Chapter Eleven
A fire crackled in the fireplace of a small house in Millington, Tennessee as two women sat before it, silently sipping eggnog and downing the occasional Christmas cookie or two. “What’re you thinking about?” Katie Jacques finally broke the silence, looking pointedly at her daughter, who was promptly finishing off one of said Christmas cookies.
“I’m thinking about the fact that I am a damn good cook,” Rachael replied, having been the one who made the cookies.
“Language,” her mother warned, although the chuckle that accompanied the warning made it slightly less effective.
“Sorry. It’s Justin’s fault. He and his potty mouth have been rubbing off on me for years now,” she said almost reflexively. Her life’s motto had always been: “When in doubt, blame it on Justin.”
Katie nodded. “Any clue when he’ll be getting here?”
“Nope, none at all. I got an e-mail from him, but he didn’t seem to have any idea when the plane would finally be taking off,” Rachael informed her mother, a slight frown passing across her face.
“That’s too bad. Lynn was very disappointed when he called.”
Rachael nodded. “Yeah, poor Lynn,” she agreed, though she was feeling a bit selfish and sorry for herself at the moment. She’d been really looking forward to seeing Justin, and she knew that if she didn’t see him tonight, there was no seeing him until the show.
Her mother smiled knowingly. “And poor you.”
Rachael shrugged and made a little “pfft, whatever” kind of noise. “Nah, I’m fine. I’m used to never seeing the loser by now. It doesn’t bother me one whit.”
“It’s never a good idea to lie to your mother, Rachael Ailish, you know that.”
“I’m not lying!”
“Yes, you are, dear. Nothing wrong with missing your soul mate.”
“My soul mate? Oh, for the love of God, woman, don’t you start this stuff on me. I thought the entire world had moved on from there already!” Rachael groaned, pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face in them.
Katie laughed. “I’m only joking, sweetie, calm down.”
“It isn’t funny,” the muffled response came, sounding uncannily as it had when Rachael was around 9-years-old.
Her mother looked at her thoughtfully and decided it was best to just apologize and refrain from commenting any more. “I’m sorry,” she stated simply, rubbing her daughter’s back as Rachael turned her head to look at her.
“It’s fine,” she dismissed nonchalantly. Then, after a few seconds of silence, “Mom, can we watch ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas?’”
Katie couldn’t help smiling, as this was the sort of question she’d missed hearing from her daughter. The sort of question that was characterized by an obvious desire to find joy in the little things they did together. Like watching sentimental Christmas specials, for instance. “Sure, sweetie.”
***
Rachael rolled her deep brown eyes as the crystal blue ones stared pleadingly at her. “No,” she stated, in annoyance. The aforementioned blue eyes continued to try and work their magic on her. “God, Timberlake, what part of ‘no,’ don’t you understand?”
“Please, Rach? Pretty please?” Justin replied, a small pout forming on his lips.
“Pretty please? Are you kidding me? What 16-year-old boy says ‘pretty please?’”
“Me. Just one game of pool. Just one.”
“Why? So you can prove you can beat me? Forget it, Justini Wienie, I beat you last time, and the time before that, and the time before that…” her voice trailed off as she grinned at him annoyingly and leaned back on the couch. “Besides, you’re leaving tomorrow, no? We’re here, alone in my house, and my mother won’t be back for at least another hour and a half. We should make good use of this situation. Get into some mischief.”
Justin raised an eyebrow. “Is it just me, or did that just sound like you were hitting on me?”
Rachael feigned. “It’s just you and please don’t ever say anything like that again. And why in God’s name are you looking at me like I just turned into Donald Trump?”
“Who’s Donald Trump?”
“Never mind.”
“Rach, do you ever just know things? Like, out of no where?”
“You mean like that time I could recite pi to the, like, 20th decimal?”
Justin snorted, seeming to have come out of the daze he’d just fallen into. “That was freaky.”
“I know!” She was about to comment on the fact that she was a total genius, but that was before she realized he was giving her that look again. This look that made her feel like she was someone else and he didn’t recognize her. “What?!” she exclaimed, her voice echoing the exasperation she felt.
“Nothing,” her best friend replied softly, but the way he then proceeded to lean in and press his lips softly against hers suggested it was anything but nothing.
“Ugh, shut up,” Rachael mumbled, rolling over and feeling around her nightstand trying to find her cell phone, which was ringing annoyingly. Opening her eyes would probably help, but at the moment that was in no way sounding like an appealing idea. She finally found the phone and pressed what she hoped was the talk button as she brought it to her ear. “What?” she questioned the caller grumpily.
“Hey, it’s me!” Justin’s far too cheery voice greeted her.
“I was just dreaming about you,” Rachael mumbled, more to herself than to him.
“Oh yeah? What about me?”
She finally opened her eyes and sat up slightly as she remembered what she had been dreaming, or more accurately remembering, about him and realized that it probably hadn’t been a good idea to vocalize the fact that she’d been having said dream. “Nothing. There were, uh, cows and stuff. So, what do you want? It’s…2 in the morning,” she observed, eyeing her alarm clock.
“I wanted to say ‘Merry Christmas’ and tell you to look out your window.”
“Justin, if this is one of those movie-type things where the guys all ‘look out the window’ and the girl does it and he’s standing out there grinning like a fool…please know that will in no way supplant the fact that you woke me up at 2 in the freaking morning. And besides, those sorts of scenarios only work when the girl is in love with the guy, and I think we both know that is not the case here.” Shouldn’t have said that she scolded herself mentally as she was greeted by silence on the other end. She started to say she was sorry, but Justin cut her off, obviously not wanting to appear hurt by that statement.
“I’m not outside your window. But look anyway.”
“Why?”
“Come on, just look! Stop being so difficult.”
