I wove my way around the mall, excitement coursing through my veins.

If anyone saw me, they wouldn't see a 17 year old teenager. They would see a giddy 2 year old that got high off Christmas carols and shiny lights.

Skimming through the aisle of colored sunglasses, I smiled to myself.

I usually do this thing, where I get my friends two presents.

One completely silly and almost useless one. And another actual present.

Picking the first gift, was usually the easiest part for me, because I like to pick the silliest, but a bit useful ones.

Jasmine, on the first hand is the least colorful person I know. Not in a bad way that is. She just preferred solid colors, like black, white, navy blue, and white. Especially white.

How many times did I mention white? That's how much she likes it.

Picking up the gigantic white framed ones that were sure to swallow up her face, I snickered evilly.

I picked a few other randomly colored ones, and decided that it was time to move on.

I stalled in the teddy bear section for a little while, looking dreamily at all of them. From the really little ones that could serve as key chains, to the extremely gigantic ones that could serve as beds.

"Someday, you shall be mine" I whispered dramatically, blowing a kiss to the probably frightened stuffed animals.

Shopping, as an activity wasn't among my favorite things to do. But then, shopping alone was even the worst, because I got easily bored and tired.

I wrapped up my shopping by buying packs of sour skittles for myself, just because I could.

After handing the frustrated cashier her money, I danced my way out of the mall. It's impossible not to boogie down to Beyoncé's 7-11. It's an awesome song.

"Oh, what rubbish" A woman exclaimed, her hands on her hips, and all her shopping bags scattered around her.

I scurried towards her, and picked up some of the things that fell behind. Among them were male perfumes, a pack of black Calvin Kleins, and a lot of other things too numerous to mention. It was like she was shopping for a big group of people.

"Oh honey, thank you for all your trouble. I should really learn to be less clumsy" she smiled warmly at me, making me instantly like her.

"Clumsy is my middle name" I laughed, strolling with her towards what I assumed to be her car.

"Oh really? It's mine too" she fake gasped, laughing along with me.

"Who are you, my doppelganger?"

"Maybe I am"

We let out breathy laughs as we dropped the bags in the back seat of her car.

"Thank you again miss-"

"Adrien. I'm Adrien"

"Pretty name for a pretty girl" she cooed. I could tell she was tempted to pinch my cheeks. Being fair, I wanted to do the same to hers.

"Thank you ma'am"

"Oh no. Call me Elizabeth. Or Elise. Ma'am makes me feel so old"

"Ah. I see, ma- I mean Elise". I chuckled and shut the door. "I'll be going now, but it was really nice meeting you"

"It was lovely meeting you as well honey"

Waving her one last goodbye, I started my journey back home.

A vibration from my pocket indicted that I had had a text from someone, so I pulled it out and checked.

From: Angie
Hey, what did I do wrong? I'm feeling really worried now. We'll I've been all week. I really hope you're okay.

I may or may not have ignored him all week. I mean, I'm saving my heart here people. What if he's double timing both is us? Or, or maybe they planned it. Or- there are endless possibilities.

I shook my head at the possibility of all that happening, and focused on the fact that I really, really missed him.

In such a short time I had known him, I got a little too attached, and staying away is hard when you're attached to someone or something.

"It's just the first week of December. I'm failing to understand why you feel the need to get everything now. I mean, no one does this" Jasmine hollered over the sound of the flowing water.

"I feel the need to do it because I'm avoiding a rush hour. When everyone begins their own shopping, we'll hardly find any useful things. And I'm pretty sure you don't want that"

"For once in your life, you're making sense about something that isn't food" she said as soon as the shower went off.

"I'll take that as a compliment. I'm craving Starbucks right now" I groaned out the last part.

"You're craving Starbucks, or you're craving your Starbucks boy?"

I really, really wanted to wipe the stupid smirk off her face. Because she was right in a way. I craved Mikey. And Starbucks too. A little bit of both I guess.

