golden. [cameron boyce & china anne mcclain]

9. golden

let's let true love connect, let's try lasting forever...

The whole squad including Karan's new girlfriend Jada (who happened to be Sophie's roommate) were at China's spot drinking spiced eggnog and eating cookies. They were celebrating the survival of their first-ever semester of college. All of them were waiting around their phones, staring at their emails yelling out their final exam scores one by one.

"It's all on you Tony!" Chloe cheered after hearing the final ping from his phone. The last one of the night. The one they were all waiting for.

"I got a 86 on my organic chem exam. Holy shit, I passed." Tony leaped in the air and took the last swig of bourbon right out of the bottle as they all cheered and showered him with hugs.

There was another notification coming from Chloe's phone but she'd sworn she'd gotten all her scores already. "Oh shit, guys. Check your emails. My flight to Santa Ana got canceled. Apparently, the snowstorm is going to be worse than they thought."

Everyone in the room began checking their phones along with her.

"My flight to Burbank got canceled 20 minutes ago. I didn't even notice." Tony squinted his eyes at the screen.

"I don't have anything in my email but the app says canceled." China sighed. "It looks like all the flights out of Jersey and New York are canceled."

"I hope it clears up tomorrow. I've never spent a Christmas without my family." Sophie pouted.

Jada was looking out the window. "It is coming down pretty hard already. It'll probably be worse in the morning."

"Alright, well, let's head back to campus before all the Uber's become unavailable," Karan suggested as he picked up his phone to order a van. "It is getting pretty bad."

Once the Uber arrived, China and Cameron sent all of their friends off with a warning to text them as soon as they got indoors safely. China cleaned up the living room as Cameron did the kitchen. About 20 minutes into straightening up the apartment, the storm began to get violent.

"The power's gonna go out. Do you have candles?" Cameron called the from the kitchen.

"The power?"

"Yeah definitely," he walked into the living room, shaking his hands free of water.

"Okay, Okay. I have candles. Oh God, so the heats gonna shut off too then?"

"Probably,"

China began to rummage through the hall closet for blankets.

"Relax, Relax, Relax," Cameron grabbed her shoulders. "I'll set us up. I'll put a pizza in the oven, make some popcorn and hot chocolate. You just find some candles and a lighter and make sure you charge everything. Okay?"

"You're so calm. I forgot you used to live here," she scoffed before heading to her room.

China threw all phones, tablets and portable power sources on a charger then looked around her bathroom for her candle collection. She pulled out roughly 13 three-wick candles; each of them a different scent. She changed out of her party dress and into one of Cameron's oversized flannels, seeing as they wouldn't be going out that night. By the time she was done lighting up her room, Cameron had come back with two mugs of hot chocolate and a bowl of popcorn and was changed into his favorite pajama pants.

"Jesus, it smells like the perfume section of Macy's in here."

"You said get candles but you didn't say how many."

"No, this is fine. It was just jarring is all." He smiled and walked over to the cute little reading nook that was carved out in her room.

She followed him with a huge fuzzy pink blanket in hand. They sat comfortably in the cushioned nook, watching the snow swirl around the window aggressively. The whistling sound the wind made was sort of relaxing. They only looked away to speak or to steal a quick kiss. They were pulled out of their peaceful moment by the sound of Cameron's phone screaming across the room.