Right In Front of Me (Finished)

Chapter 30: Christmas Day

I am awoken by Brian tapping my ribs. I sit up to see him standing next to my bed. "What?" I ask groggily. I look next to me, where Greyson had been sleeping the night before. He must have woken up early and left. "It's Christmas! Wake up, wake up, wake up!" Brian whisper-yells. I widen my eyes. "It's Christmas." I say it out loud to help me believe it. "Don't worry; on my way to your room I didn't sneak a peek at the presents downstairs." He assures me. I giggle, then grab his hands and we jump on my bed. "It's Christmas!" We say together. "Let's go get Summer!" Brian hops off of my bed and across the hall to Summer's room. While he wakes her up, I go to the bathroom to wash my face with my Morning Burst Face Wash. I am drying off my face when I see Brian tugging Summer out of her room as she rubs her eyes. She joins me in the bathroom and washes her face, then takes her hair out of the three braids she had put them in the night before, so her hair was now, instead of curly like usual, wavy and gorgeously framing her face. My hair is still in the waterfall braid for church the day before.
        When we are both done in the bathroom getting ready so we don't look like we just rolled out of bed (because there will be picture taking) we go into my parents room. Brian doesn't hesitate to run in yelling, "Wake up, sleepyheads! It's Christmas! IT'S CHRSTMAS!" My dad pretends to be asleep while Brian jumps on the bed, and when Brian least expects it, he pulls him over toward him by his ankles so he falls over. Dad pulls him over and tickles him while Brian scream bloody murder. My mom laughs and gets out of bed to find her glasses. She usually wears contacts, but she doesn't always feel like putting them in, especially on Christmas. We all look around at each other. "What are we waiting for?! LET'S GO!" Brian declares and we follow him downstairs as I slip on my Santa hat.
        In the family room, there are a bunch of wrapped presents under the tree, which are from each other, mom, dad, and what mom and dad claim are from Santa. The presents from Santa that are too big or too hard to wrap are sitting on the table or are scattered around. Our names are only on the wrapped presents, but we know for the most part what is for who out of the unwrapped gifts. Brian yells, "I got a skateboard!" Summer announces, "I got a tablet!" We begin to unwrap, one at a time, the presents under the tree. "Oh, my gosh. I got a Polaroid Camera!" I say. Summer gives me her gift and says, "But, wait- there's more!" I open it and see that she got me a case for the camera. "Wait, you knew I was getting one?" I asked her, and she nodded. I hug her and say thank you about a million times. I hug my parents while Brian unwraps a gift, and frowns as he sees a sweater-vest from grandma. I put my camera on the rocking chair near the fireplace, where I will put all of my stuff I get.
        We take a break in the middle of unwrapping presents to eat coffeecake, but soon return to opening them.
        When we are done, we scoop up all of the stuff we got from our piles, and go to put them in our rooms. In my room, I put on some of the new clothes I got this morning, and wait for Greyson in my room. I take his gift out of my closet and stand in front of it so he won't see it when he comes in.
        He comes in through my window, smiling. He comes over and hugs me tight. I hug back, because he is so warm and happy just about seeing me. When we separate we gaze into each other's eyes for a moment, then I smile and look down. "So..." He says. "Yeah, so..." I parrot back to him. "Can you go first? Mine might be little... well you'll see." Greyson tells me and I nod. First I step aside so he sees the present I made him. He looks confused as to what exactly it is.
        There is a bunch of the boxes I bought all sitting on top of each other, largest to smallest, and there is a ribbon wrapped around them, keeping them all together. The top box is labeled 'See', and the one under that says 'Hear', followed by a box that reads 'Smell', another labeled 'Touch', and finally a box that says 'Taste'. "What is it?" He asks. "A Five Senses Box. Because I wanted to get you a gift that would appeal to every one of your senses. So, the top box is something related to sight, then something for you to here, and so on." I explain. He smiles, and unties the ribbon, letting it fall to the ground. He, then, opens the top box, and takes out a pair of big glasses, just like mine. They are, of course, non-prescription glasses. They are just clear lenses. Greyson looks to me for an explanation, and I say, "So we can see the world the same way." He laughs and puts them on. He looks like a seriously hot nerd.
