Chapter 23

For the next two weeks, I was constantly looking for inspiration and ideas for Cason’s gift. I had looked through a bunch of different stores in town and was just waiting for that special something to catch my eye, but nothing seemed to be working. I had even resorted to asking Evan if he knew what Cason would like, but he was no help at all because, according to him Cason and him never really exchanged presents at Christmas, just gag gifts that would give the other a good laugh.

It was now the twenty first of December and I still hadn’t decided what to get Cason, however, I decided to push the constant reminders of that fact to the back of mind as today was a very exciting day; it was the last day of school before Christmas holidays!

Back in my old town, the days that fell before a holiday would just be normal school days with the same amount of work and concentration required throughout the entire day that was required any other day of school. Whether it was because there was so many students or because the principal was an old hag, I was never able to get psyched up for the last day of school.

This morning, however, as I walked up to Olivia’s locker to say good morning I saw that she was celebrating the last day of school by dressing the part. She was wearing knee high white socks that had dark green stripes, a pair of black flats, a cute white set of short overalls over top of a green and red striped shirt and, to top off the outfit, she had put snowflake earrings in and a Santa Claus hat on her head.

My eyes were wide and questioning as I walked up to her. “What are you wearing?” I asked, pulling her attention up from her locker to me.

Instead of answering my question, Olivia’s eyes widened at the sight of me and her jaw dropped. “Where’s your outfit?” she asked in surprise.

Scrunching up my eyebrows in confusion, I replied. “What are you talking about?”

Olivia waved her hands up and down my body. “You’re in your normal clothes, why aren’t you wearing anything festive? It’s the last day of school.” she inquired, stating the obvious once again.

“What does the fact that it’s the last day of school have anything to do with what I decided to wear today?” I asked, still confused about the whole ‘festive wear’ situation.

Olivia sighed, closing her locker with a small amount of frustration and gestured around the halls. “Take a look around.” she stated. As I finally started to notice the other kids wandering the halls, I saw that everyone, not just Olivia, was dressed up in Christmas colours. As my eyes widened at the spirit the students at this school had, Olivia must have realized that I finally understood. “The last day of school before Christmas break is always a day of fun and festivities. Everybody dresses up in green, red, or white, we barely do any work, and the teachers become really chill.” she explained to me.

As I turned back to Olivia, I looked at her accusingly. “And you didn’t think to tell me?” I asked dryly, wondering why she hadn’t mentioned it.

Olivia, who was now realizing that my lack of spirit might have been because I had no idea it was even happening, bit her lip sheepishly and shrugged. “I’m sorry!” she exclaimed apologetically. “It totally slipped my mind that this is your first Christmas here. I would’ve told you if it came up.”

Nodding my head in understanding, I accepted her apology. “It’s fine, it’s just a little weird. At my old school the last day of school was just a regular day of school; classes, homework and tests galore.” I stated as we started walking together to our first class.

Olivia’s eyes started to sparkle in amusement at my statement, making me slightly worried about what could possibly be so comical. “Oh Jessalyn, you’re sure in for a surprise today then.” she claimed in finality before we entered our functions classroom just before the bell rang.

Taking my usual seat, I saw that almost everybody in the class except for me was dressed up in some kind of festive wear. Whether it was a simple Santa Claus hat or a whole outfit dedicated to Christmas, they were all relishing the festivities.

Just as I was admiring everybody’s outfits, the functions teacher waddled into the classroom in a full Santa Claus costume; beard, suit and all. Shaking my head in amusement, I wondered what the hell had I just walked into.

After just the first two periods, I realized that this school definitely celebrated the last day of school before break differently than my previous one. My guess was that since the school was so small and was located in a closely-knit town, everybody liked to have fun before the break.

In my first class, instead of learning anything new, the teacher opened up the class by doing a five minute Santa Claus impression that ended with half of the class struggling to hold themselves up in their seats while laughing their asses off. After the class calmed down, he pulled a cartoon version of a Christmas classic out of his fat pants and left us to watch the movie until the bell rang.

