The Only Thing On My Wishlist

“I’ve been calling you all night, Elliot.”

I wondered if he could hear my heart racing. I mean, how could he not? It was pounding against my chest, twelve beats per second as I tried desperately to catch my breath. “I’m sorry.” I mumbled quickly, clearing my throat slightly. “There’s, like, a blizzard right now. The power is out. Mom wanted us to all stay in the den.”

“And you didn’t think to bring your cell phone with you?”

“It wasn’t exactly high up on my list of priorities. Y’know, like not getting hypothermia and maintaining the feeling in my toes.”

“I don’t like your attitude, Elliot. You’re acting like a child.”

My head fell against the back of my bed, a loud thud ringing in my ears as I tried to figure out what to say next that wouldn’t piss him off. “I’m sorry. I just…I wasn’t thinking.”

“You’re never thinking. Sometimes I question how you got this far in life when you’re so fucking stupid.”

I had to pretend like it didn’t sting because it did—it really did. I just took a deep breath and tried to clear my head. “It’s really late Grant and I’m tired. I just…I want to go back to sleep.”

“I’m not done talking to you, Elliot. We have things to discuss, like when you’re going to stop playing these childish games and come home.”

“Bye, Grant.” I hit the end button and dropped the phone from my hand.

On most nights, I would have just listened to Grant rant on for hours about these so-called games I was playing, but on most nights I also didn’t end up rolling around, almost completely naked, with a boy I hardly knew. As far as I was concerned, tonight was not most nights.

I could still taste him on my lips—sweat and sour from the bag of Sour Patch Kids he ate while Lucy slayed him at checkers. He was eager and sloppy, but there was something about it that left me breathless ten minutes later. And I could still feel his touch. His hands were soft—softer than I expected for a guy who toured in a band nine months out of the year—and despite how sudden and fervent it was, he was carefully and gentle, like I’d somehow break. I wasn’t even sure how I felt about it. I mean, I have a boyfriend—a boyfriend whom I loved very much. I can’t just go around kissing a boy like Josh—a boy who was no doubt on the rebound after his gem of an ex dumped his ass.

I don’t know why it took me this long to figure out—granted it happened nearly fifteen minutes ago—but this was all just Josh rebounding. And I’m not sure why it angered me, but it did. Did he really think I was that type of girl? The type of girl that would just throw a three-year relationship down the drain for one night of sex with a kid that was hung up on the girl that just stabbed him in the heart? No, absolutely not. It was Josh, for Christ’s sake. I didn’t even like him.

When I regained my composure, I pulled myself from my bed. I fixed my pajama pants and put my sweatshirt back on before I left my room.

Back in the den, I tiptoed around Max. I also may have accidently kicked Josh in the forehead, but like I said, it was an accident. I crawled back under my blankets and cocooned myself as I tried to regain my warmth.

~~

“Max.” Lucy giggled and I stirred awake. I can’t say I got much sleep. The couch in the den was old and ragged. It was Henry’s from college and after two decades, my head was filled with twisted ideas about what I actually was sleeping on. College boys weren’t exactly the most hygienic things. Boys in general weren’t overly hygienic. It was safe to say this couch had probably seen more than it bargained for. “You’re supposed to be on the floor.”

“But I’m cold.” His voice smiled and I felt Lucy’s end sink in. I silently wondered if Max knew he was also straddling my legs. And I wondered if he knew how awkward this was. And I also wondered why Lucy hasn’t pushed him off yet.

When the both went silent, I got curious. I slowly opened my eyes, lifting my head only slightly, just to get an eye full of my stepsister’s boyfriend feeling her up. “Y’know, I’m right here.”

That’s all it took for Lucy to push Max away, sending the boy flying onto the floor and on top of Josh.

“Arg, mate!” Josh’s voice was muffled by his sleeping bag as he violently thrashed Max off of him.

“Mornin’, Ellie.” Lucy grinned as she sat up.