        Next, he opens the box for the sense of hearing. Inside is a CD I made, with all of our favorite songs, and I tell him so. Inside of the scent box, is a new cologne for him. In the 'Touch' box, he finds a stuffed Sebastian from 'The Little Mermaid', since he is his favorite Disney character and he is insanely soft. "You remembered he was my favorite!" He says. I shrug, as if to say, 'Of course I did!' Inside of the box for taste is a big batch of the chocolate chip cookies I made the day before. On top of the bed of cookies, is a mug, which has a face on it with a cutout for holding cookies in. "So we can have Hot Chocolate and cookies together! I got one for myself, too." I tell him. "This is the best freakin' invention ever made! Who invented this?! Because I want to hug them!" He exclaims. I love seeing him this happy. Which was perfect timing to give him the other part of his present.
        "Greyson, there's more." I tell him, lifting a mason jar I decorated. I tied a piece of twine around the neck of the jar, and strung on the twine is a circle-shaped piece of cardstock the says 'Happy Jar' on it. I decorated the jar by painting a bunch of smiley face on it. I give it to Greyson and tell him, "Everyday, write down something that made you happy that day, so that when you are feeling sad, you can read through them and remember why they made you happy." He smiles, grab a blank sheet of paper, tears a strip off of it and writes on it 'December 25th, Avalon gave me the best gift ever.' And, he dropped it in the jar. Then he tears off another strip and writes 'December 24th, Avalon kisses me under the mistletoe.' He drops that in the jar as well. He places the jar on top of the boxes, and grabs my hand. "Now for your present." He drags me onto the bridge, through the tent, and into his room.
        "Isn't the tent you built gift enough?" I ask him, giggling. He shakes his head, saying, "I didn't give you that on Christmas, now did I? I'm giving you your gift." His words had finality in them. He hands me something that is wrapped in newspaper with a blue ribbon wrapped around it. "Sorry, I couldn't find decent enough wrapping paper, so I just-" He begins to say, but I cut him off, "It's perfect." I unwrap it delicately. I hold in my hands the most beautiful book I had ever seen. It was a worn leather-bound book with uneven edges cut on the rim of the sun-faded paper. The leather was wrinkled and vintage-looking. t was so cool. "Where did you find this?" I asked him. "That's not important. What is important is that I got it for you to write in. That is why it's blank. So you can write poems and, more importantly, songs." I smile at him, and hug him. Then I say, "That's an awesome present. Now, what do you want to do today? We have all day!" He says, "Actually, that's the rest of your present. Follow me." I follow him suspiciously to his closet. When he opens the doors to it, five balloons float out, all of different colors.
        "What?" I ask, confused. "I made schedule for us." He says. Written on each balloon was a time. "You have to pop each balloon to find out what we are going to do at each time." I just look at him. I stare into his eyes and lean over, and I kiss him shortly. Then He tells me that to pop the balloon, a must shoot un-popped popcorn kernels at it with a sling shot. "Where'd you get a sling shot?" I ask him. "I got it this morning." He tells me. I shoot at the 11:30 balloon. After a few tries, I am laughing hysterically and can't even aim at the balloon anymore. Greyson helps me aim and shoot it, and the balloon pops, causing me to scream from how loud it was. I drop the sling shot and run over to where the balloon was floating. On the ground lay a strip of paper that says, 'Ice Skating'. "Oh, Lord, I've never been ice skating before..." I tell him. "That ends today! Let's go! Oh, and let's bring the balloons in my truck so we don't have to come back here between everything. I'll grab the kernels and sling shot, you get the balloons." He declares. We march into my room, and I grab a pair of leg warmers to protect my ankles while skating. My family stares at us as we run downs the stairs with balloons in hand, shouting where we are going. We are shutting the door when my dad says, "Bye?" He was obviously confused.

        When we pull up to the outdoor skating rink, and I brace myself for the cold. I button my jacket, slip on some finger-less gloves and adjust my beanie. I put on the leg warmers, then slide my small platform sneakers back on. We hop out of the car and walk over to the skate rentals. Greyson rents our skates while I put my shoes in a locker. I join Greyson at his side and grab my skates. We walk over to a bench holding hands. I struggle to pull my skates on, so Greyson helps me pull them on and lace them up. I wobble when I stand up, and once we are both ready to skate, we walk over toward the ice rink. Greyson goes first onto the ice, and I take hold of his hand as I step out onto the ice. It is super slippery.