If that wasn’t enough, my chemistry teacher that it was going to be a lab day today – to experiment with making different kinds of hot chocolate that is! By the end of class, I had taste tested a disgusting peppermint version that a couple of guys in my class had concocted as well as gulped down the rest of the marshmallow drink I had brewed up.

As I was putting at my locker picking up my lunch, somebody snuck up behind me and scared me by grabbing my waist, making me yelp and bang my hip against my locker door.

Turning around, I glared at a relatively amused Cason. “Can I help you?” I asked slightly annoyed, but at the same time trying to hide my own amusement while looking at Cason’s outfit.

I hadn’t seen him yet today since I took the liberty to gain some exercise this morning and walk to school instead of hitching a ride with him, but now I wish I would’ve seen this site sooner. He was wearing a pair of red converse with dark green socks, a pair of customized black shorts that had a funny picture of Rudolph printed onto the ass, and a white and green striped V-neck t-shirt. He also had a dark red vest on that had a snowflake pattern, as well as an elf hat on top of his head and, a green lei around his neck.

“Not really.” Cason said, replying to my previous question. “But I can help you… did somebody forget about the festivities today?” he asked, gesturing to my plain outfit.

I rolled my eyes at his statement as I went to grab my lunch from inside my locker. “Well, since I have the best friends ever,” I replied sarcastically, “I had no idea what was going on today until I actually got to school because nobody told me.”

Cason shook his head in amusement as he reached his hands up to take his elf hat off and quickly place it on my head.

“Are you sure you don’t have lice?” I asked teasingly, turning to look at myself in the small mirror that I had hung up on my locker door as I adjusted the hat on my head.

In the mirror, I could see Cason behind me stick his tongue out a make a few funny faces at the back of my head as a reply, making me giggle quietly as a smile formed on my face.

All of a sudden, his green lei was being placed around my neck and I felt the fabric of his festive vest being draped across my shoulders.

With a smile on my face, I turned around to face him as I pushed my arms through the hole in the vest. “Are you sure you’re okay with only half of your outfit?” I asked him, but I really hoped he was because I was getting tired of the fact that I was basically the only one in the entire school that didn’t have any festive wear on.

I was glad when Cason shrugged his shoulders and smiled down at me. “You need them more than me at the moment.” he replied kindly. “Plus, I still look hot as hell in my V-neck and shorts.” he continued jokingly, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Rolling my eyes at his conceited comment, I fixed the lei into a position around my neck so that it wasn’t itchy. “Modest much?” I asked teasingly. 

“Always.” he replied, using the same teasing tone I had. “Oh, and you can put your lunch back in your locker. The cafeteria’s actually serving good food today, and if we don’t hurry the good stuff will be gone.”

The tips of my smile turned down as I looked down at the bag my lunch was in. “But I didn’t bring any money with me today.” I stated, saddened a bit that my friends would be enjoying a festive lunch while I would be stuck with a plain peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Cason rolled his eyes, snatching my lunch out of my hands and tossing it back into my locker before I could even comprehend his actions. As I stood there with a shocked expression on my face, Cason closed the door to my locker, making sure it was shut properly before turning around to face me.

“What was that for?” I asked incredulously, trying to get around him and grab my lunch.

Cason put his hands on my shoulders to keep me still as he replied. “I figured since you didn’t dress festive, you wouldn’t know about the cafeteria special either so, I’m paying for the both of us and you can just pay me back by saying ‘Cason, you’re the most generous and hottest friend I’ve ever had’.”

Smiling at him, I released a simple sigh and complied with his wishes, really excited to see what I was in store for my lunch. “Cason, you’re the hottest and most generous friend I’ve ever had.” I said, repeating what he had just told me to say.

Nodding, Cason smirked down at me. “And don’t you forget it.” he replied with a wink, as he directed us towards the cafeteria to get our festive lunches.

A couple minutes later, Cason and I were exiting the cafeteria with our trays of festive food. When Cason said that the cafeteria was serving good food today, he wasn’t joking around. I had two slices of pizza on my tray that had red and green peppers cooked in as the toppings, chocolate milk, and a cup of green jello. I was also given a strip of paper from the cafeteria ladies wishing all the students a safe and fun Christmas break.

Approaching out usual lunch table, we saw Evan and Olivia already there enjoying their cafeteria meals and talking amongst themselves.

