Merry Christmas, I Could Care Less

"Yeh won' make it ring by starin' at it, mate."

I looked up from staring down at my phone with a scowl. "Who said I wanted it ta ring, aye?"

Tommy rolled his eyes as he sat next to me. "'ve been yeh best mate for 'ow long? I know when yeh're waitin' for a bird to call yeh or summat, and this is no different. 'ow long's it been?"

I grunted and told him I didn't know what he was going on about.

"Come off it, Nicholls. 'ow long's it been since yeh talked to Kinley?"

"Dunno," I muttered, which, sadly was the truth. Even sadder was how much I cared.

McKinley had a way of doing that to me though, and she always had. Ever since the first day I had met Kinley and had the pleasure of experiencing her "everyone fuck off" attitude, I knew she was trouble. But she was also nothing like any of the other lasses I had ever had the pleasure of getting to know -- in more ways than one -- and I guess that was the reason I was so stuck on her.

The bird was more trouble than she was worth, but I couldn't stay away. She was fucking addictive, that was for sure.

I looked over at Tom, who was shaking his head. "Yeh need ta get ova tha' bird right quick, Matt. And I mean, like, now."

I just rolled my eyes and shut my phone off, holding it up for Tommy to see the blank screen. "There, betta? Phone's off, 'm not waitin' for it ta ring. 'appeh?"

Tommy gave me a cheeky grin and nodded before patting my shoulder. "Aye, I am. Now cheer up 'cause we're 'bout ta get on the plane that'll take us 'ome, where mass amounts of alcohol and weed awaits."

***

I knew I shouldn’t have gone to Kinley’s flat before I even got there. I knew it as I walked out of my own flat, I knew it as I got in my car, and I definitely knew it when I was walking through her building to her flat.

When I knocked and she didn’t answer but her best friend and roommate Quinn did, I almost punched the wall next to me. Quinn smirked at me like she knew something I didn’t. “’ello Matty.”

I sighed. “Kinley around, Quinn?”

She shook her head. “Yeh knew tha’ before yeh even got ‘ere though, didn’ yeh Matty? Yeh may ‘ave lost some brain cells to the weed yeh smoke, but not tha’ many, I’m sure.”

“Spare meh, Quinn, I don’ need ta hear it.” I said no more as I turned on my heel and walked down the hall to leave.

At that point, I’m not sure what was worse: my acting like a love-sick puppy, or the fact that everyone pitied me for doing so.

Regardless, I didn’t want to find out.

When I got back to the flat, the smell of weed being smoked was so powerful; it hit me like a ton of bricks as soon as I walked through the door. But it was also the most comforting smell I had smelled in a long time.

Another thing about Kinley was her reckless attitude and her “I don’t care about anyone” demeanor. I had never met a bird that got me down as much as good old Kinley did. That being said, I wasn’t walking around like a depressed wanker with no life, I just had a tendency to hit the ganja extra hard whenever Kinley did something particularly irritating.

As I collapsed on the couch next to Tommy, he handed over a perfectly rolled blunt; it was like he was waiting for me.

“Yeh get rejected again?” he said lazily, but his cheeky grin made me want to punch him.

“Fuck off,” was all I said as I lit up the blunt and inhaled the smoke.

We were quiet for a few minutes, just passing the blunt back and forth while Tom played some video game, at first by himself but then Oli joined us and grabbed a controller to play too. After one particularly brutal game where Oli got his ass handed to him, he set the controller down and looked at me, or rather at the blunt in my mouth. “Kinley reject yeh again?” he smirked.

“Oh fuck off, all of yeh.” I contemplated moving to my room, but I didn’t feel like leaving the couch, especially now that the blunt was starting to relax me. At least now I wasn’t thinking about Kinley and how much I wanted to hate her, because right then, oh how I wanted to hate her. But I just couldn’t.

Oli climbed onto the couch to sit next to me and stole the blunt from my mouth. He stopped smoking a while back because it really fucked with his vocals, but every now and then he would smoke with us. When he finished inhaling, he passed the blunt back to me. “Yeh need ta get ova the bird, mate. She jus’ messes wiff yehr head.”

“I know,” I agreed. It was no secret that Kinley was screwing with me; I wasn’t an idiot. But that didn’t mean shit in my mind. She could screw with me all she wanted as long as she still wanted me at the end of the day.

Both Tom and Oli were looking at me funny. “Wha’?”

“Yeh know?” Tom practically squeaked out, making me smirk.

“Puberty hittin’ a little late, Tommy?” He shoved me and I laughed. Then I got serious and nodded. “Aye, I know she’s screwin’ wiff meh, but I can’ ‘elp it yeah? So can we drop it?”

