Christmas. One of my favorite childhood holidays. There’s eggnog, presents under the tree, lights, reindeer, Santa, and the mistletoe. Of course this year, Christmas was not much different. Same ole eggnog, presents, and all that Santa stuff. But for some reason Christmas seemed to have lost its magic. The magic that it held for me when I was younger. The magic was gone and to me, it did not feel like Christmas. I could not put my finger on why Christmas had suddenly lost its magic now that I was eighteen and a freshman in college (a community college, but a college nonetheless). Maybe Christmas is only for little kids still gullible enough to believe that Santa really did eat those cookies and milk Mom put out near the tree. Or maybe Christmas lost its magic because life had suddenly changed for me and magic just did not fit in the picture.

I was a freshman in a community college, still living at home with my parents and working at the same old Barnes and Noble bookstore about fifteen minutes from my house. The work at college was not as hard as everyone made it out to be, but then again I was only going to a community college so how much harder could everything be? I might as well have been in the 13th grade, since that was what a first year community college was like. Most of my friends had gone to state schools, a brave few venturing out to out-of-state schools. My financial situation could afford neither, which was my reason for attending a community college. I was not the only one either. Hannah, a girl I had known since fifth grade, was in my philosophy class, so I was not without friends. And then there was Cameron, a girl I had met in my pre-calculus class and someone I borrowed notes from when I overslept. So on the superficial level it seems like nothing has really changed in my life except for my school. But of course, nothing on the superficial level really matters. No, what drastically changed had to be my loss of Jake.

Jake had been one of my best friends since we met in the sandbox when I was five. At first he had stolen my bucket and dumped sand over my head, and instead of crying like any other normal five year old girl, I made him eat sand until he was crying. Since then we had been inseparable, with a minor split in the junior high/early high school years, which I liked to call “the lost years.” I know everyone is thinking the reason we reunited is because we realized our undying love for each other, but it was nothing like that. Jake and I just realized what amazing dorkheads (yes, I said dorkheads) we were being and became friends again. After all, we were each going to have children and then our children would play together and eventually get married. That was our life plan, me and Jake, BFF.

And of course every Christmas season, one of us would dress up as Santa and the other one as Rudolph, and act like idiots the last day of school before break. We were--still are--major dorks. This year, Jake had been one of the “brave few” to go to an out-of-state school: University of Delaware, a whopping 1000 miles from our little town in Wisconsin. I missed him terribly. His e-mails had been pretty frequent in September and rapidly decreased since then. My last e-mail was from mid-November; he told me that he better see me when he comes home during Thanksgiving. Needless to say, I did not see him; for some reason, he had come and went in five days without me seeing him. I was not sure what to think. Is Jake avoiding me? No, that is ridiculous. He would never avoid me on purpose. He was just busy visiting family and I was working a lot, so he could have stopped by and I just missed him, or…. Okay, I was rambling.

“Andrea, can you hand me that ornament right over there? No, no, more the red one, yea that one.” My mom was decorating the tree and I was just kind of watching and staring into space.

“You know, dear, you could get off your butt and help me.”

“Nah, you seem to be doing a marvelous job without me ruining it.” I smiled at her from my comfortable spot on the couch. She stuck her tongue out at me and continued hanging ornaments.

“Martha was just telling me the other day that Jake is coming home tomorrow and he’s home until, I think, January 10th.”

“Oh,” was my only comment.

“I remember when you two were younger. So adorable but mischievous. Martha was telling me how much he said he misses you.”

I resisted the urge to snort. Yea, and that is why he failed to see me when he was home for Thanksgiving. Instead I said nothing.

My mom soon finished and stepped back to survey her work. Hands on hips, she glanced back at me. “So what do you think?”

I stood up and looked critically at the tree. “Hmm, I don’t know. The angel seems slightly crooked and there’s an uneven distribution of ornaments, and…”

“Oh, stop being so dramatic,” my mom shoved me playfully.