Olivia’s eyes caught our movement and she smiled at me, noticing the little additions made to my wardrobe. “Hey guys!” she greeted as we sat down on the empty side of the picnic table. She then nodded towards me before continuing to speak. “Where’d you get the festive accessories? Did you raid the school’s lost and found, or did you make a run to the dollar store during second period?” she asked teasingly.

I stuck my tongue out her, but before I could reply, Evan butted in with his two cents on the topic. “Aren’t those the clothes you came to school this morning in Cason?” Evan asked, seemingly amused as he directed a look towards Cason that I couldn’t decipher.

“Ooooh,” Olivia commented in the same teasing tone she had used before, “You guys are sharing clothes now? Did you guys get together and forget to tell us or something?”

As I sent a flat look across the table to the two comedians, I heard a concerning sound coming from my right. Turning my head to see what was happening, I saw that Cason had been taking a drink of his coke while Olivia was teasing us and, ended up coughing and choking when he processed what she had said.

“Are you okay?” I asked Cason worriedly, putting my hand on his upper arm for support. Looking back to Evan and Olivia quickly, Olivia looked slightly worried however, Evan was looking Cason with an amused expression on his face as he took a sip of his own drink.

My attention was reverted back to Cason when he coughed a few more times. “Yea,” he replied, coughing once again before continuing, “I’m all good.”

“Really?” I asked flatly, not believing him as he coughed once again.

Cason nodded, taking another sip of his coke to prove to me that he was really all good. “See, I’m fine.” he responded, swallowing his coke as he smiled.

Shaking my head, I picked up my first slice of pizza and took a bite. “And for your information Olivia,” I said after I swallowed my first bite, “Cason lent me these because he felt giving and, where the hell did you get the idea that we were together?”

Olivia put her hands up in a mock surrender position at my accusation. “I was just joking.” she stated. “You shouldn’t be all defense about something like that unless you want people, say me and Evan, to think that you’re hiding something.”

“Really?” I asked her dully.

“Just saying.” she replied innocently before going back to eat the rest of the food on her plate.

“So,” Cason announced, putting the previous topic of conversation behind us as we all ate. “All of you guys are coming tonight right?” he asked before taking a bite of food into his mouth.

All three of us, Olivia, Evan, and myself, nodded at Cason’s question. Tonight, as a celebration night to kick of the next two and a half weeks of holidays, Cason had invited the three of us over for a movie night and sleepover. My mom had no problem with letting me hang out with both Evan and Cason, but she was a little bit apprehensive about me staying the night. When I reassured her that Diana would be there and that we would just be hanging out the whole night, she gave me permission to stay the night.

“Yea bud.” Evan replied. “But we aren’t watching chick flicks all night because if we are, count me out. I see enough of those between Fizzy and this girl.” he continued, nodding his head in Olivia’s direction.

As Cason and I chuckled at his statement, Olivia did what any girlfriend would do and slapped him in the arm in shock. “Hey!” she exclaimed, trying to contain her own laughs. “We barely watch any chick flicks and you know it.”

“Whatever,” he replied with an eye roll, kissing the tip of his girlfriend’s nose quickly. “But seriously guys, we’re not going to change the movie from a horror to a Disney classic just because you guys think it’ll be too scary. You’re invading our traditional movie night so you’ll pay the consequences.”

“Okay Mr. Tough shot,” I stated sarcastically, “Anyways, I don’t get scared from movies that easily.”

Cason snorted at my statement and I looked to the side with my eyebrows raised. “This coming from the girl that jumped a mile in the air when I snuck up behind her twenty minutes ago.” he recalled in an amused voice.

Scowling at him, I pushed his shoulder playfully before huffing. “I won’t get scared tonight, just you wait.” I said with confidence before taking another bite of my pizza.

Five hours later I was standing in Cason’s living room with him setting up for tonight.

“Why aren’t Olivia and Evan here yet?” I questioned wondrously as I fluffed up another spare pillow and placed it on the ground. “I thought Evan was supposed to pick her up at four thirty, and I know it doesn’t take twenty minutes to get from her house to here.” I stated, looking at the clock to see that it was already going on five ‘o’clock.

