Trey and I, we’ve known each other since day one. We’re next door neighbors, so ever since I was born (Trey’s a little bit older), our parents have been setting us up on play dates and yada yada. Both of us are only child…s…And so as we grew up and appreciated each other’s company a little more coherently, we did everything together.

In elementary school, we did all our homework together and watched all the same cartoons.

In junior high, we shared all of our angsty little secrets (including an awkward coming out of the closet for both of us), and still watched our favorite cartoons.

Now that we’re in high school…Well, we still watch our cartoons together, but now we share something even more special.

That’s right, you guessed it!

Love!

And not the kind of love where you’re like, “Hey, man, I love ya,” in a casual but slightly awkward tone. No, I’m talking about the kind of love where you’re like, “Oh my god, I love you,” in the midst of a heated make-out session.

But I digress (from what, I’m not sure, it’s just that the word ‘digress’ sounds really smart). It’s Christmas time. I’ve always liked the holiday-y air that exists a few weeks before and after Christmas. It increases everyday as you approach Christmas, and then slowly fades away, kind of like a candle.

Anyway, it’s Christmas Eve! I’m so full of freaking holiday cheer that I’m about to burst.

Trey and I are watching our parents hurry about my house, getting everything ready for when everyone comes over. You see, both of our families are coming over to my house, seeing as our families are such good friends and everyone knows everyone else, even the distant relatives that are cousins of cousins of aunts of great-grandpas of nieces of uncles.

So, Trey and I are just crammed on the armchair because the couch is filled with Christmas stuff. Whatever, Trey and I are just glad for an excuse to sit close. You see, we’ve not told our families of our relationship, for fear they wouldn’t agree with it. We’d hate to be the cause of any sadness in the two families.

“Kyle, honey,” I heard my mom call from the other room. “Could you get me the—HOLY SHIT!”

“What? You guys have holy shit in the house?” Trey asks me as we hear a loud clattering, followed by a shriek from my dad.

“Apparently,” I yawn.

“It’s okay, I got it!” is the yell from my mother that came next.

“Dude,” I say lazily, looking out the window that is across from our armchair, as I squirm in Trey’s lap. “The autumn sky is filled with despair.”

“It’s winter, but that’s very poetic,” Trey says knowingly, nodding.

“The man dragged the garbage can…Through the flower bed…”

“That is mildly depressing.”

“Chicken pox…” I can hear both of our parents clamoring around upstairs, so I know to coast was clear as I turn my head to kiss Trey lightly on the lips.

“That’s not something I like to think about when kissing you,” Trey says matter-of-factly.

I’m always spewing (hah…spewing) random things like this, so Trey knows that if he goes along with it…Well, nothing special will happen, we’ll just both sound crazy, instead of just me.

My mom comes into the room and I turn to face forward. She goes and gets something from the Christmas-y couch, and glances at us before doing a double-take. At first I think she’s going to scold is before her face breaks out in a grin.

“That is so picture perfect,” she says, and I watch her as she hangs mistletoe in the hallway door thing that doesn’t have a door leading from the family room to the living room.

“Mom, must you really hang mistletoe at a family reunion?” I ask her, disregarding her comment.

“Of course! It’s for the couples within the families, silly!” she winks at me before grabbing a shit load of mistletoe and leaving to commence in hanging it all over the house.

I look back to the window, sighing.

“What’s wrong, snookums?” Trey coos.

I fly out of the armchair, swing around and point at him menacingly. “Kindly refrain from calling me that ever again or I will rip out your intestines and tie them in a noose around your neck before hanging you from the ceiling of a dark and dreary cave, while you drip kerosene…That I will light on fire personally.”

“That was…Grotesque,” Trey admits, before holding his arms open for me.

Immediately, I snuggle up into his embrace, trying to purr as cat-like as I can.

The door bell rings and I automatically jump up again, but this time to go answer the door. My mom flies into the room, squealing, and I see her shove the stuff on the couch under it before I turn into the entry.

After reaching the door, I…well, open it.

What seems like fifteen thousand people pile into the house, all of them shouting kind greetings before dumping their coats into my arms.

“Holy…cow…” after the stampede dissipates, I sink to me knees before throwing the coats down in what, three Christmases prior to this, has been claimed ‘the coat corner’.

Try saying ‘claimed the coat corner’ ten times fast…

So anyway, the house is completely filled with noise, everyone saying their hello’s, how are you’s, and whatnot.

I squeeze my way back into to the family room, where I find Trey awkwardly chatting with some old and creepy looking relative.

“TREY!” I yell as I make my way over to him. “Old buddy, old pal, I haven’t seen you in ages!”

“Oh, my darling Kyle! If you would excuse me,” he adds to the lady he was talking to.

We fly into each others arms before Trey says, “Thanks for that one. I have no clue who she is, but she apparently knows who I am,” he draws back and pulls a face.

“Eh, you get that all the time at things like these,” I say nonchalantly before taking his wrist and dragging him to the entry, and then up the stairs. Here, there’s no one, seeing as everyone’s downstairs for food.

I let go of him and lead him into my room. Once we get there, Trey plops down on my bed as I close the door.

“Hey, Kyle?”

“Hm?”

“C’mere.”

I oblige, and stand so my legs are on either side of Trey’s knees that are bent at the edge of the bed.

“Closer,” Trey says, his finger bending in that ‘come here’ gesture.

I lean forward slightly, before Trey immediately says, “Closer…”

I try to lean further, but I lose my balance and fall on top of Trey.

“Jeez, that’s close enough,” Trey laughs.