I rolled my eyes. “I’d ask you why you’re so perky, but I got a bird’s eye view.”

She blushed. “Sorry.” Part of me knew she didn’t mean it. Lucy was Lucy. She wasn’t shy. I’m sure she would have gone a lot further with Max, which I find completely disturbing.

I untangled myself from the blankets just in time for Henry to knock on the door.

“Did everyone make it through the night?” Henry smiled in a joking manner.

Lucy spoke first, completely ignoring his question. “Is the power back?”

Henry shook his head. “‘Fraid not, love. Trish rang the company on her cell. They say it could be days.”

“Days without electricity?” Lucy panicked, her eyes growing wide. “We’ll just die.”

Josh grumbled from the floor. “You won’t die, Luce. People lived without electricity for hundreds of years.”

“Thousands.” I said quickly, which just earned me a glare. I returned the favor because, really, if anyone deserved to be glared at, it was Josh.

“Why don’t you kids come down for breakfast?” Henry suggested.

In the kitchen, Mom was searching through the cabinets, a discouraged smile sat on her face as she turned to us. “We’ve got Cheerios and more Cheerios.”

I laughed, slouching into my seat next to Lucy as Mom handed out bowls.

“How’d you guys sleep last night?” She asked as she placed the two boxes on the table. “You weren’t too cold, right?”

Josh smiled as he answered my mother. “I was plenty warm, Mrs. H.”

“Really?” Max asked, his voice dripping with confusion. “I was freezing my bollocks off.”

Josh shrugged, his eyes falling on me as he grinned. “I guess I just know how to radiate body heat better than you, mate.”

Lucy cringed her lips. “I don’t even want to know what you mean by that, Josh.”

“I bet Elliot knows what I mean.”

Max and Lucy shifted to me, looking for some answers. I just rolled my eyes. “He means he was playing with himself.”

“Joshua!” Lucy shrieked. “There were three other people in the room.”

“Oh, you’re one to talk, Luce.” Josh shot back. “Practically molested Max this morning.”

“Lucy Ann Hanford!” Henry gasped.

“He’s lying, dad.” Lucy looked over at her father. “Josh is just being a drama queen.”

Josh rolled his eyes. “I’m not a drama queen and I wasn’t playing with myself.”

I just sat back while it all unfolded. Lucy called Josh a pervert and Henry glared daggers at Max, and I just basked in it. I shouldn’t be enjoying it, but I was.

~~

I didn’t shovel. I didn’t do much of anything that required me to be outside in the snow for extended periods of time, so the fact that I was standing amidst nearly four feet high snow drifts was not settling well with me.

“Enjoy it, Ellie.” Lucy smiled from the front of the driveway. She and Max were clearing off the sidewalk.

“Enjoy it?” My teeth chattered together. “H-How can I e-enjoy t-this. I-It’s c-cold.”

“But we’ll have a white Christmas.” Lucy grinned. “And nothing’s better than a white Christmas.”

“T-The feeling in my t-toes is b-better than a w-white Christmas.”

“Suck it up, love.” She called before heaving a pile of snow at Max.

I would not suck it up. It was cold and despite the amount of layers I was wearing, I could still feel it. I was from Georgia. I lived for summer days when it was hot and humid and my hair was wild. This was just one giant frozen hell. My hands were cracked. My joints ached. It’s like I aged forty years.

The thought of being stuck in the house with Josh forever was the only thing keeping me shoveling. I’d stay out here all day as long as it meant he’d be gone when his car unthawed and at the rate we were going, we’d be out here all night. No one was shoveling. Lucy and Max retreated to making snow angels and Mom and Henry were in the garage searching for a bag of salt. I wasn’t even sure where Josh was. Not that I cared. He could be buried under a pile of snow and it wouldn’t bother me.

Maybe I thought too soon. I mean, Josh suffocating under a heaping mound of snow was just too good to be true. When I felt the loud thwack against my head, I knew he was alive and well, at least for now. I was too paralyzed by the icy ball of frozen water melting into my hair and down the part of my neck my scarf left exposed to do anything.

