Whiskey and Cigarettes

Friday, December 24, 2010

Danny started sleeping over a lot more. Not that it wasn't uncommon for the boys to sleep over after partying, but he'd come over after being out with the guys until ten o'clock at night or recording until two in the morning. I had made room in my dresser and closet for some of his clothes, and his tooth brush sat in a blue cup right next to mine on my bathroom sink. When we were out together, we'd hold hands and occasionally kiss. He'd introduce me as his girlfriend sometimes and as his friend others. We never really discussed what we were, but whatever it was, it was mutual.

We spent the entire month of November together, granted we spent it with the rest of our friends as well. On Thanksgiving, everyone came over to our house, and Rex and I cooked dinner. It was interesting to say the least, since the boys never celebrated Thanksgiving. But the food was great, and it was the first time I ever spoke to Danny's mom on the phone. This was one of the times that Danny had introduced me as his girlfriend.

I had to have been on the phone with her for at least an hour, because she kept questioning about how I grew up, my morals, family matters, one after another. And then she ended it with, "Well, Bay, you seem like a lovely girl. Hopefully, you can straighten Danny up. He was just too much of a handful for me. Tell him I love him, but it's getting late."

December, the boys were busy practicing for an upcoming tour for their new album that they recorded at the end of the summer. During that month, I busied myself with buying Christmas gifts for everyone and decorations for the house. Lux hated Christmas, mostly because she hates her family, so she didn't help decorate, but she did shop with me occasionally. Rex, on the other hand, was exactly like me and wanted to help me with every little detail. However, when it came to her house, she did not want any help from anyone but James, which I thought was absolutely adorable.

"What did you get everyone for Christmas?" Rex asked, dropping balls of chocolate chip cookie dough on a cookie sheet.

"I can't even remember everything," I laughed. "I just bought a lot for everyone, and I made a few gifts for everyone, too."

"Oh, yeah, I bought a lot, too. Mostly for James though," she smiled the same dreamy smile she had whenever she mentioned his name or whenever he was around.

"You guys are so cute, it makes me sick," Lux said, walking into the kitchen. I just giggled, mixing the dough for the sugar cookies.

Rex and I made over four dozen cookies Christmas Eve; chocolate chip, sugar, peanut butter, fiesta fudge cookies, and rolled cookies. Eventually, Lux decided to join in on the baking, as well. We ordered pizza for dinner and ate around six. Quickly after, I retreated to my bedroom to get as many Christmas presents wrapped as I had left. Our Christmas tree in the living room was filled with stacks of presents that Lux and I had bought, presents that our families had sent, and presents that the others had bought and decided to leave at our house.

But I had did some extra Christmas shopping throughout the week, buying little things here and there for everyone. My favorite holiday had always been Christmas, and I just loved buying gifts for others that I knew the person would just love. I also crotchet hats and scarves for everyone, just so that they could have something I made as well. I honestly just could not understand how anyone could hate Christmas as long as they had someone to spend it with. And this year, I had someone I truly cared about to spend it with, which was exciting and scary all at the same time.

Danny walked through the front door as I finished stacking, well more like shoving, presents underneath the Christmas tree.

"Holy shit, you bought more?" He asked, walking over to wrap his arms around me.

"Yep," I smiled. "I just couldn't resist."

He shook his head, smiling, as he looked down at me. "You are just too much, you know? You really don't have to do this for any of us. We didn't even need one present, let alone a million."

I giggled at his exaggeration, leaning on my tippy toes to peck him on the lips.

"How was practice?" I asked once we were comfortably in our pajamas under my blankets.

"Awesome," he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me closer. By the strength of the smell of the alcohol on his breath, I assumed they drank as much as they played. "Night babe."

"Night." I laid in his arms most of the night, wishing I could fall asleep. But like every Christmas, the excitement kept me awake. I always thought that would eventually wear off as I got older, because it seems like such a childish thing, but it never did.

I thought about everything that was going to happen tomorrow. We were going to wait for everyone to come over before opening presents, which who knows when that would be, and Rex and I were going to make dinner and eat around five o'clock. And even though, it doesn't snow in LA, and I always thought a white Christmas was the best kind of Christmas, I just knew tomorrow would be perfect.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

I woke up to the smell of bacon and waffles coming from downstairs, and Swagg rubbing his body against my face. I picked the furry kitten up in my arms before walking down the steps to see Danny setting three plates of bacon, eggs, and waffles on the table.

