Make it to Christmas by Alessia Cara

Darling, I know that our love is going cold, it's just something 'bout the snow this time of year that makes us lose our way, just say we'll make up, and hold on a little longer, don't have me spending it alone.

"Paris!" Grayson's voice calls out firmly. He went upstairs to grab my suitcase so we could leave for the airport. "Yeah?" I call back. I'm now wearing some gray sweats, along with some sneakers and the chain my Mom gave me that Toby gave her.

"Come here." He says, his tone undetectable. I sigh as I rush up the stairs and enter my bedroom. 

He's holding a tie, I almost think he's somehow found his Christmas gift but it's not the one I bought. This one is a dark red, the one I bought him was a pale blue one to complement his eyes.

I look up to his face, waiting for an explanation, instead I see him furiously staring me down.

"What?" I frown. "Whose tie is this?" He demands, throwing the tie down and stepping close to me.

"Yours? I dunno, tell me." I reply thinking it's a guessing game. 

"Don't bullshit me." He raises his voice just a little, I flinch a little at his unexpected tone and stumble back a little. 

"I'm.. I'm not Grayson where'd you get it?" I ask.

"In your sheets." Grayson he replies sharply, gone is the boy cuddling me by the Christmas tree, this guy is the Grayson I first met back at Hawthorne House who thought I was there to ruin his life.

"That's not mine." I deny. I've genuinely never seen that tie before in my life, I'm trying to search for every reason it could be in my bed.

"I figured as much." He hisses.

"You think.." I trail off with sadness washing over me, "You think I cheated on you?" I feel like crying.

"I don't want to think that but you're not giving me much reason not to at the moment." He tells me. He looks at me pleadingly as if begging for some sort of reasoning.

"Grayson I have two guys for roommates, they probably just took it off when they were drunk and misplaced it." I shrug unbothered.

"Paris, I guarantee you neither of those guys own a single shirt, never mind a tie." He insists.

"Well.. I don't really know what to tell you then." I shrug.

"Who is he?" Grayson asks with defeat, refusing to look me in the eyes.

"Who?" I groan with annoyance. "Who are you cheating on me with?" He demands.

"I'm not cheating on you- You know what I'm not having this discussion right now. I'm not fighting you 45 minutes before Christmas because I know how it'll end. We'll stop talking, I'll refuse to fly home with you and when we finally make up again we won't be able to see each other for months." I dictate.

I take my case and start carrying it. Begrudgingly, Grayson takes my case out my hands, knowing it's not good to strain my back right now. 

We drive to the airport in silence, passing paparazzi in silence, making it very clear to anyone with eyes that we're fighting.

"You have the tickets?" I mutter unhappily. "Yeah." He murmurs back, getting the first class tickets ready.

We head to security and the metal detector ends up screaming when I walk through.

The lady uses one of the smaller hand held metal detectors to scan up and down my body.

It beeps right over my nipple and I suddenly remember I have a piercing. 

"We're gonna do a pat down." She tells me naively, clearly not getting why it's going off there. 

"That won't be necessary. She has a piercing." Grayson states. The girl before me turns a bright shade of red and lets me go by with no more questions. Normally Grayson and I would share a laugh for something like that but right now neither of us feel like laughing.

We get onto the plane and take our seats beside each other. 

We're pretty quiet as the flight takes off. Both of us setting up our headphones and getting ready to sleep in the first class reclinable seats. 

"P?" Grayson whispers softly. I nod, turning towards him. "I forgot to say Merry Christmas." He smiles despite his anger. "Merry Christmas Gray." I reply with a solemn smile.

We interlock hands despite our debacle and both head to sleep in no time. Both of us completely out for the entire 4 hour flight. 

I wake up first at the announcement saying we've landed and we'll be able to leave in a few minutes.

I notice Grayson and I's hands are still intertwined, he's a heavy sleeper and I always feel bad waking him up because I know when he does sleep it's rare.

Giving his hand a gentle squeeze I reach over and shake his shoulder a little, taking his headphones off I watch as his eyes pry open and adjust to the light.

"We landed." I inform him. He nods and starts packing up his stuff.

We're quiet as we walk off the plane, our hands no longer holding. Grayson helps me get my suitcase off the conveyer belt in exchange for me taking his backpack. Since he only flew out for a day to see my show he only brought one backpack.

It's 4am here because of the time difference. We get a ride back to Hawthorne House, dead silence the whole way as suspected.

