Sin of the Saint

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: THANKSGIVING

Liv spent the majority of her break catching up on homework—balancing the holy war and aiming to graduate high school kept her on her toes. When Thanksgiving morning came, she had early dinner with her family before getting ready and anxiously waiting until the early evening to pick Axel up for their date.

When the time came, she kissed her mother and father goodbye, who explained that Liv's cousin had her baby, and that they would be leaving town to visit them. Liv, head in the clouds, told her parents to give her cousin her congratulations, and headed out the door.

When she arrived at Axel's house, she rung the doorbell and he immediately answered. He shut the door behind him, smiling, "Ready?"

She fought a smile, "Yeah."

"Let's go," he said.

"Oh man...look at that line!" Axel said as they pulled into the parking lot.

Liv looked up and was shocked to see the line at the ticket booth wrapping all the way around the corner of the building.

"Yikes," Liv sucked in through her teeth after she parked. "Oh well, let's go."

He chuckled and they got out of the car and into the line. The movie wasn't for another few hours, and the line probably wouldn't budge for a while. They stood and talked until the sun began to dip down behind the mountains. Liv's jacket hadn't been enough, she could tell, when her nose began to turn red and she began to shiver.

"Do you want my jacket?" Axel asked.

Liv held out her hands and shook them, "I—no, no I couldn't—"

"Here, take it," he insisted, slipping out of his grey jacket and putting it around her shoulders.

"Axel that's crazy, you'll freeze!"

"I'm fine, look," he said, folding his arms across his chest. "Just fine."

She did look, but she was not convinced. Goosebumps rose on his arms in the next minute, and he tried to carry on the conversation as if he wasn't cold, too. She rolled her eyes and took his jacket off.

"Here, watch—" she helped put his jacket back on, but then she wrapped her arms around his waist. "Now zip it up."

"What—"

"We'll share it," she said, trying to ignore the heat on her cheek emanating from his chest.

"...Okay."

She felt the jacket zip up around her and was thankful that they both fit comfortably, but her face was still squashed against his chest. She blushed as she both heard and felt his heartbeat quicken.

"So...anyway, umm..." he cleared his throat, "any theories about how this movie is gonna play out?"

She blushed even deeper when she felt his voice hum and she was grateful that he couldn't see her face—she would die of shame. "Yeah, a few."

He chuckled, "Let's hear them—now that we're not so focused on the cold anymore," he said, and for a brief moment, Liv felt his chin rest on the top of her head.

She relished that moment as if she had no other cares in the world aside from going to a movie premier with her newfound best friend. As if she didn't have the entire world waiting on her to succeed in killing an insufferable nuisance like Cupid...as if she were just a normal high school senior.

"You a popcorn person, Liv?" Axel asked, tucking the movie tickets in his pocket.

"After standing in the cold for that long? Definitely," Liv said, giggling. They'd separated once they were inside the ticket booth and were now in the lobby of the theater.