"Aw that's so cute. You crave a little bit of both"

"Shut it Jasmine" I whined, crawling out of the way so she wouldn't step on me with her wet feet.

"Seriously godmother. You have to go clear things out with him. It's important if you really want things to go further with him"

"I know. I hate when you're right"

"I'm always right, godmother" she boasted, smiling to herself.

Rolling my eyes, I got up from where I was, and put on a sweater, and my coat.

"Good luck with Michael"

"Yeah thanks. Try not to have babies with Damien. And please respect the kitchen. Don't do it there. In fact, don't fuck him in this house"

And with that, I ran off, leaving my best friend very red faced.

Ring, ring.

"Hey, who's this?"

"I am so offended Nicolas. Or should I say Niklaus. You didn't even save my number"

"Adrien? Oh my gosh I am so sorry. I did save it. But I'm just busy right now, so I didn't look at the caller ID before picking it up"

"Yeah, whatever. I don't care. What are you busy doing?"

"Playing GTA. Why?" He sounded apprehensive.

"I'm not going to kill you. Not yet anyway. But I need moral support"

"You're not gonna kill me yet? Okay I am scared. But never mind that. What do you need moral support for? Did you kill someone? And now you're about to confess to the police?"

I smiled at his joke, but shook my head, muttering a small "no".

"Then what is it?"

"I'm going to talk to Mikey. And I need someone to keep me from running out" I breathed out

"Mikey?"

"Yeah. Mikey. The Starbucks boy"

"Oh. I see" there was a bit of shuffling, and then a soft thud.

"So I'll meet you at Starbucks?" He asked again, the shuffling getting louder.

"Yeah, sure. Thank you"

"Don't worry about it" I could hear the smile in his voice, and I smiled too, before hanging up the call.

"Let's do this" I sighed to myself, plugging in my earphones.

I started my trek to Starbucks very, very slowly. I mean so slow that a tortoise would look like Usain bolt next to me.

Finally, the damned place came into view, and as if on cue, my palms got so sweaty. And my heart started racing so fast, I'm sure you could hear it from a mile away.

"Um, please excuse me" I tapped the guy in front of me. After I jogged a bit to meet up with him.

"Yes?" He answered back, sounding grumpy and annoyed.

"Erm, this might sound stupid, but c-can you hear my heartbeat?"

He cocked an eyebrow, and shook his head, muttering something under his breath.

"Well? I need to know if you can hear my-"

"No, I can't. It's not even possible. What is wrong with you?!"

"I was just asking a question! Don't yell at me dammit!" I yelled, making the poor stranger widen his eyes and scurry away from me.

"That was too much" I said to myself, feeling sorry for my outburst. But hey, that guy is never gonna forget he met me, so that's good.

"Hey, Aiden!" A deep voice called out, making me forget how many pebbles I had counted all the way.

"It's Adrien! How long have you even been here?"

"I know your name is Adrien. I called you Aiden because you call me Niklaus. I've been here a long time. Why are you getting here now?"

"Well stop. You should be happy I'm calling you a name that belongs to someone as awesome as Klaus"

"Whatever you say Adrien. Now what made you get here now? Were you giving birth or something?"

I gave him an 'are you stupid' look.

"You know I'd have to have been pregnant for 9 months to give birth, right?"

"Oh. Really?" He smirked. "I didn't know. With a stomach like yours, one would think you're due to give birth anytime soon"

And with that, he bent over laughing.

"Haha. Funny" I rolled my eyes at the laughing human.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Let's go in now"  His laughter had died down, but he was still having giggle fits.

When I didn't reply, he tightly held on to my wrist. "Wait a minute, what if he thinks I'm stupid. What if he isn't there. What if-"

"I've heard enough. Shut up"

I knew what was gonna come next. And I definitely did not like it.

"No no no no Nicolas don't you dare-"

"Too late" and with that I was dragged into the place I dreaded the most, at that point in time.

"I hate you so fucking much" I hissed through gritted teeth.