Cason, who had been in his basement looking for a blow-up mattress, entered the living room with a cardboard box and an air pump piled in his arms. “Well, I texted Evan around four to bring Olivia with him to pick out a couple of movies for tonight so, my guess is that they are either taking forever to agree on a couple of movies or that they’re parked down the street making out in the car.” he hypothesized, smirking to himself as he gently dropped the contents in his arms to the floor.

“Cason!” I gasped, turning around a throwing the pillow I had in my hands at his face.

Catching the pillow with no problem at all, his smirk widened as he tossed the pillow back to me. “What?” he asked incredulously. “You know it’s true.”

“Yea, but you didn’t need to say it.” I pointed out, fluffing the pillow a bit before dropping it in the growing pile of freshly fluffed pillows on the ground.

Shrugging his shoulders, Cason decided to let the subject drop as he opened up the cardboard box and pulled out a folded up air mattress. “Did you want to help me unfold this or do you want to keep fluffing pillows?” he asked with a smile as he gestured to the pile of pillows at my feet.

I rolled my eyes, but did move to help him with the air mattress.

Ten minutes later, the air mattress had been set up in front of the flat screen with a couple of blankets and an array of pillows scattered across it.

“Now where are the two love birds?” I wondered out loud, putting my hands on my hips as I admired our genius set up skills.

Before Cason could give another sarcastic response about how they were probably still enjoying each other’s company, the front door opened then closed a few seconds later. Sure enough, Evan strolled into the living room a few seconds later, with Olivia right beside him and, he had a bag of video rentals hanging from his hand. He also had a shade of pink lip gloss smeared onto his lips that looked exactly like the one Olivia was currently wearing, as well as slightly swollen lips to match Olivia.

Glancing at Cason with an amused grin on my face, I saw him look at me as well, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively as he obviously noticed the same things that I did – they were totally making out in the car.

“So guys,” Cason started, standing up straight as a slowly forming grin made its way onto his way. “Did you get lost on the way back from the video store or...?” he asked, leaving the question open ended as he smirked at the pair.

A blush made its way onto both Olivia and Evan’s face, but Evan kept his cool as we walked up and punched his best friend jokingly in the arm. “Yea, do you have a problem with that?” he responded with a smirk of his own.

“Nope, but next time you might want to wipe her lip gloss off your mouth before you try to hide the fact you guys were making out in the car.” Cason replied slyly, nudging Evan in the side.

Evan quickly used his shirt to wipe the excess lip gloss off of his mouth as Olivia groaned in embarrassment. I, on the other hand, burst out laughing at Cason’s blunt remark.

“Why did I agree to come tonight?” Olivia muttered quietly under her breath, however, it wasn’t quiet enough for us not to hear it.

“Because, you wanted to spend the first moments of your vacation with your friends and have some fun.” I replied, walking over to her and throwing an arm around her shoulder.

Olivia, whose blush was slowly fading away from her cheeks, clicked her tongue against the inside of her mouth. “Yea, because being embarrassed is so much fun.” she mumbled embarrassedly.

“Anyways,” Evan butted in, taking the attention away from his girlfriend. “Who wants junk food for super?” he asked excitedly, pulling a large bag of chips out of the plastic bag he was carrying.

“How about we order Chinese food instead?” Cason counteracted, picking up the cordless phone from beside the couch as both Olivia and I nodded our heads in agreement.

Pouting like a little kid, Evan huffed. “Boo, you guys are no fun.” he said, acting like a little two year old boy who was told he couldn’t have a brand new toy.

Olivia, Cason, and I all laughed at Evan’s fake pouting as Cason dialed the number to the Chinese take-out place and ordered our dinner.

Forty five minutes later we were all relaxed on the air mattress and sharing the mass of pillows and blankets. We had put on the first movie of the night, some action movie that Evan wanted to see, about half an hour ago and since then there’d barely been a word from any of us, as we were all comfortably enjoying the movie. Evan and Olivia, to nobody’s surprise, were cuddled under a blanket as Olivia rested her head on Evan’s shoulder watching the movie, while Cason and I were each wrapped up in our own blankets to the left of the couple.