“Shut up,” I say, swatting Trey upside the head.

He smirks at me before sliding a hand into my hair. As I try to glare at him, he just looks back innocently. Then he suddenly pulls my head down, and my lips are crushed against his.

Our lips move together chastely for a moment, before we’re startled apart as we hear a scream come from downstairs.

“What the fuck is wrong with our families?” I say lightly as loud giggling subsequences the yell.

“Not sure, snookums,” Trey says casually as he sits up. He makes to stand up, but before he can do so, I throw myself onto him, sending us to the floor. After a bit of wrestling, I end up sitting on his chest.

“What did I tell you about calling me that?”

“Something about intestines and kerosene?”

“Exactly,” I sigh, falling on top of Trey and snuggling into him. “All hail Santa.”

We stay silent for a moment, just lying on the floor. I want to doze off, but the clamoring downstairs is impossible to sleep through. But Trey is rubbing circles in my back, and it’s so comfy…

“KYLE! TREY!”

We both instantly sit up and partially distance ourselves from each other as we hear Trey’s mom stomping upstairs. The bedroom door soon opens and she peeks her head in. “We have company, you two! Get your butts down there!”

“Will do, mommy!” I say cheerfully, saluting her. Since our families have known each other so long (obviously), Trey and I call each other’s moms ‘mom’ anyway (or in this case, ‘mommy’).

I stand up after mom leaves, and hold out a hand to Trey. “Shall we attempt to brave the storm?”

“We shall,” Trey replies, taking my hand and standing up, but pulling me into his embrace afterwards. He pecked me on the lips before leading me out of my room.

As we get to the bottom of the stairs, we immediately clasp hands so we don’t lose each other. We head over to the dining room, where it’s a little less crowded, and we settle ourselves in the only remaining chair.

“Hey, Santa?” I say with a child-like lisp, looking up at Trey from my seat in his lap with wide eyes.

“Yes, little Kyle?”

“I wanna pony!” I whine, tugging on the front of his shirt.

“Alright,” Trey pets the top of my head.

We sit there for a while, all the while being introduced to one person or another (and being molested by some strangers). After a while though, the crowd calms down, and all the really distant relatives no one knew of have left.

Now, we’re all having a nice Christmas Eve dinner, and every one’s using their indoor voices, finally.

Trey and I now have our own seats, and we eat our mostly unidentifiable dinner in companionable quietness.

“Do you think this has meat in it?” I ask Trey as I hold up a forkful of…something (because you see, I’m vegetarian).

“Honey, I’m sure everything you’ve just eaten so far has meat in it,” Trey replies simply.

“No!” I squeal, sinking down in my chair. “My purified body…Eww…Animal innards…”

I pout as Trey laughs at me, but suddenly brighten as someone sets down a wine bottle right in front of me.

“Merci!” I say, pouring myself a glass, before innocently holding the bottle out for Trey. He looks at me momentarily before sighing.

“Fine,” he mocks, before grinning and pouring himself a glass as well.

Absolutely no one was paying attention to us, so hey.

A couple glasses and the departure of all relatives later, Trey and I are waltzing in the middle of the mostly empty family room. While we hum a She Wants Revenge song as makeshift music, I’m trying to follow the ‘one, two, three, step’ pattern in time, but I’m failing miserably.

“Whatever,” I say after I stop humming, and plop down onto the floor.

Trey squats down and says, “Let’s go upstairs.”

He holds out a hand as he straightens up, because he knows that I’ll agree. So I take his hand, stand up, and lead the way into the entry. But before I can get through the family room’s threshold, Trey grabs my arm. I turn to look at him, and he points to the ceiling.

“Autumn sky…?” I say vaguely, looking up. Instead of autumn sky, however, I spot mistletoe hanging harmlessly from the top of the doorway.

I smile and move my gaze lower to meet Trey’s eyes before we lean forward and press our lips to each other’s.

We move our lips together slowly before he presses his tongue into my mouth. We slide our tongues against each other’s, and Trey moves his hands up my back, under my shirt. We pull back quickly for air, and I say, “You know, mistletoe is actually poisonous.”

“Kinky,” Trey answers simply before leaning in again.

Just as we begin to spit-swap again, we’re startled back from each other as a flash goes off in the background. I whipped my head around to see Trey’s mom and dad looking at us triumphantly, with a camera in Trey’s mom’s hands.

My first reaction is to put as much distance between Trey and I as possible right now, but Trey senses this, and grabs my arm. I look at him, and he’s smiling. I smile too, the fact sinking in that it’s okay.

“I have blackmail now!” Trey’s mom giggles, before walking up to us, and smiling warmly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We didn’t think you’d agree,” I say shyly.

“Honey!” my mom calls as she and dad walks down the stairs. “We could never disagree with anything you ever said.”

Trey and I beam as our parents attack us with a group hug, saying things along the lines of “congrats!” and “it’s so adorable!”

Well, we’re all a little hammered, so it only takes a short while of talking about it before everyone decides to go to bed. So Trey’s parents go back home, mine go into their room, and Trey and I head to mine.

“I’m glad to have gotten that off our shoulders,” I say lightly, smiling at Trey before he pulls me into his embrace.

“Yeah.”

We remain like that for a moment, before getting into my bed and slipping under the covers. Trey looks at the clock on my nightstand before looking back to me and kissing me. “Merry Christmas.”

I glance at the clock too, and see 12:00 AM glowing in red. Beaming, I look at Trey and say, “Merry Christmas,” before closing the gap between us.