“Wake up sleepy heads!” We wake up to Sasha and Nathan leaning over us. I quickly sit up on the side of the bed so my feet are hanging off the edge. “Sis, what has been seen cannot be unseen. So if you want to stay in bed with your new boyfriend, be my guest.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I say. I see a look of hurt flash across Sam’s face.
“Sam might have a different opinion,” his brother states. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Chloe, you and your family will be staying the night as will my family. There’s a massive storm and, according to the weather channel, we’re not supposed to drive anywhere,” Nathan says cheerily as he looks from Sam to myself. I suppose he is scanning our faces for our reactions to the news. “And the New Year countdown will begin soon. You know what happens at midnight, right?” He winks at Sam. I check my watch, 11:55. We’ve been sleeping for just less than an hour. “We’ll just leave and let you two decide on what you want to do.” My sister and Sam’s brother leave. “What do you want to do?” Sam asks me.
“Let’s go for the countdown so no one suspects anything.”
“I agree.” We both get off the bed and I straighten my dress and fix my ruffled skirt, while Sam flattens his hair and adjusts his tie. We make sure to restore the original appearance of the bed since other people will be sleeping in it tonight. As we walk out the door, Sam lets out a deep, loud breath. “Are you alright?” I ask him.
“It’s nothing.” He doesn’t sound very convincing at all.
“Tell me. I told you that you could be honest with me. What’s wrong?” I urge.
“It’s something small that I shouldn’t even be thinking about.”
“Well that ‘something small’ that you shouldn’t even be thinking about must have some importance if you’re thinking about it.” He sighs.
“When your sister called me your boyfriend and you said I wasn’t, I was a bit bummed.” He says looking at the ground. “But I understand. You’ve hated me since the beginning.”
“One thing is for sure. I don’t hate you anymore,” I say with a smile. He looks at the ground again, but smiling this time. “You coming?” I ask as I start walking down the stairs. He walks quickly with a slight bounce in his step.
When we get down stairs, the hosts and the guests are all in the fireplace room. I see Michael and so does Sam apparently. “You still haven’t told me about the kiss with Michael.” Sam reminds me sounding sad.
“Can we forget about it for the party? I promise I’ll tell you after.”
“Sure.” Sam says with a forced smile. I sit down on the couch beside my sister while Sam talks to his grandparents. Michael joins me and puts his sausage-like arm sloppily around my shoulders. “For God’s sake Michael! Will you stop?” My sister peers around me and says to him in a harsh tone, “Get off my sister you little twerp.”
“It’s not my fault girls can’t resist me.” He says flirtatiously.
“Good God man, you have serious issues.” My sister grabs him by the ear, and pulls him out of the room. He is wincing the whole time, which I find quite entertaining to say the least. It might be a bit sadistic, but he deserves it. Sam walks over to me, and sits beside me with two glasses of champagne. “Aren’t you a bit young to drink?” I say quietly.
“Yes, I am. However, as you can see, the glasses aren’t full and one of them is for you.”
“Thanks.” I say as I accept the champagne with a small smile. “How come no one has said anything about us with alcohol?”
“They are either too drunk to notice, or they know that every New Years everyone, even the kids, gets a little taste of champagne to celebrate. But instead of drinking when the clock strikes twelve, I plan on doing something else.”
“Sounds mysterious,” I say trying to reveal what it is that he will do. “Do you turn into a werewolf or something?”
“That would be awesome, but no I don’t,” he says with a laugh, which makes me smile.
“Ten…nine...” Everyone starts chanting.
“Come with me.” Sam leads the way.
“Seven…six…” They continue.
“What is it you plan on doing at midnight?”
“You’ll see.” We stop in the living room.
“Two…one…” Sam puts his hands around my waist and pulls me in close to him so there is no space left between our bodies. He stands on his tiptoes, and kisses me. “Happy New Year!” I hear everyone yell out from the other room.
“Happy New Year,” he whispers in my ear before sprinting out the door. Well that was an abrupt departure. Did I do something wrong? I am speechless. That kiss was much different than I imagined. People always talk about how they ‘saw fireworks’. I didn’t. I felt them.
I haven’t seen the boy who kissed me for twenty minutes. I search for Nathan again. I scan the drunken faces of all the people. It shouldn’t be very difficult to spot a guy who’s 6”4. After a while of searching, I find him. “Hey, Nate. I need to talk to you about something.”
“Me first.”
“Okay, what is it?”
“Your sister and I have made it our number one goal to set you and Sam up. That said, we’re going to do everything in our power to keep our moms away from you guys so you two can be alone.”
“Thanks…I guess.”
“Trust me, it won’t be as bad as you may think. Sash and I have made sure that you and Sam are in the same room, but we’re the only ones who know about it. I thought that would be fine with you since you guys already slept together.”
“We slept together involuntarily. We just fell asleep.”
“Sam doesn’t think the same way. He was talking to me earlier, and he truly never fell asleep. He was too happy that you were so close to him that he was unable to sleep.”
“That sounds a little creepy.”
“As I said before, cut the kid some slack. Be nice.”
“Okay, fine. Sorry. You sound kinda like my mother though,” I say laughing.
“Your room is the fourth room on the left side, of the left hall, on the second floor.”
“Okay. Good night.”
“Good night. Have fun.” He laughs a bit. I stick my tongue out jokingly.