"Morning," he greeted me once he noticed me standing in the doorway.

I smiled, rubbing my eyes. "Good morning."

"Oh my God, Bay. I'm so glad you keep him around." I laughed as Lux bounced in her chair at the table, waiting to dig into her plate.

"Come eat," Danny demanded, pulling out the chair in front of waffles topped with blueberry syrup, which I was amazed that he knew that blueberry was my favorite kind of syrup.

"What time is it?" I asked, sitting down where he instructed and quickly dug into my breakfast.

"It's almost noon," he replied, digging into his food as well.

I could feel my eyes bulge out of my sockets as I stared at him in surprise. "Oh my God, I need to start cooking." I made no hint at moving as I continued to shove my face with the delicious goodness Danny had served. "This is fucking delicious, Danny."

"I know," Lux moaned, which earned a giggle out of Danny and I. "By the way, Rex called about a half hour ago and said they were on their way so they should be here any minute."

"Okay," I nodded. "What about Ben, Sam, and Cameron?"

"Cameron mentioned last night that he'd probably be here around noon, so any minute for him, too. Nothing from Ben or Sam, though," Danny replied.

I nodded, finishing off my plate and washing it down with a rather large glass of milk. I put the dishes in the dish washer when everyone was finished and shooed the other two out of the room so I could start cooking. Lux went up to her room to shower and get dressed. Danny took a seat on the couch and flipped through channels on the television until he found something he wanted to watch, which happened to be cartoons.

I pulled my hair back into a pony tail and quickly got to work on the meal Rex and I had planned out for today. James and Rex showed up not too long after we finished eating. Rex took over in the kitchen for me while I ran up to my room to shower and throw on a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and my favorite ugly Christmas sweater that I've been wearing every year since I was 16. I only wore it once a year so it still looked brand new. It was red with green Christmas trees all over it connected with what looked like white garland.

Hayden had bought it for me that Christmas. After I had unwrapped it, he quickly pulled on a matching one. For a second when I stared in the mirror, I thought about taking it off, because the memories still hurt. But then I realized that where ever Hayden was, he would want me to wear it and if I didn't, he'd probably haunt me all day until I put it on. "Alright Hayden, I'll wear it for you," I spoke to myself. "I love you."

When I walked back downstairs, Cameron was now sitting with James and Danny in the living room. I joined Rex in the kitchen once again and saw Lux sitting at the table peeling potatoes. We wouldn't actually ever let Lux cook, because she didn't even know how to make scrambled eggs. She was a terrible cook.

"Have we heard from Ben or Sam yet?" I asked, specifically Lux because her and Sam were close, slowly getting closer.

"Nope," Lux replied. "They're probably still sleeping."

"Probably. I want to open presents," I whined, mostly to see everyone else open their presents, but I was excited to see what everyone got me as well.

"You're so inpatient on Christmas," Rex giggled.

We got a lot of the side dishes done and in the fridge pretty quickly. I let Rex handle the ham, because I didn't like touching raw meat, and I also didn't eat much meat, anyway. But the ham was taking the longest and once it was done, we were going to throw a couple pies in the oven that I had already put together and were sitting on the counter.

Ben and Sam finally showed up around two in the afternoon with white specks all over their clothes that resembled some sort of snow.

"Where have you guys been all morning?" I jokingly scolded.

"Well, we were on a mission, my friend," Sam giggled, brushing the white specks off his jacket.

"What kind of mission?" Rex smiled with a knowing look in her eye.

"Well, Sam and I weren't sure what to get Bay for Christmas," Ben started to explain. I gave him a funny look, not sure where this was going. "Danny had suggested something that we weren't quite sure how to accomplish, but I think we did."

"We know you really wanted a white Christmas, and I'm sorry that it didn't come true," Sam grabbed my arm gently, pulling me to the door. "But we got you what we think may be second best."

He opened the door to expose the whitest snow I had ever seen. It covered our entire yard, including the oak tree and the bushes that lined in front of our house. I stepped onto the porch to see it all over our roof as well, and I could only assume it was in the back yard. But it was only in our yard. Our neighbors didn't have any, and a few came out to look at our yard in amazement.

"How...?" It was taking me some time to form words about this wonderful Christmas present.