Just as a gun shot went off in the movie and we saw the main protagonist shoot a criminal to the death, the front door of Cason’s house opened eerily. Now, with the fact that we were watching a movie with mobsters and that the lights in the living room were shut off, I had a mini heart attack when I saw the outline of a woman in the entryway to the living room.

“Mom,” Cason said, reaching up onto the table beside the couch and flicked the lamp on to shine some light into the room. “How was work?” he asked, throwing the blanket off of him and standing up

“Oh, work was good sweetie.” she replied, kicking her work shoes off to the side of the room. “I just stayed at Wendy’s for a bit after work to talk, sorry I’m late to the party kids.” she stated teasingly, addressing the rest of us.

“That’s fine Mrs. Michael’s.” Evan, Olivia, and I replied simultaneously as Evan used the remote to pause the movie that was playing.

Mrs. Michael’s waved her hand a couple times and smiled. “I’ve told most of you before kids, call me Diana.” she said. “Oh, and as I was coming up the driveway a nice delivery man greeted me with a bag of Chinese food that I took the liberty of paying for.” she announced, shaking a big brown paper bag in our direction that I hadn’t realized she was holding until now.

Cason smiled at his mom, walking over to take the humungous bag of food out of her hands and give her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thanks mom,” he said, resting the take-out on the table that already had a couple of plates and forks laid out on it. “But you know I would’ve paid for it myself.”

“Well then,” she started, smiling to her son, “Consider it an early Christmas present.”

Cason rolled his eyes at his mom before facing the three of us who were still comfortably lying on the air mattress, just staring down the take-out bag that was giving off a mouth-watering scent. “Come on guys, dig in.” he announced as he opened the bag and started to take the boxes of food out and lay them across the table.

The three of us were up and moving towards the food in a matter of seconds. As we were piling an array of rice and deep fried food onto our plates, Cason’s mom, who had ventured into the kitchen for a couple of seconds, poked her head around the corner quickly. “Cason, can you come in here for a second.” she said slightly concerned, as her tone of voice was quite serious.

Cason, who got a puzzled look on his face at his mom’s requested, nodded as he placed his plate of food onto the table. “I’ll be right back guys.” he stated warily as he stepped into the kitchen to talk to his mom.

As the rest of us finished piling the Chinese food onto our plates, we each grabbed a napkin and a fork before returning to our previous spots on the comfy air mattress.

“So,” I said after taking my first bite of the greasy deep fried chicken, “What do you think that was about?”

Evan, who I expected to know something, simply shrugged his shoulders as he shoveled a forkful of rice into his mouth. “Maybe she just wanted to tell Cason to sure not to make a mess out here or something.” he guessed simply after he swallowed the food in his mouth.

I let my question drop for a few minutes, but after I was half-way done my food, ten minutes had passed and Cason wasn’t back yet. I was starting to get slightly worried about him so, I put my plate on the floor beside the mattress and stood up. “I’m going to go check what’s taking Cason so long, I’ll be right back.” I told Evan and Olivia, who were carrying out a conversation of their own and simply nodded their heads to let me know they understood what I had said.

As I reached the entryway to the kitchen, I could hear both Cason’s and Diana’s hushed voices discussing something that sounded quite serious.

“Mom, I don’t want to hear it.” Cason hissed so quietly I almost couldn’t hear it.

As I walked a little more into the kitchen, I could hear Cason’s mom sniffle, as if she was crying. “Please Cason, just consider it.” she begged, sounding as though her heart was breaking at this very moment.

At that moment, Diana’s eyes snapped up, looking past Cason and landing on my worried figure. She immediately stood up straight and brought her hands up to wipe her eyes. “Jessa,” she said, acknowledging my presence. At the sound of my name I saw Cason, who was facing his mom and away from me, tense his shoulders and freeze. “I’ll just leave you two alone to talk.” Diana continued, sending me a shaky smile before exiting the room.

Cason, who still hadn’t acknowledged me, was still frozen as he leaned up against the counter.

“Cason,” I said quietly, not wanting to anger him more. “Are you okay?”

