'I am so excited for Christmas! I got you the best present ever! You're going to love it.' -Sierra

I brush out my hair and pull half of it back before replying.

'The best time of the year. I've got you something great too.'

I hang up my towel and throw on some jeans and a purple knit sweater, along with the red scarf my mom made me a few years ago. What can I say? It's comfy.

'Just think: this is our last Christmas in school!' -Sierra

And, Rudolph socks and boots. Warm my freezing toesies.

'Not exactly. I'm pretty sure college isn't a huge sleepover party, it's school too.'

'Nah, who wants to go to college anyways? We're almost done! And then I can live my dream of traveling the world.' -Sierra

I sigh and shake my head. 'Actually, a lot of people probably want to go to college. You know, to get a decent job.'

'Oh, I suppose. But not if you've got dreams like mine. They don't involve sitting in classrooms for four more years. I'm out of here!' -Sierra

'And I'm excited for you, go live those dreams!'

'You too, miss I'm-so-intelligent-and-crazy-and-have-an-equally-intelligent-and-crazy-future-husband.' -Sierra

My eyes widen in disbelief. I start writing a reply, but hers comes first.

'Got to go, bye! Talk to you later, chica.' -Sierra

Real mature. Real mature.

*******************************

"Please, please, pleaaaase can I come with you?"

Lizzie's death grasp on my shirt kind of makes moving away impossible. And that puppy dog face kind of makes it impossible to say no to her.

"Fine, fine, but on one condition," I tell her.

She squeals and hugs me. "Yay! Oh, I'm so excited!"

"Ah, condition," I hold up a hand and she stills. "You have to eat whatever vegetables I put on your plate."

She crinkles her nose. "I hate veggies."

I raise my eyebrows. "They make you taller and healthier." To be honest, I really, really hate veggies too. But since I was forced to eat them when I was younger, so should she. So the cycle goes on.

She looks unconvinced. "So?"

"So, do you want to be short and fat for your whole life?"

Her eyes widen. "No!"

I smirk at her. "Then eat them."

The bell on the book shop's door dings, letting me know that somebody has entered. Ray walks in, coming up to the counter.

"You ready to go?" He asks.

"Ummm..." Right, I sort of forgot that important detail about going to that Italian diner downtown together, you know, the two of us.

He narrows his eyes. "What'd you do?"

I laugh a little and peer at Lizzie from the corner of my eye. "Lizzie may or may not be going to dinner with us... If that's okay with you, of course."

"Pleeease," Lizzie says, clinging to Ray's leg.

"Sure," Ray smiles at her. "We ready?"

"Oh yeah," Lizzie says.

I let Sheryl know we're leaving and meet the two of them in Ray's car.

********************************

"Can I please get the cheesy lasagna?" Lizzie asks our waiter, Ken.

"Sure thing," Ken says, winking at her. "I'll have your food out in just a moment."

As he walks away, Lizzie starts poking me in the side with her fork. Repeatedly. "Ouch," I turn to Liz. "What do you need?"

She giggles, covering her mouth with her hand. "His name was Ken."

Ah, there it is. I knew this was coming. "Sure is, huh."

"Do you think he has a girlfriend named Barbie?" Lizzie asks, her eyes lighting up.

"Hmm, maybe you should ask him when he comes back here. I bet he'd love that," I tell her. I wonder how many kids ask him about it or bother him. He's probably super annoyed at his parents for naming him that.

Sure to what I advised her to do, Liz asks Ken when he arrives, "Is your girlfriend named Barbie?"

Ken laughs, setting our food in front of us. "You'd be surprised at how many people ask that." There it is. Called it. "And no, her name is Bella, and she actually works here too."

A girl with the same restaurant uniform as Ken waves to us, brown hair pulled up in a ponytail. I smile and wave back. Seems nice.

And, she walks over, placing a pen behind her ear. "Hey, you guys. So, like, I guess Ken said something about me?" She asks in her quite high pitched voice. Then she laughs. I exchange a wide-eyed glance with Ray. "Yes, we've been together for, like, seriously, three months now! He's so cute."

Please, somebody, stab me with a spoon.

"Alright, Bells. I've got work to do," Ken laughs. "And so do you. See you at break time."