“Fine, I’ll look,” she acquiesced, as she stood and slipped her feet into the slippers by her bed. “But this better be good. Oh my god!” she exclaimed suddenly as she looked out the window and saw her front yard covered in snow, and the white stuff still falling from the sky. It never snowed in Millington. Ever.
“It’s snowing!” Justin exclaimed on the other end.
“No shit, Einstein,” Rachael replied, though her tone didn’t sound quite as derisive as the words implied. “I knew it was colder than usual, but I didn’t expect this. I guess that’s what I get for ignoring the weather man and his ugly toupee.”
“Okay, so now that you’re awake and happy-“
“Not happy, pleasantly surprised.”
“Fine, pleasantly surprised. Now that you’re awake and pleasantly surprised, will you do me another favor?” Justin prompted slowly.
Rachael sighed, sitting back down on her bed. “Probably not.”
“It’s Christmas and you’re probably never going to see me again for the next week,” her friend reminded her, hoping to make her feel slightly guilty before informing her of his request.
“Boohoo. What do you want?” she replied, pretending she wasn’t going to say “yes,” to whatever it was. She knew she would, but he didn’t need to know that quite yet.
“Meet me at the schoolyard.” It came out sounding more like a demand than a request and he added a quick “please” for good measure.
“Are you kidding me? It’s cold and late, or early as the case may be, and I want to stay in my warm house and sleep.”
“Come on, Rach. You know you want to,” he grinned. Or at least she assumed he was grinning. She couldn’t see him, but the tone of his voice suggested that he was smiling the way he always did when he knew he was about to get his way.
“Yeah, okay, but only because it’s snowing. Not because I like you or anything.”
“No, no, of course not. See you in a few minutes.”
“Sure thing, dork.”
***
“So, why am I here exactly?” Rachael questioned, trudging through what little snow had accumulated on the ground and looking at Justin skeptically. He was sitting on a swing, grinning at her in a manner that couldn’t possibly be good. It was too evil. Like he was about to do something only she would do. He shrugged.
“It’s Christmas Eve-“ he began.
“Christmas Day, technically,” she interrupted.
“Okay, it’s Christmas Day and I wanted to see you. Plus, hey, snow!” he added, gesturing to the white stuff on the ground.
“Mmm. Okay, works for me,” she responding, shrugging her shoulders.
“Plus, I realized,” Justin began again, standing up slowly and kneeling down to gather some snow into his hands. “That I have never thrown a snowball at you.” Before Rachael had a chance to react, he’d stood back up and chucked the snowball at her, hitting her smack in the chest.
“Oh, you are so dead!” she exclaimed, quickly forming her own snowball and chasing Justin, who had already taken off running. This quickly developed in a full-fledged snowball fight, with both participants fighting rather ruthlessly as was to be expected of them. It didn’t end until they were both soaking wet and Justin tackled Rachael, shoving snow in her face and hair and cackling manically.
“Okay! Okay, okay, okay!” Rachael exclaimed, flailing her arms about wildyy in an attempt to get him to stop. “Stop!”
Her counterpart complied. “Yes?” he asked in amusement.
“I’m cold. You’re cold. Let’s make a truce and be done with it,” Rachael suggested, a bit out of breath.
Justin raised an eyebrow. “Surrendering, are we?”
“No! Not surrendering, just reaching an agreement,” she replied, nodding fervently.
“Okay, fine. Truce.”
“Good,” Rachael squirmed slightly, suddenly becoming painfully aware of the fact that he was still lying on top of her. “Hey, you know what I’d really like?”
“What’s that?” Justin replied, noticing her obvious discomfort and sliding off of her nonchalantly.
“I’d like to build a snowman. I’ve never built a snowman.”
Justin grinned. “Then we shall build a snowman!” he exclaimed, beginning to gather snow with his long arms.
“Ahhh, you’re so good to me,” Rachael joked, joining him.
“I know, I know.” He winked at her and Rachael just smiled back, feeling warmer than she ought to, what with her clothes being soaked and all.
“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” Justin began singing as they worked.
“Jack frost nipping at your nose,” Rachael added softly.
“Yuletide carols being sung by a choir.”
“And folks dressed up like Eskimos.”
They went back and forth like this, each singing one line, until the end of the song, which conveniently was about the same time they finished their small snowman.
“Merry Christmas to you,” Justin sang quietly, sitting back to look at their masterpiece and grinning at Rachael. “We rock.”
She nodded. “Yes we do,” she agreed with a laugh. “And I still can’t believe it snowed.”
“Neither can I,” Justin agreed. The both looked out quietly over the still schoolyard sparkling in the moonlight.
“It’s almost magical, isn’t it?” Rachael observed, glancing at her friend. He looked at her, causing her to return her gaze to him.
“It is,” he agreed, reaching out to move a strand of hair that was hanging in her face. His hand lingered on the skin of her cheek long after the hair was gone and Rachael took a deep breath. This was all too familiar. Why did he have to do this to her? Why did he have to look at her like that and touch her like that and just confuse her? And why, why, why in God’s name was his face inching closer to hers? And more importantly, what was she going to do when it got there?
“Please don’t do this to me,” she whispered, only realizing at the last moment that she was saying the words out loud and not just in her head.
“Do what?” Justin replied, dropping his hand but keeping his eyes fixed on hers and his face in close proximity to her own.
“Um…uh, n-nothing,” she stuttered, breaking his gaze and scooting away in a desperate attempt to put some space between them so she could think. “I-I, I’m…um…tired. And I need to go home. Yeah, back home. Mom might wake up and, you know, worry.” She stood up quickly, turning and heading away from him at an unnatural speed. “Bye, Justin! Merry Christmas!” she called back to him, without even bothering to turn around.
“Bye!” he returned weakly, silently cursing himself for being such an idiot. Again.
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