        Eventually, I get the hang of it, but I still fall down quite a few times. I didn't let go of Greyson's hand the whole time. At some point I'm not looking where I am going and bash into the plastic wall along the side. Greyson catches me before I hit the ice. Luckily, I only hit my hip against the wall so I was fine. He pushes me against the wall so I can stand up straight without slipping. His face is so close to mine that his warm breath makes my cold face melt. "Are you okay? Do you want to take a break, Avalon?" He whispers to me. I shake my head. "I'm fine, Greyson." I tell him. Still, neither of us back away from the wall. He kisses me softly, and I melt even more. He suddenly takes both of my hands, and skates backwards, pulling me toward him. He begins to spin us in a circle once we are far enough away from the wall. I laugh happily as we spin around. It's cold, yes, but I could stay in this moment forever. Just spinning around with Greyson in our own little world. He slows us down, and I try skating freely without falling, but I still wasn't too great. Eventually, I am gliding so blissfully that I forget other people are on the rink. Thankfully, I crash into no one.
        Greyson joins me again, taking my hand, and he twirls me in a circle, catching me after and dipping me backwards as if we were dancing. I tip my head back in laughter as Greyson lifts me back up. He takes both of my hands and pulls me closer, so our smiles are only a few inches apart. We touch foreheads, gazing at each other. I suddenly pull back, releasing one of my hands from his grip, and pulling him along with me. We skate for a little while, until we get tired. By then it's 1:30. We get in his truck and drive to Starbucks. When we are next in line, I say, "Um, a Grande Salted Caramel Mocha, please." Greyson smiles at the cashier, says, "That sounds good; I'll have one of those, too. Thanks."
        We sit down with our drinks for a few minutes, then we go into the parking lot and pop the 2:00 balloon. It says 'Walk'. I turn to Greyson. "Huh?" I ask him. "Trust me." He answer secretively. He took my hand and we got in the car. The heating wasn't working in his car so I leaned into his shoulder as he drove and cuddled up beside him. He just smiled and shook his head.
        At around 2:00 we pulled off to the side of the road and got out of the truck. "Where are we?" I ask him. "My mom used to take me here in a stroller when I was a baby and couldn't sleep. There's a really pretty trail around here." He answers. I run to the truck and get out my Polaroid camera.
        We walk around for about an hour taking pictures of each other or the really pretty scenery. In front of a big snowy tree, I take a picture of me kissing Greyson on the cheek, then one of him kissing me on the cheek, then a picture of us kissing. It was super cute. When the pictures printed out, I tucked them into a pocket in the case along with all of the other pictures we took on this trail, and a few pictures I took this morning with my family while we were unwrapping presents.
        When we left the trail, I was sniffling from the cold. Greyson wrapped his arms around me for warmth and whispered in my ear, "Next balloon, Avalon." By then it was 3:15.  Greyson held the balloon while I attempted to shoot it, and instead shoot his chest. "Ow!" He exclaims. "Oh my gosh, Greyson, I am- so sorry... Are you okay?" I giggled as I patted his chest. He looks away dramatically, hurt. "Would a kiss make it better?" I ask, feeling small. "Possibly." He replies, still not catching my eye. I giggle and kiss his jacket where he got hit, though I knew it didn't rally hurt all that bad, since he was wearing at least four layers of clothing as padding. He didn't look at me, just tapped his cheek. I stand on my tip toes to better reach his cheek, and just as I am about to kiss it, he turns his head and I instead meet his lips. I laugh afterward and go to shoot the balloon again. Greyson holds his breath, pretending to brace himself for another hit. I hit the balloon this time, sending a big 'pop' sound through the cold air. On the ground lay the strip of paper that said 'Ice sculpture'. I smiled, said, "I suck at making those!" Greyson laughs as we get in the truck.
        We drove to a park and stopped the car. "You don't have to make it." Greyson says once we are out of the car. Once again I was confused. He just took my hand and we ran towards an empty playground. The only people around were an old couple walking by, holding hands, a few random adults and a little girl with an American Girl doll that looked brand new. She skipped down a path with her doll in hand as her parents trailed behind her. Her father had his arm around his wife and they were talking quietly to each other, smiling. I smiled at them as I sat down on a swing.
        I ask the little girl's parents how they are, and they say they are just perfect, thank you, and they return the question. I answer them by saying that I was doing great, and I wished them a Merry Christmas, as they did for me, too.
        I slowly swung back and forth as Greyson says, "One second." He runs to the truck, opens the back of it, closes it after pulling something out of it, and returns. He is holding a chainsaw.
        He piles up some ice blocks that were sitting in a pile nearby. "Why is there a convenient ice block pile right there?" I asked him, suspiciously. He winks as he responds, "I know a guy." I giggle as he plugs in his chainsaw to, yet another convenient thing, a surge protector. He flips the switch and puts on some goggles, then begins to carve the ice.