We return back to the dark House, a large Christmas tree in the foyer with the lights turned off. "I think Avery said something about me going to her room when we got back." I mutter.

He nods and starts walking me up to her room. I was hoping he wouldn't do that, because now I have to actually go in her room, the whole thing was a lie so it wasn't awkward sleeping in the same room.

We get to her door and I slide the backpack off, passing it to him. 

"Can we-" I start at the exact time Grayson says "I want-"

We both stop talking and look at each other. "Why don't we just get through Christmas before we talk about it." He settles.

"Yeah.. Tomorrow." I nod in agreement.

He leans in and places a gentle kiss on my forehead then walks down the hallway in the direction of his room. 

The second he's out of sight I shove Avery's door open and drag my suitcase in. I kick the door shut behind me and sigh.

"Pear?" She groans from her bed.

I turn the lights on much to her dismay, Jameson stirs beside her, burying his face in her neck.

"Move over." I instruct her, she blinks to adapt to the light, sitting up and gently urging the still asleep Jameson to the edge of the bed so she can scoot over and allow me to lay down.

"Merry Christmas." I flop down with a wince when my back hits the bed.

"Merry Christmas, Pear.. I missed you, hows school?" She asks excitedly. "Ave, we call every day, you're pretty much caught up." I laugh.

"Are you okay? We were watching your show, that was a nasty one." Avery has her arm around Jameson, stroking his hair every time he moves.

"I'm fine." I dismiss. "Thank god because it was hilarious." She smirks. "Thanks so much." I smile sarcastically. 

"Well why do you look so sad then? And where's Grayson?" Avery asks me.

"He thinks I cheated on him." I confide.

"What?! Why would he think that?" Avery raises her voice with shock, making Jameson jolt awake, his tired eyes scanning the room with fear.

"Sorry." Avery says guiltily.

"Is it time to get up and open presents?" Jameson asks eagerly like a child.

"Not yet baby." My sister smirks, rubbing his back gently.

"You're dating a child." I scoff. Jameson very suddenly whips his head towards me, having not noticed my presence until now.

"Hey Paris, good to see you, welcome to our bed." He says sarcastically, throwing on a t-shirt and wrapping his arms around Avery's stomach. Both of them lay on their sides facing me.

"Why does Grayson think you cheated?" Avery repeats. "Well he found a tie in my sheets. I guess he thought some guy left it." I shrug unbothered.

Both of their eyes bulge, "What did you tell him?" Avery asks eagerly. "I said I had no clue where it came from. He thought I was just making an excuse." I reply.

"Well.. Paris forgive me for asking.. but were you?" Jameson says genuinely.

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" I squeal as I run a hand through my hair. 

"Paris what was a mans tie doing in your sheets?" Avery asks, seriously not believing me.

"Well I don't know? I thought it was one of my roommates but Grayson said there was no way either of them would wear a tie.." I inform them.

"Paris ties don't just appear." Avery tells me.

"I know he's my brother.. But you can tell us if you were cheating.. I mean you've not seen him in a year, you were bound to get lonely.. And i'm not saying it's okay but it could be justified. But lying can't be." Jameson says logically.

"When I cheated on Jamie, talking is what helped us get back together. We can give you advice if you did." Avery reaches out and strokes my shoulder sweetly.

"Stop it! I didn't cheat, okay? I'm as confused as he is about the tie thing." I yell.

"Just talk to him, okay. And if he doesn't believe you then the issue isn't you 'cheating' it's him not trusting you." Avery advises. I blink and eventually nod in agreement.

"He trusts you. Trust me. I've spent the past year listening to him bitching about you. 'Paris said she might be able to fly back for Thanksgiving' or 'I think I'm gonna fly to Massachusetts to be with her'. That guy is obsessed.. Maybe tell him you did cheat so he stops talking about you all the time." Jameson snickers.

"No, if she did he would just be like 'I miss Paris'." Avery joins in with a giggle.

"I'm texting Xan." I groan, rolling out of bed and taking my suitcase out the door, ignoring the way Avery and Jameson are taunting me the whole way out with echoes of 'Ooh, Paris'. 

I get to Xander's room, knocking gently until he answers the door with messy hair and droopy eyes. "Where's Max? Is she in there?" I ask him.

"In her room I can imagine." He blinks plainly at me. "We broke up." He mutters, standing aside already knowing I'm about to walk in and start a 20 minute conversation about how they broke up.

Turns out it was mutual, she was going to college and didn't think it was fair on him to only see him on holidays. They're still friends and she's still staying here for Christmas.