Bella winks at us. "Hope to see you all later, ciao!"

Ken smiles. "Sorry 'bout that. Anyways, here's your food." And he stumbles away to his next table of customers.

Ray and I both start laughing and Liz actually looks really confused. "What's funny?" She asks.

"Oh, nothing," I assure her. "Nothing at all."

She crosses her arms over her chest. "I'm not a little girl, so I'm not stupid. What's funny?"

"Just some movie we watched earlier," Ray nods. I do too.

"Oh, the funniest movie I've ever seen," I agree, smirking.

"Right, well, I'm pretty hungry. Can you pass my a knife?" Lizzie asks.

I tilt my head and raise my eyebrows at her. "What about a fork?"

She crinkles her nose. "Nah."

********************************

"Bye, Lizzie!" I call to her as she enters her grandma's house. She waves back at us with a silly grin.

Ray starts the car once we see her get inside. "Thanks, Ray."

He smiles. "Of course."

After a moment of silence, I say, "She's cute, isn't she?"

"Not really my type but..."

I punch his arm.

"Hey, haven't you ever heard you shouldn't punch a driving person's arm? And I was kidding," Ray laughs.

His car passes my street and I look at him, confused. "My street was back there."

We get to a red light and he turns to smile at me. "I know."

Oh, great. Another surprise. My absolute favorite.

Ray turns on the radio, and flips to the Christmas channel. I don't along to the words of every song that comes on, also admiring the Christmas lights on all the houses we pass. The bet part of the season.

"And, here we are," Ray stops his car by a curb.

I look out the window and see that it's snowing again. We're at one of the huge parks past our neighborhood. It's covered in fluffy white snow, and the surrounding trees are all drenched in it. There are hills all the way through the park with sledding tracks and marks over them. Ray opens my door and helps me out of the car. We walk out into the huge field and I watch as our feet make prints in the shimmering snow.

And, something cold hits me in the side. I turn, mouth open, to see that Ray is laughing, holding a snowball in his hand. I narrow my eyes at him and grab a handful of my own snow. Once I've made a sufficient sphere, I am ready to launch it. Only, before I can do so, I am hit again in the arm, forcing my own snowball out of my grip.

Oh, now this is serious.

I take a quickly made snowball and chuck it at his face. And it hits its target right in the center. I laugh with victory as he wipes the icy cold away. I am prepared for battle, taking a huge chuck of ice.

But he pelts me over and over with his evil mad accuracy and throwing skills, which I have none of. Soon enough, I am completely soaked through and freezing. But it is completely worth it, because this is about the most fun I've had in a long time.

I start laughing and look up at the sky, which makes me really dizzy, to see the snow falling down at me. It forces my eyes to close. That doesn't stop me from sticking my tongue out to let the flakes fall onto it.

I'm hit unexpectedly again with a snowball, right on the neck, which is about the worst place to be hit, by the way.

That throws me over the edge and I jump straight onto Ray's back and tackle him to the ground. That'll show him.

And, we're both laying in the snow, side by side, laughing.

We lay this way for a while, just enjoying each other's company. I can't really feel my fingers anymore. Or toes. Or pretty much any part of my body. But that's all a part of the wintery fun.

I can see the snowflakes on my eye lashes and it drives me crazy, so I brush it all off, only to have more land on them. Ray laughs at my awful attempt to shield my eyes. Eventually, I just place my hands over my eyes altogether. That works.

I can feel Ray's fingers brushing through my tangly hair. I can almost picture the smile he has on his face now.

"You're so beautiful," he whispers.

Still with my hands covering my eyes, he leaves a soft kiss on my cheek. And I smile.

Ray takes my hands from my eyes so I can look at him. His eyes look directly into mine and are so close. So bright. There are snowflakes covering his dark hair and along the edges of his eyelashes, too.

And his hand brushes over my cheek softly. I bring his head down to mine, and I press my lips to his. He responds immediately, his fingers weaving into my hair. I can't help the grin from escaping onto my face before I touch my lips to his once more.

"I love you," he whispers. "So much."

And I don't hesitate to reply what I never would have thought I could sincerely mean.

"I love you too, Ray."