"Someday, when you're happily married, with 10 kids, you'll thank me"

"How did you know I wanted 10 kids?"

"Okay you are weird"

Luckily for me, there was a queue, so I had just enough time to over think, and over analyze everything.

'I'm pretty sure every bad thing possible is gonna happen. This has all been a very bad idea. I should go. But how do I leave here without Nicolas noticing me? Hm. He's at the back table, so if I just-'

"Fancy seeing you here today" a soft, girly voice disturbed my thoughts.

"Oh. Hi. I didn't even realize I was standing here" I murmured, but she heard.

"Gimme a sec" she raised up a manicured finger to me, still giving me that damned smile.

"ANGELA!" She screamed out, making my eyes widen my eyes. Who's Angela? And why is she being called? Maybe it's part of a plan to kick me out! I cannot believe this.

As I opened my mouth to protest, she help up that stupidly pretty fingernail that was painted bubble gum pink, and that I was tempted to lick.

Don't judge, me, it looks lickable.

"Angela get out here! Steve push him out please, tell him he has a visitor"

"Angela is a boy?" I just had to ask.

"Angela is your your boy" she smirked.

Just then, Mikey walked out, with the biggest frown I had ever seen.

A black snapback sat atop his head, and his eyebrows were almost meeting.

"I've told you to stop calling me Angela" he spoke in monotone to Olivia.

"I know" she simply replied, pushing him towards me.

Remember when I thought my heart was beating so loud that someone could hear it?

Well now, I was sure everyone standing behind me could hear it.

And just seeing his light brown eyes made butterflies build up in the pit of my belly.

"Adrien" he said, like he just wanted to be sure it was me.

"H-hi" I stuttered, my voice going soft.

"W-what are you doing here?" He had moved in front of Olivia now, and his fingers were just inches away from touching mine

"I came-"

I paused for a second. And in that second, I thought of so many reasons and excuses I could give.

'I came for coffee. Or I came to see a friend. Or I came to ask Olivia if she wants to hang out with me'

To be honest, those all sounded silly to me. So I stuck with the truth

"-to see you"

Struggling to keep a straight face, he asked "me?"

"Well I just said that, didn't I?" I asked, making him chuckle a bit.

"I'll be out in a sec"

I nodded and looked at Olivia, who was giving the retreating figure of Mikey a strange look. But definitely not one that you would give you crush.

Then and there, I realized that I had made a big mistake. One that could either cost me whatever it was that Mikey and I have, or maybe something more.

"Let's go sit over there" he pointed to one of the tables at the far back corner. One where no one would think of sitting on a normal day.

"Won't you get into trouble?" I asked, staring at his face. The face I had missed for a whole week.

"That doesn't matter now. You're more important"

There he goes again. Making me smile stupidly with all his stupid stupid nice things he says.

We were seared directly opposite each other, and I made a beautiful discovery. A hole in the table! Well not really a hole. More of a dark brown stain that probably was never gonna go out.

"So, um, how are you?" he spoke up, after a hundred hours of silence.

"I'm good. Still alive, so yeah" I answered back, still not having the courage to look up at him.

We fell quiet again, and I racked my brain for suitable topic to talk about.

Just when I was about to say a knock knock joke, he spoke up again.

"Why did you stop coming here? Why didn't you answer any of my calls or texts? Why didn't you call me back? Why Adrien, why?"

My eyes were wide, and my mouth fell slightly ajar.

I didn't expect him o be that straightforward. In any way.

"And it was after our date. I mean did you suddenly unlike me? What did I do wrong? I'm sorry if you felt pressured into kissing me. I'm just sorry. Maybe-"

"Shut up Michael. Just shut up. What are you even saying? I didn't feel pressured into doing anything. I told you the reason why I didn't kiss you was because I didn't want to corrupt the innocent animals!"

"Yeah but you just stopped talking to me and I thought I did something wrong"

"That's literally impossible. You can't do anything wrong. You're perfect" 

"I am?"