"We rented an ice chipper thingy," Sam replied.

"No!" Ben cried. "You were supposed to tell her we're magic."

I giggled as I pulled them into a tight hug, "this is such an awesome gift, my friends. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome," they both smiled, and Rex started pushing everyone back inside.

"To the presents!" She yelled and everyone quickly took a seat on the couches or floor. James and Rex took their seat in their favorite recliner. I laid my head in Danny's lap on the loveseat, draping my feet over the arm of the chair. Lux sat Indian style between Cameron and Sam on the couch. Ben was the only one on the floor, which made him distributor of presents.

By the end of it, which the whole process almost took an hour, there was wrapping paper everywhere and stacks of presents next to each person. I spent the most on Lux and Rex since they had been my best friends for what felt like ever. I bought Lux the Keurig coffee maker she had been drooling over since the beginning of the month, a legit feather and ink pen, a few artistic things, such as acrylic pencils, colored sharpies, some paints, and other things she'd enjoy, and a new outfit for her to strip in. She loved each and every present, telling me every time she opened a new one, "Oh my God, Bay you are the best. This is the best present yet."

Rex received a cute green monster stuff animal to add to her collection of weird things, a cocktail dress to wear to parties now that she was starting up her modeling career and a pair of high heels to match, and a blank check for the tattoo she had been saying she wanted recently.

I bought all the boys a couple shirts and boxers that I thought each of them would like. Sam also got a new headset and controller for his Xbox, because the ones he had were falling apart. I bought Cameron a few games that had come out in November that he hadn't had a chance to buy yet, and Ben a heated blanket so he'd stop complaining about our house being too cold.

Danny also received shirts and boxers like the other boys, but I had an extra gift for him that I did not wrap up. He looked at me expecting more, but there was a hint of disappointment on his face.

I smiled and pressed my lips against his pouting ones. "You have one more present, but I want to give it to you later."

Everyone loved the hats and scarves I had crotchet in their favorite colors, too. I didn't give them gloves, because I was still working on learning how to crotchet those.

Other than snow, I received perfume and a set of books from Cameron, I assumed Rex or Lux had told him what I liked, a pair of high heels and a sleek, silver watch from James and Rex, and Justin Timberlake's 901 Silver tequila from Lux.

"Oh my God, you know your way to my heart," I swooned, hugging the bottle of tequila. Everyone giggled and started thanking each other for their gifts and messing around with them. Danny took my hand in his and started pulling me up to my room, and that's when I realized he hadn't given me a gift yet.

"So what did you get me?" I asked, sitting on my bed. He smiled and sat next to me, pulling a box out of his jacket. I started to panic when he put his hand in his pocket, thinking he was going to pull out a ring, but I realized the box was much bigger. It was tightly wrapped in blue Christmas paper with snow flakes and snowmen all over it.

"Open it," he urged as I examined it.

"Fine, fine." I peeled the paper away from the box neatly, exposing a white box. Inside was a beautiful necklace adorned with one diamond jewel. "Oh my... It's beautiful."

He smiled and said the corniest thing anyone could imagine. "Just like you."

I suppressed my urge to giggle and grinned at him, pushing it into his hands to put it on me. "Thank you so much." I sat there for a few minutes, admiring the cool feeling it had on my neck.

"Now, what about my present?" he asked, giving me a sick, lost puppy look.

I smiled, pushing him out of the room. "Just give me one minute, okay?"

He nodded, standing outside my door obediently as I closed it. I quickly ripped off my jeans, sweater, and bra, standing in front of my closet in only my black lace panties. I pulled a brand new leather jacket out of the closet that I had bought him for Christmas. His was so old and smelled like ball sweat. I had been wearing it around the house when he wasn't around, though, so that it was broken in and didn't feel quite brand new.

I crawled on my bed, positioning myself on my knees with my hands holding onto each side of my zipper. The jacket was opened enough to expose that I wasn't wearing anything else underneath, but closed enough to not give away too much.

I took a few deep breaths before deciding I was officially ready.

"Okay, you can come in!"

He opened the door and just stood there with his mouth open for a few minutes. "Fuck..." He finally managed to slip out, and I giggled a little, nodding my head.

Within seconds of him gaining his composure, he had me laying on my back with his mouth against mine and his hands roaming everywhere.