Silver Lining

30. Green smoothies

16 days after

With the help of Theo, I spent the day filming my first video since I've been back. Theo was often in my videos, but we hadn't done one together in ages, and there was rumours because of it that we were splitting up, which was of course, ridiculous.
If you breathe, they'll make up a rumour. Rumours are everywhere.

With only six days until Christmas, we decided to make a video about everything Christmas. Funny stories from Christmas when we were little, best present we ever received, favourite part of Christmas, stuff like that. We had even found some footage of seven year old Theo opening a toy train and the amount of excited screaming that he does is just hilarious.

Theo set up my camera equipment while I got ready because he was already ready. It took him about five seconds flat to get ready, which was so jammy. "Just cut off your hair and don't wear makeup," was his solution, which got him a friendly punch in the arm.

I was wearing a dark plum coloured shirt with a matching lipstick, and a pair of black high waisted shorts and a silver chunky chain necklace, along with the silver bangle that I always wore. I tied up my hair in high ponytail, then sprayed some sea salt spray on the ends to mess it up a bit.

I walked into the living room where Theo was waiting for me on the couch. "Finally! You take sooo long," he told me, standing up to give me a hug.

I checked the time on my phone. "I took half an hour. Some girls take hours, you know."

"I know, I know, I'm very lucky to have you."

"You are, don't forget it," I told him jokingly. "Is all the camera stuff ready?"

He nodded. "Yup. I wasn't sure where you wanted to film it, and I was too lazy to come and ask, so I guessed you wanted to film it on the couch. Am I right or am I right?"

"You're wrong."

"Dang it!"

I burst out laughing. "Nah, I'm joking, I did want to film it on the couch. Why else would I decorate one random patch of wall, but not everywhere else?" I asked, pointing to the garland of red and green felt stars that I had hung on the wall above the sofa.

I checked to make sure the camera was lined up so that everything we wanted was in shot, and that the late morning sunlight streaming in through the window beside us wouldn't mess up the lighting.

I pressed the button on the remote to start the camera. "Heeeellooo!" Theo and I said, waving enthusiastically at the camera.

"So this is my first video for a quite a while now, and thank you to everyone because you've all been so understanding and supportive. So thank you." I paused for a second. "Today Theo and I are doing a video on everything Christmas. If it's Christmas related, we're talking about it."

***

It only took about two hours to film the whole thing, which was nice because I was expecting three at the very least. Theo went to the kitchen to make us a smoothie while I sat in my office and started to edit the video. I loved being in my office. It used to be really bland and boring, but when I went into the city I got a bunch of stuff to decorate it with, and it had a white and wood and plant theme going on. My favourite bit was the wooden shelving on the wall that held a couple of pots growing succulent plants.

Theo came into the office and placed two glasses full of light green smoothie on the desk, and dragged the other black wheelie chair to the desk. "What's in the smoothie?" I asked him.

"Banana, kale, chia seeds, apple juice, mango sorbet. Oh, and ice."

"Yum!" I picked up the glass and took a sip. It was like there was tiny angels singing in my mouth. "Wow, that's so good! Should put the recipe up on your instagram."

"Yeah, I will after this. Thanks! Okay, so where are you up to with the editing?"

"I was doing the introductory bit. I've added the text for a title, and I was just picking a song and then the song can fade out when we start talking." I held up my phone, on which I was scrolling through a playlist on spotify, hoping for some inspiration.

"Christmas music?" Theo suggested.

"Oh right, of course. Duh! I forgot it was a Christmas video," I said with a laugh. "Jingle bells?"

He nodded. "I like Jingle bells."

"Jingle bells it is." I added the song, then faded it so that it was playing for the first ten seconds of the video, and begins to get quieter when we both shout hello, and when we properly start talking it fades away so there's no music.

I picked up my glass and tried to drink from it, before realizing I had already drunk it all. I quickly glanced at Theo. His eyes were concentrated on the computer screen, he was trying to figure out how add an existing video file, so we could have the footage of him as a seven year old opening the toy train. I knew how to add the file, but he didn't know I knew and I wanted to see if he could do it himself. Also, it was the perfect distraction for him while I drank all his smoothie! "That hit the spot," said, as I loudly put his now empty glass down on the wooden coaster.

"Hey! That was my smoothie, you schattenparker!" He said, wrestling with me.

"Schattenparker?" I asked.

"It's a German insult," Theo said proudly. "It means someone who always parks in the shade so the inside of their car doesn't get hot."

We started laughing, and he tried to tickle me. He wrestled me onto the floor, and tickled me with no mercy. "Please stop!" I yelled between giggles. I'm really ticklish, and I began shrieking and trying to bat him away with my arms, but he was too strong for me.
Which reminded me of all the times Michael was too strong for me, the times I couldn't defend myself.

I screamed and curled up into a fetus position, begining to cry. "Madison? Madison! I'm sorry, look I've stopped tickling you. You're okay, it'll be okay." I allowed him to pull me up so I was sitting next to him, my head on his shoulder, and his arms around me.

He didn't force me to tell him what freaked me out, and I liked that. We just stayed cuddled up on the floor for a couple hours, Theo stroking my hair.