"Yes. And that's one of the reasons why I felt horrible. You're perfect. Way too perfect to have even noticed me. And when I walked in that day, and I saw Olivia instead of you, my heart broke. Because she's perfect. And you're perfect. Perfect and perfect only makes perfect times two.

I felt like you were avoiding me because you realized your true feelings or some sappy shit"

Letting out a deep sigh, I looked up at him. "So do you like Olivia or not?"

I expected laughter at how stupid I was being. Or for him to walk away, and block my number. What I didn't expect, was him grabbing my hands in his and kissing them.

"Adrien, Olivia is literally my sister. I can never have anything with her. That would be considered incest. And perfect? Have you met that blonde? She's one of the weirdest and goofiest people I've ever seen. She was the the weirdest until I met you"

You know how, when someone calls you beautiful or smart or something remotely nice, and you get those stupid smiles that want to tear your face on two?

Yeah. That was me at that very moment. Not from what he said about him and Olivia. But because he called me weird.

"Y-you really think in the weirdest person you've ever met?"

"Yeah. I do. Is that bad?" His eyebrows furrowed in a small frown.

"Bad? It's incredible" I squealed, pulling my hands back from his, so I could reach over the table to hug him.

"What?"

He sounded genuinely confused as he patted my back. And I didn't blame him.

"Never mind that" I said, sitting back down. He would find out by himself.

"But I'm so sorry I didn't call you to ask or anything. That was so stupid of me and I'm genuinely sorry and I really missed you and-"

"You missed me?" His eyes got big and so did his grin.

"That's all you heard? Really?" I asked, trying to keep my straightest face, but ending up laughing.

"So we're okay now?" I asked again, my laugh dying

"More than okay"

"Yaaay. I could hug you right now"

"Then what are you waiting for?" He asked, a stupid cute smile on his stupid cute face.

"Wait. You want to hug me here. Right now. With people around" I pointed all around us to show him how crazy he was being.

"Yeah. Have you got a problem with that?"

I thought for a second. Did I really have a problem with it? It was just gonna be a small hug over a table. We weren't even gonna get that close.

"Nope!" I sent a toothy grin his way.

"Good" he replied, stepping out of the table and taking me with him.

Michaelangelo pulled me into one of the most comfortable and warmest embraces I had ever gotten in my entire 17 years of living.

He scented like coffee beans. And cream. And brown sugar. And these things made me want to keep my arms round his torso forever.

The fact that his solid body pressed against mine in the most unholy, yet innocent manner, brought provoking thoughts to my rotten brain.

"So you guys have kissed and made up now?" Olivia asked with a smirk on her peach pink lips.

"We didn't kiss. But yeah, we made up" I answered, giving her the first genuine smile I saw her.

"At least one of those two things happened. Now Angela here can stop moping around" she giggled when he sent a glare her way.

"Seriously stop calling me Angela! It's annoying" he groaned back.

He had gone behind the counter by now.

"You call him Angela? I just call him Angie"

"Ah. Someone who finally gets me. Michaelangelo is just too bulky on the tongue" she sighed, raising up her hand for me to high five.

I really have to ask what hand lotion she uses.

"You could just call me Mikey" he gestured to the name tag.

Our eyes instantly met, and we looked back to the frustrated boy.

"Nehhhhh" we said simultaneously, bursting into laughter right after, and earning weird looks. But we honestly couldn't care less.

I left Starbucks that day, with three new things; Happiness, a new girlfriend, and a caramel brulée latte that tasted like heaven.

As for Nicolas, he left me in the café. And I didn't realize until he texted me later.

Christmas day was in two weeks, but I felt like I already had the best Christmas present ever.

A/N

Heyyy people. After the looong wait, I finally updated the damned Christmas chapter.

I am so grateful to you all for getting me to 800+ reads in less than 6 months of this book. I mean I never thought this would happen, but I'm glad it did.

You are all the best I swear.

Love you all to tiny bits.