Tis the Season

With her arms wrapped around her body, Kendall walked alongside Liam, as they headed to Chase’s flat. The sidewalk was littered with snow, but Kendall’s black boots stopped her from slipping. Liam, on the other hand, was wearing an old pair of converse, and he stumbled every few blocks.

“I can’t believe I agreed to go to this.” Liam laughed, shaking his head. “You know how long it’s been since I’ve been to a party?”

“Years?”

“Years.” Liam shoved his hands in his pockets. He looked over at Kendall, who had a large grin on her face. His eyes met hers, as she rolled them.

Letting out a small laugh, Kendall spoke. “Oh, be quiet. You’re gonna have a blast.”

When Kendall finished speaking, the pair’s attention moved towards a shouting near Chase’s apartment. A pretty blonde stood outside an old car, while the boy inside yelled at her.

Liam turned to Kendall, concern on his face. “Do you think she needs help?”

The girl slammed her hand against the hood of the car, preventing the boy from driving away.

“Looks like she’s got things under control.” Kendall bit her lip and moved her attention towards Liam before the girl could see her staring.

Rolling his eyes, Liam glared at Kendall. “I’ll bet anything they came from this party you’re so excited to go to.”

“Do you have any better ideas?” Kendall threw her hands on her hips, letting out a small laugh. When she stopped walking, Liam looked back at her. Her eyes were raised up, a look she always gave when she was challenging him.

Liam smirked, taking a step closer to her. “Actually, I do.”

Taking Kendall’s wrist, Liam pulled her the three blocks back to her apartment. He stumbled twice as many times as she did, even though she was the one being tugged. By the time they made it back to her building, parts of Liam’s pants were wet with snow.

With his hand still wrapped around her wrist, he dragged her up the stairs and into her warm apartment. The heat hit them immediately, sending chills through Liam’s body.

“What are we doing?” Kendall asked, giggling as she spoke.

Liam pulled off his coat and tossed it onto the sofa, while Kendall did the same.

“Christmas is in a few days, right?” Kendall nodded. “And you’ll be at your parents, right?” She nodded again. “So, why don’t you and I just exchange gifts now?”

Biting her lip, Kendall looked over at Liam. Her lips turned in a smile, and she nodded her head. With her hands at her sides, he moved towards her small white tree, grabbing Liam’s present from it. He had placed his present to her under the tree a few days before, so he grabbed it from the spot.

Kendall had wrapped Liam’s present in bright silver paper, with a black bow on top, while Liam had wrapped hers in green trimmed paper. He had tried his best when wrapping her gift, but it didn’t look near as nice as her present to him.

“I hope you like yours,” Kendall said, passing Liam the box. “I had a really hard time picking something out.”

Laughing, Liam passed Kendall her gift. “My mum always says the same thing. Apparently I’m hard to shop for.”

With presents in hand, the two sat down on Kendall’s plush sofa. Kendall threw her legs onto the cushion, crossing them in front of her, so she could face Liam. He kept his feet on the ground, but swiveled towards her.

“On the count of three?” Kendall asked. Liam nodded, giving her a large grin.

“One.”

Liam placed his hands on the bow.

“Two.”

Kendall gripped the edges of the paper, where the bits of tape met up.

“Three.”

The two ripped the paper from the gifts, shredding it until it was unrecognizable. Liam had his opened first, and Kendall had hers opened just a few seconds later.

Even though Liam had his present sitting in his lap, his eyes were focused only on Kendall. Her eyes were lit up, as she stared at the small black box in front of her. She moved her gaze to Liam’s face, shaking her head back and forth.

“You spent too much,” Kendall said, passing the black box back to him.

With a smirk on his face, he pushed the box back towards her. “You haven’t even opened it yet.”

Kendall pulled the box back to her lap, and looked back and forth between Liam and her present. Taking a deep breath, she lifted the top from the box. Her eyes were met with a bright silver chain, with a small locket hanging from it.

Pulling the necklace from the box, she held it in the air. The light bounced off the silver, brightening her eyes. Liam’s grin widened, as he watched her admire his gift.

“It’s perfect, Li.”

Her face lit up with her smile, as she gripped the necklace tightly in her hand. She leaned forward quickly, pushing herself against Liam. Her arms wrapped around his neck, while his squeezed tightly around her waist. He wished he could hold her like that forever.