At the sound of my voice, Cason turned around slowly and I was shocked to see that his eyes were slightly swollen around the edges, signalling that he had been crying. “Do I look okay?” he asked, laughing dryly as he brought the back of his hand up to his face to wipe the tears out of his eyes. “God, I’m such as wuss.”

I sighed and shook my head, going over to stand beside him as he took control of his emotions. “Cason, crying over something doesn’t make you a wuss, it makes you human.” I reasoned, putting my hand on his arm soothingly as I leaned into him for comfort. “Plus, I’ve seen you cry before remember.” I pitched in, trying to lighten the mood slightly.

Cason let out a small laugh, but that was enough for me to smile up at him. “Yea and it was for the same reason then as it is now.” he stated, an angry edge building to his voice as he spoke.

I pulled back from him slightly and raised my eyebrow questioningly at his statement. “What do you mean that it’s for the same reason?” I asked curiously.

Taking a deep breath, he brought up one of his hands to run it through his hair nervously, making some of the strands stick straight up or sideways. “There was a letter addressed to me in the mail today. My mom found it just before she came in a couple minutes ago.” he finally revealed, releasing a nervous breath as he did so. “After she opened it, she saw that it was from my dad and that he had written it to me for Christmas. It’s the first letter I’ve gotten from him in the past three years.”

My eyes widened at his short explanation. That’s what he had been talking about! The last time we had talked about his dad was one of the only times that I’ve seen Cason visibly upset.

“Do you think that maybe I could see the letter?” I asked shyly, wondering if I had overstepped my mark by asking that.

Cason nodded reluctantly, nodding to an envelope and a crumpled piece of paper on the table in front of us that looked like they had been thrown down in haste.

Picking up the crumpled piece of paper, I immediately saw a bunch of messy scrawled handwriting across the page. Moving my eyes to the top of the page, I started to read.

Cason,

     Hi son, it’s your dad writing this. I know it must be coming to a shock for you that after three years I’m finally writing you a letter, but truthfully, before now I just didn’t know what to say. After everything I had done to you and your mother; the lying, the drinking, the drugs, and taking all the money, I just didn’t know what I could say to make things better.

     First of all, I’d like to let you know that I am truly sorry. I’m sorry about making your trust in me crumble and I’m sorry for setting a horrible example for you son. I used to love the fact that we were so close, but I through it all away because I thought that gambling, drinking, and drugs were okay at the point in my life a couple years ago. I wish more than anything that I could somehow repay you, but I know that you’re still probably holding feelings against me for what I did to you, as well as your mother.

     Secondly, I wanted to let you know that over the past three years I have been going to a bunch of classes to help me with the lying and the gambling. It may have been a hobby at one point but somewhere along the line I guess it turned into an addiction and, I am proud to say that since the night I was found guilty, I haven’t thought about gambling again ever. I have also been clean of alcohol and drugs since I entered this place, and I’ve been doing really well.

     Now, the reason I finally decided to write to you is that I am realizing that now, after three years, my little boy is on the verge of becoming a true man by graduating and going off to college or university and hell, maybe you already have a girl that makes you feel like the top of the world, just like your mother made me feel all those years ago.

     The guards here asked everyone what their Christmas wish was this year and, after a couple seconds, I knew that my only wish this year was to see you. To see how you’ve grown and to catch up with everything that I’ve missed in my little boy’s life. I know that you might not be ready to see me yet, as I haven’t exactly done anything up until now to deserve a visit or forgiveness from you, but if you do decide to pay me a visit this Christmas season I’ll be waiting here.

    Last but not least, I just want to say that I love you Cason, and I’ll always love my little boy. I may have made some mistakes – some pretty bad ones at that – but nothing will ever haunt me more if I keep living my life without my son in my life. I am so incredibly sorry about everything that I did and I just want to see you. Please consider it and know that I love you.

     Love, your dad xoxo

My eyes were watering by the time I had finished reading the letter word for word, and I looked up from the paper to see Cason looking at me with a heart broken expression on his face.

“He wants to see you.” I whispered, half in awe and half in disbelief as the words I had just read kept replaying in my mind.

