you were a family.

When you reached in and grabbed the last ornament Ethan said that he forgot one and ran off to his room. You hung it on the last available branch, and stepped back to stare at the beauty. Grayson turned on the lights and it made the whole tree come to life. You wanted to stare at the gorgeous tree forever, but that's when Ethan walked in, he was holding the ornament that he forgot, it was shaped like a key, but matched the red and shiny finish of the other ornaments. He handed it to you, upon a closer look it definitely wasn't an ornament, it had the heft and ridges of a real key, you went to hang it anyway when Ethan stopped you, "that's not for the tree", he said smiling.

"What do you mean?" you ask staring at it in your hands,

"C'mon" Grayson waved his hand toward the back door, "we've got something to show you."