When she pulled away, Liam flashed her a smile. With his eyebrow raised, Liam spoke. “Do you wanna put it on?”

Kendall nodded, as she stood up and faced away from Liam. She passed him back the necklace, while he pushed her hair to the side. His fingers grazed the back of her neck, sending warm chills throughout her body.

With one end of the necklace in each hand, Liam wrapped his arms around her body, pulling the chain up to her neck. The clasp was small, just barely big enough to see. Liam moved his face closer to it, in order to loop it. His breath rolled onto her neck while he concentrated, causing another set of chills to run through Kendall’s body.

“There, I got it,” Liam said, when he finally clipped the necklace together.

Turning around, Kendall smiled at him. “Thank you. It’s perfect.”

Kendall wrapped her arms back around Liam’s neck. Her head pressed into his shoulder, while his arms wrapped around her waist. With every breath he took, Liam felt Kendall’s body shudder beneath him. Her soft scent filled his nose, and he knew he’d have to force himself to pull away from her soon, before he could get too caught up in her.

As if on cue, Kendall’s phone began to vibrate in her pocket, pulling her attention away from Liam. She answered it quickly, with a smile on her face as she did so. When she hung up, she turned to Liam.

“It’s Nadine,” she said. “Her plane just landed, and she wants me to go pick her up.”

“I can take you, if you’d like? I don’t mind.” Liam smiled at her brightly, showing that he did, in fact, not mind.

It was a long drive to the airport, and it was nearly midnight. Kendall would appreciate the company, and she was sure to get lost without Liam, anyway.

Nodding her head, Kendall pulled on her coat, while Liam did the same. The two headed out of the apartment the same as they had entered it, but were one necklace heavier than before.



Liam had one hand gripped tightly on the door handle, while the other was wrapped around his seatbelt. His body was pressed firmly against the seat, not for comfort, but out of fear. Kendall was an awful driver, and Liam didn’t know why he’d agreed to let her drive his car in the first place.

When they pulled up to the pick-up zone of the large airport, Kendall spotted Nadine immediately. The blonde girl stood on the sidewalk, a suitcase in one hand and her phone in the other. Kendall stuck her head out the window, and yelled the blonde girl’s name, until she caught her attention.

As the girl approached, Liam hopped out of the car, and pulled the large suitcase from the girl’s hand, before tossing it in the trunk for her.

“Thank you,” Nadine said, smiling at him.

“You’re welcome.” He smiled back, before hopping in the back seat, so the girls could sit next to each other.

Kendall pulled quickly away from the curb, just barely looking over her shoulder to check for oncoming traffic. A pick-up truck honked its horn at them, but Kendall ignored the noise.

Still facing forward, Kendall spoke. “How was your flight?”

“Oh, it was quite a laugh.” Nadine shook her head, as she giggled. “Had an Irish boy next to me, sang Michael Buble the whole time. He had a nice voice, but I don’t think he realized he was singing so loud.”

“Sounds charming.” Kendall laughed, rolling her eyes slightly.

The group had made it halfway to Nadine’s flat, on the other side of town, before the blonde girl turned to Kendall, with a large grin on her face.

“Who’s your handsome friend back there?”

Kendall pursed her lips. “That’s Liam. I’ve told you about him a thousand times.”

“You never told me how gorgeous he was.”

Before Kendall could respond, Liam let out a laugh from the backseat. “I can hear you.”

“Great,” Nadine said, as she raised her eyebrows. “Then you’ll know about our double date on Wednesday, and you’re going to bring a date for Kendall.”

As soon as the girl’s words hit her ears, Kendall’s stomach dropped. Of course, Nadine wanted to be set up with Liam. He was, as she had said, gorgeous. Kendall supposed she shouldn’t have expected anything less from Nadine, but that didn’t make the feeling anymore fleeting.

As much as she hated to do it, Kendall could tolerate seeing Liam date other girls; she didn’t have a choice. Actually being on one of those dates with him, watching him charm the pants off her beautiful, blonde friend, was going to be harder than winning an Olympic medal.

Kendall could only hope that this double date wouldn’t lead to Liam and Nadine’s marriage, and with any luck, whichever friend Liam brought would be handsome enough to keep her mind off the fear that she would lose Liam to the girl.