Cason laughed dryly, making my heart break a little more at the sadness that was clearly written in his eyes. “Yea, the guy who almost ruined my life three years ago wants to see me for the first time since then.” he said angrily. “He used up all of my college savings and he broke the law, which ended up breaking our happy family apart! Why in the world would I want to visit him for Christmas?”

I sighed, definitely seeing his point; however, I also saw the good things that could come from seeing his dad again. “Cason, have you talked to your dad at all since you saw him get arrested and locked up?” I asked carefully, being careful not to anger him any more than he already was.

“No, why would I?” he asked, looking at me as though I was a couple words away from the loony bus.

“Well,” I started, “According to this letter your dad is back to being the same person that you looked up to as a kid; the guy that you probably rode your bike with and joked around with on a daily basis. I know that the dad that got arrested for drugs and a DUI doesn’t deserve a visit; however the dad that was there for you and cared for you might deserve a visit at Christmas time, even if it just is to figure out why he did what he did.” I explained, trying to reason with a frustrating Cason.

Cason released a frustrating noise and truthfully, I didn’t even know if the sound was human. “Jessa, this isn’t something that on the top of my to-do list for the Christmas break.” he expressed with a hint of vulnerability in his voice. “I’d really rather not see him.”

“Cason, you know that if you never talk to him you’re going to regret it one day.” I stated. “Maybe not after holidays and maybe not in a few months from now, but when you’re all grown up, getting married, and having kids you’re going to regret not trying to make things right between you and your dad.”

“I’ll think about it.”

I nodded, a small smile growing on my face. “Good.” I replied, going over to give Cason a hug. I wrapped my arms around his waist and, after a second of surprise, Cason circled his arms around me and pulled me close.

After a couple of seconds in his embrace, he pulled back slightly but kept his arm loosely around my waist. “If I do decide to take a trip to visit my dad, I want you to come with me.” he stated, completely shocking me.

“Me?” I asked dumbly, still in half a state of shock.

Cason nodded, moving his hands from around me and sticking them in the pockets of his shorts. “Yea you.” he repeated, confirming what I thought I had heard. “You are one of the strongest people I’ve met and you’re one of my closest friends. So, my only condition to going to see my dad, if I do decide that it’s what I want to do, is that you have to come with me for moral support.”

Smiling up at him as I took a few steps back, I replied. “Well, if you do decide to go pay your father a visit, I’d love to come with you.”

Cason returned my smile before nodding in the direction of the living room. “Now that this conversation is over, let’s head back out to finish the movie marathon.” he said. “The food’s probably already getting cold and we don’t want to give Evan and Olivia any more of a reason to think we’re a secret couple.” he continued teasingly, winking at me as he walked passed me.

Gasping and giggling at the same time, I slapped him lightly and pushed him towards the living room. “Just walk.” I replied with a smile as I rolled my eyes at the same time.

Cason and I were chuckling as we walked back into the living room, interrupting whatever conversation that Evan and Olivia were having.

“Are you guys okay?” Evan asked as he picked up the remote that lay beside him and pressed the play button, taking the action flick on the television off of pause.

Cason looked at me from where he was shoveling cold Chinese food onto his plate and saw me getting relaxed in the blankets I had previously been using. “Yea, everything’s just fine.” he replied with a smile.

Smiling back at him, I picked up my plate of half-eaten food and started to eat the rest of it. For the rest of the night, we alternated between watching horror movies, action movies, and comedies, while also making time for just joking around.

By the time it was time for bed well past midnight, I closed my eyes and knew that this movie night was just the start to a great two week holiday.

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So…. SURPRISE! Another update in less than 48 hours of the last one… and it’s long! Who’s the best… I am ;)

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as it had a lot of Jessa/Cason moments that were important for the next couple of chapters. Plus, I bet you’re all surprised about the fact that Cason’s dad is starting to contact him… nobody saw that coming did they!

I am leaving for camp in a couple of hours and, like I said before, I do have wi-fi there and even though I hope to fully enjoy camp, I hope to be able to write as well. The next chapter, if everything plays out correctly, I should have the next chapter uploaded before next weekend, but don’t expect an early upload this time!

Until next time, remember to vote for my story if you think it deserves to be in the Watty Awards and leave your comments below to tell me what you think of this chapter :) x