Changes

Chapter 47

“What do you think you are doing?” I heard Louis shout into my room.

I looked around, confused “Going to bed, obviously”

He marched into my room and said “Leah, its Christmas eve, aka our birthday. We have a tradition you know”

I smiled and jumped out of bed. I followed Louis into his room. The room was set up with blankets, food, and tons of movies. I couldn’t help but feel like a kid again.

When Louis and I were younger we use to sneak out of our rooms on Christmas eve night, and stay up all night, until Christmas morning. We always got all the best food in the house, followed by our favorite movies. Then we would go to Louis’s room and spread blankets on the floor, making a tent and hangout, eating and watching films.

The older we got, the more I looked forward to it. It was our ‘twin time’ as we would often call it. No friends, no distractions, just us. However, given the past two years Louis and I were not even talking on this holiday, and the year before he didn’t even stay at our house, he had stayed with our dad, so he wouldn’t see me. So when Louis came to get me I felt pure happiness, and wanted to cherish the moment.

“What are we going to watch?” I asked him as we got settled on the floor

“One Tree Hill seasons?” he asked holding up a bunch of different box sets

I nodded as he put them in to the dvd player.

The screen filled with the familiar sounds by Gavin Degraw.

As I watched the love story between my favorite characters, Nathan and Haley unfold in the episode, it made me miss Zayn. 

He had left after breakfast, along with everyone else. He gave me my birthday present, not that it was needed since he had already taken me out to dinner, and bought me a dress and shoes. But, when I had unwrapped the package, I was happy to see it wasn’t a costly gift, but a thoughtful one. It was a memory box.

Inside it had a small football, a reminder from our first date, pictures of everyone, fun drawings he had made. Different things from restaurants we had been to together. I was touched by Zayn’s thoughtfulness, and it meant a lot to me.

Our Christmas exchange would be in a few days, when I was going toBradfordto see him.

“I’ve missed this” I said as I noticed the show was already half way over

Louis looked at me and smiled. He wrapped an arm around me “Let’s do something we use to do”

“And what would that be?” I asked

Louis reached behind himself and pulled out his phone. “Prank calls!”

I looked at the clock and laughed “Lou, its 1 am Christmas morning. Who is up?” I said

Shockingly people were up. But after a while our laughs started to get lower as we felt the night setting in.

“It’s 4 am Lou” I said to him as I started to close my eyes. “Cole’s gonna be up soon. I think we need to go to bed, or we are not going to last through Christmas”

I looked over and noticed my brother was already fast asleep.

…