Hearing those words makes my stomach churn. Max broke up with Xander because she didn't think long distance was fair for him. Is that what I should have done?

"Now what's troubling you dear Paris?" He sighs, focusing all his attention on me.

"Well Grayson found a tie in my bed — don't ask me how it got there, I have no clue. And now he thinks I'm cheating on him. And now Christmas is tomorrow and I don't even know if we'll make it." I cry out, clutching my temples.

Xander blinks. He just stares at me. "Paris, why does everything always seem to happen to you?" He laughs gently. "This isn't funny. I could lose my boyfriend over a tie." I yelp.

Xander just laughs and rubs my back. "Just be honest. He'll trust you, I promise." He assures me, still laughing under his breath.

"You saw me fall off that chair didn't you." I realize with a sigh.

Xander bursts out laughing, cackles echoing the room, "I've been waiting so long to make fun of you!" He says through laughter.

I punch his shoulder and scoff, "On live television!" He can't help but keep laughing.

"You should've seen everyone's reactions. Max, Jameson and I just couldn't stop laughing. And Nash was yelling at us saying you might be hurt. And then Libby was all 'was that meant to happen?' And Avery was trying so hard not to laugh. It was so fucking funny." He cackles.

I just stand up and start walking out of his room, his laughter following me as I shake my head to myself.

I take my suitcase and resort to sleeping in my own bedroom. 

I flop back onto my bed, closing my eyes and allowing myself to succumb to the sleep. That is until I hear humming from inside my closet.

"Oh fuck me, this is how I die." I whimper, pushing up to my feet and grabbing a lamp which I plan to smash over this persons head. 

I recognise the song pretty quickly, it's a Taylor Swift song. 

I slam the door open and in an instant I see long brown hair curled to perfection, adjusting some sort of mannequin that wasn't there when I left. The girl looks no older than me, except she's wearing something much more professional looking. A black tweed cropped blazer and skirt along with high heels I've ever seen someone who is already tall wear.

"Get out of my room!" I yell as if it's obvious. She doesn't even flinch, she just turns around to face me, her gorgeous features coming alight. 

Her mixed skin tone appearing a little pale in this lighting, her striking brown eyes beaming brightly at me. 

"Hey Paris." She smiles kindly, her smile radiating for miles. Her accent is British, but it's clear she's spent some amount of time in the states as it's sort of subtle. 

"How do you know my name? Who the hell are you?" I ask, still clutching the lamp.

"Skylar Anguelo DiCambello." She extends an arm, stating her name like I should already know.

"And why are you in my closet?" I furrow my brows.

"You've not spoken to Alisa yet then I gather. I'm your new wardrobe consultant. I'm pretty much responsible for every single thing you wear. I'm in your closet because I'm working on your Christmas outfit." Skylar informs me, going back to whatever she was doing, checking her clipboard after she confirms each and every thing.

"This is what I'm wearing?" I gesture to the mannequin donning a satin red dress with a cowl neckline. The straps are thin and as she shows me I note that the back is open with cross-line straps. 

"This is a Nadine Merabi design, it's the Abigail red dress personally accustomed to your measurements. We've tightened the strapping for maximum security and to annunciate your breasts a little more." She informs me, not even paying attention as she scribbles some notes down.

"That's why Alisa asked for all my measurements last week." I scoff, admiring the dress. Beside it there are shiny red heels to match, along with some pearls and various other kinds of jewellery. 

"Your boyfriend told me you wear a necklace that you refuse to take off, i've found a way to layer it with other necklaces so both are still given the chance to be admired." She tells me, gesturing to the chain my Mother gave me.

"Wait you were talking to Gray?" I repeat. "Yeah, he wanted to know if the ring would match your other jewellery for Christmas." Skylar explains casually.

My heart pauses for a moment, "Ring?" I stare at her blankly.

"The ring.. which I'm now realizing you aren't wearing. So either something has gone terribly wrong or I have spoiled the surprise. Regardless, I'm leaving." She swallows, faltering for the first time. She grabs her mini Chanel purse and starts to walk quickly out the closet. 

I don't attempt to follow her, mostly because I'm stunned into silence but also because I don't want to stress out the girl any more.

A ring. Like a proposal? Is Grayson going to propose?

(a/n. I apologise for the obscene amount of Christmas chapters coming your way. @everystarandthemoon had her first ever introduction in this chapter!! I don't know if you'll like this or not, I promise her and Paris'll become like best friends soon enough! Love you bestie <3)