P L A N B E T A

Chapter Twenty-Six

December 24th, 2042

Cullen

Maia is the most beautiful human being I have ever seen, inside and out. Christmas Eve, the GZU building has been decorated for the occasion, and everyone is in the auditorium for a huge dinner, whether they celebrate the holidays or not. Everyone had the day off, if they wanted to make something then they could, but our three families had made hundreds of dishes to satisfy everyone in the building.

I sit next to her at the table, so our families are joined together. Gwen is on my left, Maia is on my right, everyone pleases me. Everyone is talking and laughing and hugging their families, everything is perfect, everything is right. I wear a white button up with a red tie and black dress pants and shoes, it's the same as Orren, but his tie is a darker shade of red.

During the dinner, Maia keeps accidentally touching my leg under the table, which I knew was an accident, but sometimes I'd move my knee toward her hand. Her face turned a rose color each time, and it was the most adorable thing I had ever seen.

She's not perfect, of course, no one is, but everything that made her not-so-perfect made her Maia, and I liked Maia, so I loved her imperfections, even if they were annoying. Sounding like some post on Wattpad or whatever it was called from when my parents were kids was something I was good at. I didn't love everything about her, I don't, but there are always trade-offs to happiness, and sometimes being content is better than being blown away, or being in a shadow of another.

Late that night, Maia and I sit by the fire drinking hot cider in big blankets like we did most nights. Ever since I was able to walk I never had a dull moment with her. We spent our time in deep conversation and in exchanging of opinion. There were things that she said that I didn't agree with fully, but every human had their own opinion, and if you like someone a lot then you just have t go with it, because most of the time, disagreements between someone and someone they click well with are over extremely stupid things.

I don't even remember what we talking about that night by the fire, all I know if that she stopped talking for a moment and we were sitting closer than normal, but it was also getting colder. Her gaze seems to act like a magnet, and I don't want its force to suddenly flip. It pulls me in, and before I know it our faces are now connected. I have no idea what happened. One minute was talking about something stupid and the next we were kissing by the fire drinking hot cider in heavy blankets on Christmas Eve. A beautiful blur of a moment that is only made more beautiful by the person I'm here with.

We depart and my brain turns into a fuzz. My eyes linger on her a second and it hits me that we are no longer little five-year-olds drinking hot chocolate and waiting for Santa. I didn't need an angel on top of the tree because she was in front of me.

"Maia," I said. She looked down and her face turned red, but she was still smiling a little bit. "I'm sorry... I don't know what hap—"

"Please say you're not actually sorry, please don't be sorry. I was deprived of you for months and I've wanted to actually kiss you since I was like six do you really think that I'm going to be mad? P it's like a classic case of 'I've been friends with you since birth and have been secretly in love with you ever since'. So please, don't be sorry."

I raise a brow and say, "Isn't that a little too cliche for your taste, Miss Wagner?"

"When has anything been too cliche for my taste, P?" I exhale greatly and pull her toward me, connecting us again. It happened so fast, all of it. I thought that being up in space had taken forever, but now it felt like two seconds, all because I had everything I could ever dream of at this moment. I had Maia to talk to, my family to be there for me, and my friends to have fun with, it didn't matter if we're on lockdown.