I clenched my fists, my eyes pulled into a tight glare as I pivoted slightly. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Josh just smiled, the fur from his obnoxious trapper hat molded to his rosy cheeks. “You’re a bit uptight, Ellie. I’m trying to loosen you up. Some might say you need to get laid.”

“Some might say you got dropped on your fat head as a child.”

“Hey.” He replied defensively. “My head is not fat.”

I could feel my face growing red. Not because of the wind chill, but because of Josh’s sudden smug attitude. His balls must have dropped after Camille dumped him.

Instead of responding to him with words, I bent down and grabbed a fistful of snow. I molded it in my hands before throwing it at him square in the forehead.

He paused for a second—trying to grasp what I had just done—before he ran straight for me. His hands were firmly on my waist as we fell into a pile of snow

“I think we need to talk.” He smiled, his face just hovering over mine as he pinned me down.

“And you thought tackling me to the snow covered ground was the best way to get me to talk to you?” I spat, the snow quickly seeping into every inch of fabric I was wearing.

“Figured it was worth a shot.”

It was worth a shot. This kid was seriously something else. “It’s cold, Josh.” I eventually hissed as a shiver shook through me.

“It’s snow, Elliot.” He retorted. “That’s the point.”

I tried to pull my arms up, but he was holding them in place. “Get off of me.”

“Just let me—“

I cut him off, completely annoyed as I focused my attention on the grey sky above us. “I don’t want to hear it, Josh.” I spat, moving my vision back to him. “The fact that you even think I’m that type of girl is insulting.”

He scrunched his eyebrows. “Come again?”

“Just because your pathetic ass is on the rebound doesn’t mean—“

He tried to push himself up, but he failed miserably. “My pathetic arse? On the rebound? Excuse me?” His voice hit an octave I’ve never heard. “If I remember correctly—and I do—your lips were working plenty hard.”

I shook my head. “Yeah, to fight off your sloppy—“

“I am not sloppy.”

“You’re sloppy.” I glared at him. “It was like kissing a dog.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’d know all about kissing dogs.”

When I kneed him in the balls, he finally got the point and rolled off of me, cursing bloody murder as he curled into a fetal position.”

“Get some chapstick.” I called as I scrambled to my feet.

Lucy and Max were still making snow angels on the sidewalk, completely oblivious to the altercation Josh and I had gone through. It was better this way. I didn’t need Lucy putting her nose in this. She’d have a field day if she knew what Josh and I almost did last night.

“You’re a bloody crazy—”

I spun around, looking down at him. “Didn’t your mother teach you how to talk to women?”

“You’re not a woman.” He seethed. “You’re a fucking emotionally retarded robot.”

“I MADE HOT COCOA!” My mother’s shrill scream prevented me from lunging at Josh.

I wasn’t normally like this, but Josh seemed to bring out the worst in me. He knew exactly how to get under my skin—and apparently under my clothes—after knowing me all of two weeks.

I walked through the front door, lagging behind Max as my mother screamed for us to take our shoes off. I wasn’t even in the mood for hot cocoa. Honestly, I wasn’t in the mood for anything that required me to be in a room with Josh Franceschi.

“Ellie, your phone rang about five times.” Mom said as she handed Lucy a mug filled with tiny marshmallows. “I answered it because I thought something was wrong. It was Grant. He wants you to call him. He said it was important.”

“Shocker.” Josh mumbled, rolling his eyes to me for a second before focusing back on his drink.

I ignored him and grabbed my phone from the counter. “I’ll be right back.”

When I was back in the safety of my room, I contemplated calling Grant back. I knew I should, but I didn’t want to. At least not right now. After the morning I’ve had, I thought I deserved a little solitude.

I fell against my pillows, letting out a hefty sigh as I closed my eyes. I was so close to falling asleep when my phone went off. I didn’t bother opening my eyes, simply pressing the phone to my ear. “Hey, Grant.”