Both of the Sykes brothers were quiet, so I took that as a sign that the subject was dropped, at least for now. I knew it wouldn’t be long before they started interrogating me some more, but for now at least I was safe.

***

“Yeh promise not ta mope around tonigh’ Nicholls?” Tommy questioned me as we made our way up the walkway of the house where the party was at.

I rolled my eyes. “Fuck off, Tommy.”

For some reason he and the rest of the band were on my case more than usual about McKinley. The worst part is I hadn’t even seen her yet and they were bitching, so I knew once I saw her tonight they would be on my case even more.

Once inside, Tom ditched me to go find some weed because apparently someone owed him. I shrugged it off and went to find two things: a drink and McKinley. The former was much easier to get a hold of than the latter, though I guess I was expecting that. I wasn’t even positive Kinley would be at the party, but I was hoping.

When I finally laid my eyes on her, I smiled almost instantly. She had that effect on me, unfortunately. I made my way over to her, determined to sneak up on her. “I know 's not Christmas, but Santa's lap is always ready,” I whispered in her ear.

She around, my name rolling off of her tongue as easily as it had the last time I had seen her. She commented on the length of my hair and ran her fingers through it; I would have fucked her right there in the living room if she would have let me. I wasn’t desperate, but I swore she had gotten more fit since I had last seen her.

She eventually asked me when we had gotten back, which if I wanted to be a pussy I would say it stung a little that she didn’t remember any part of my schedule. "Las' night. I went over to yeh're flat but yeh weren't 'ome."

“I was out,” she informed me, her tone cold, before she excused herself and walked away.

The bird was always walking away.

Before I could stop her, someone was jumping on my back and shoving a bag of weed in my face. “Get off, yeh mental case!” I exclaimed, shoving the unknown offender off of my back. When I realized it was Tommy, I smiled. “Wanna smoke a blunt?” he asked, smiling like a three year old on Christmas morning.

I laughed and nodded. I looked in the direction Kinley had gone off in, but when I couldn’t find her I told Tom I’d be right back.

I checked the whole house before going outside, which was mental. Kinley always went outside, usually to smoke. So when I stepped out into the blistering cold, I wasn’t surprised at all to find her standing there, a cigarette dangling from her lips. I watched as she dropped the cig to the ground and stepped on it, turning her foot to put it out. She shivered, and it snapped me back to reality, and the fact that I was lurking rather hard right then.

“Aren’t yeh cold?” I asked her stupidly. I knew she was cold, but I felt that was the best way to make myself known.

“Of course I am.”

I rolled my eyes at her cold tone and walked forwards. “Tom an' I were wonderin' if yeh wanna smoke wiff us. 'e just rolled a pretteh nice blunt,” I informed her with a smile. I knew she wouldn’t say no; she never said no.

"If I knew any better I'd say yeh were tryin' ta get me inta yeh're bed,” she told me, getting closer before placing her tiny hand ony my chest and casually sliding it down my stomach.

She’s good, I thought to myself. She knew me too well.

"Fhink of it as an early Christmas present," I informed her, trying to rid the sudden nerves that were screwing with me. I watched as the wind blew her hair wildly and smiled, the nerves going away in a matter of seconds. I tucked some of the hair behind her ears and cupped her face with my hands. Every nerve in my body was screaming out in frustration; I just wanted to kiss her. It had been so long since I had touched her, kissed her, been this close to her.

As if she knew this, she said, “'ow long since yeh kissed me Matty?”

“Quite a while,” I said softly.

"Mmm, yeh kinda missed it, yeah?"

“Yeah,” I replied. We were both so close, so close that if I just leaned in a little more we would be kissing.

But then Tom had to burst through the door and ruin the moment, yelling about the blunt we needed to smoke, and Kinley was jumping out of her skin practically which caused her head to collide with my nose. I wanted to scream out in pain as I clutched my nose, trying not to get blood all over the place.

Kinley instructed Tom to go get the blunt and a washcloth for the blood. “This would only ‘appen ta us.”

I laughed and nodded in agreement. “Yeh’re not gonna kiss me now?” I asked, pouting like a three year old.

She looked at me in disgust. “Yeh have blood all ova yeh!”

"Yeh kinda owe me. Fhink of it as an apology fer nearly breakin' me nose,” I informed her with a smirk.

I wasn’t really expecting a kiss, but before I knew what was happening, Kinley was getting closer and placing a small kiss on my lips.

“Maybe when yeh aren't bleedin' everywhere you'll get some more,” she told me, and I just smirked.

Because even though she had given me the cold shoulder inside, now that we were back on track so to speak, we both knew what she said was true: there was much more to come.