        "Have you done this before? Greyson?" I shout over the sound of power that is erupting out of the chainsaw. "Yep. I do this every year with my dad. A few neighborhoods over, where I lived before I moved, there were contests, so my dad taught me how to do it really well so we could win." He yells back. "Did you win?" I scream. He looks at me briefly. "Nope, never." He replied. I laughed.
        A half-hour later, he turned off his chainsaw and put it on the ground. Then he turned it back on quickly and lightly touched a little part of the sculpture, then turned it off again, as if it had to be perfect. "All right, come see." He told me, taking my hand. I looked at it. It was me. He sculpted me. How did he possibly do that?
        It was gorgeously done. The curves of the statue were so smooth and beautiful. It was a sculpture of me wearing ice skates, twirling around. My hair was flowing through the air as if someone took a picture of someone spinning, and it whipped through the air around them. I am wearing a skirt like the one I am wearing now, a jacket, gloves and my leg warmers. My hands are pointed in two different directions, my left hand pointed toward the skies and my right pointing in the opposite direction. It is truly amazing.
        "Greyson..." I whisper, reaching out to touch it, but recoiling my hand away from it, as if it my shatter with a single, delicate touch. I take out my camera, snap a picture, and then Greyson takes a picture with it of me standing next to it, doing the same pose. I take my camera and the pictures from him, then wrap my arms around Greyson. He hugs me back, then I look up into his eyes, knowing in my heart that there is no one else in the world with a bigger heart than my Greyson. "Thank you- so much, Greyson. You're amazing." I say, then I kiss him. We just stand there kissing for a few minutes, then we look at each other and Greyson smiles, saying, "Next balloon."

        We popped the next balloon, which said that we were going to Washington D.C. We drove there and handed out sandwiches to homeless people, since Greyson had made some ahead of time and stuck them in the back of his truck. We got back to Gainesville around 6:30. I was surprised to find that there were still more balloons to pop.
        The balloon designated for 6:30 read 'Time to go home'. "Wait, if that's it, then why is two more balloons?" I ask him. He winks, saying, "You'll see." I laugh and we drive back home to enjoy the cookies I made, watch 'Home Alone' and drink hot chocolate out of our new mugs.
        When the movie is over, we go to his truck after saying bye to his parents, and I pop the next balloon that was for 8:45. It said inside 'Carriage ride'. "I've never been on one before." I told him. We drove to wherever the rides were being given and parked the truck. "I wish we could do this forever. Just keep going to all of the random, fun places together with no worries- just each other." I tell him as we walk to the carriage. By then it is 9:00 and it is about to leave, so we get on. It is a horse-drawn carriage.
        I cuddle up next to Greyson. The ride winds through the town, and we see everything lit up with Christmas lights, looking stunning. Although, we did not only look at the lights and the town. We gazed at each other some of the time. We kissed a little, too, and then a thought popped into my head; Are we dating? I wasn't sure.
        When the ride was over we said thanks so much to the driver, and wished him a happy new year. We got in the truck, grabbed the balloon and got back out. I popped it. It said simply 'Sleepover', which I assumed was supposed to be at one of our houses, but that was not the case. He told me that there was a co-ed sleepover at Hallie's house. We drove to my house so I could get some stuff and tell my parents (as if they would be okay with this.)
        We walked in, and Brian yelled, "Avalon's home! We can look in our stockings now!" I forgot that we did them at night. We all sat around the fireplace and went through our stockings, announcing what we got. When we were finished, I told mom and dad about the sleepover. "A co-ed sleepover? What, are you crazy?" My mom says. "Hallie's mom is going to be there! I promise!" I tell her, since Greyson said that it was true. "How do we know that's true? Huh?" My dad asks. I sigh, "Have I ever tried to pull something like that on you? Is that how you raised me?" I asked. My mom's shoulders fell a little bit. "She has a point." She says to my dad. I feel a twinge of hope. "I don't think so, Avalon." My dad says. "Dad. You let Summer go to a co-ed sleepover in her Sophomore year, and you knew there wasn't going to be a chaperone!" I counter. He looks sheepish then says, "Fine, go ahead." I say yay and bring my stuff up to my room.
        When I am done packing, we go downstairs and say goodbye to my family, Summer giving me a look and whispering in my ear as she hugs me, "We're going to have to talk about today when you get back." She pulls back and gives me the look again. I say bye and we leave.
        In the truck, I notice that the direction in which we are driving isn't the way to Hallie's house. "Uh, Greyson, this isn't the way to Hallie's house." I point out to him. He smirks, "That's because we aren't going to Hallie's house."