“It’s wonderful, of course. See, you didn’t need me help. So, that’s it for decorations right?” I asked.

She bit her bottom lip and then said, “No, I forgot something!” She started digging through a box labeled: “Christmas stuff.”

Sensing what she was looking for, I tried to distract her. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Let’s make some cookies instead.”

She gave me a I-know-what-you’re-doing look and continued to dig. After a few minutes, she yelled, “Aha! Here it is.” In her right hand was none other then the infamous mistletoe.

I rolled my eyes and audibly groaned. “Please no. You know how grossed out I get whenever I see you and Ron underneath.” I made a vomiting noise.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Besides, maybe this year, I’ll be the one grossed out by you.”

I gave a short laugh. Not very likely. The last guy I had kissed was in seventh grade: Harold Peterson. Quite a name, huh? Well his kiss has been quite wet and disgusting and not a very nice incentive to go on. After that, I had not been so lucky with guys. Even now I find myself lacking the ability to attract anyone from the opposite sex. I doubt I would even be so lucky with Harold Peterson now (not that I would want to). Ah well, guys were time consuming anyway. Or at least I tried to tell myself. So for now and probably the rest of my life I was flying solo. It wasn’t so bad.

“Hey, girls,” Ron said, coming into the room, “The tree looks fantastic!” Ron was my stepfather and had been for about two years. He was an okay guy. He made my mom happy so that was good enough for me. She had not been happy since my father died when I was three, so Ron was perfect for her.

“Yes, and look what I put up,” my mom pointed to the mistletoe in the doorway.

Ron grinned and gave my mom a suggestive look before walking towards the doorway. She did not hesitate to follow. I made a quick exit so not to subject myself to that.

A couple days later and I could be found at Barnes and Noble, working at the register and dealing with whiny people. Bleh, how I hated customers. And since it was the Christmas season, everyone stopped by to pick up a gift card or a book for a relative, or a movie or CD. When I would go on break, I hardly had any rest for there were many useless people (as there are all the time) sitting in the café, just reading, and I know they were not going to buy those books. Cheap bastards. Can’t you see my love for customer service?

One day, I was lucky enough to find one of those big comfy chairs empty. After buying my Starbucks vanilla bean frappuccino I collapsed onto one and began staring into space. I stayed that way until a familiar voice filled my ears.

“I think Emily will like this one, Mom,” said a deep masculine voice that could only be my Jake’s.

“Yes, that’s cute,” said an older woman, who I recognized as Jake’s mom, Mrs. Ross.

I stood up abruptly in search of those voices. I found them not far away from where I was sitting looking at the teen youth section, for Emily was Jake’s fourteen year old sister.

They both did not seem to notice me, looking over a potential gift for Emily. “Jake? Mrs. Ross?” I called out.

They both looked up at me, but it was Mrs. Ross who acted first. “Andrea! How are you, sweetheart?” She kissed my cheek and wrapped her arms around me, “And how many times do I have to tell you, it’s Eleanor, not Mrs. Ross. You make me feel old.”

I laughed. “I’m doing well, Mrs…Eleanor. How are you?”

“Oh, I’m the same. Just finishing up some last Christmas shopping. You still work here?”

“Unfortunately, yes. It always gets so crazy around here this time of year.”

“Well, everyone’s shopping for the holidays. The mall is absolutely terrible. Jake and I just came from there.” She paused and glanced at Jake, who was still looking at the books. “I think I’ll look on the other side. I bet you two have a lot of catching up to do.” She smiled at me and gave me another quick hug before walking off.

There was an awkward silence, for Jake seemed enthralled in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I examined him; he did not appear to be too different from when I had last seen him in late August. If anything, he looked a bit more muscular, but I figured that was from working out. Jake was kind of a workout freak when he was stressed or bored. It’s better then my lounge around and eat when I’m bored. He also had the same light brown hair and blue eyes. I wanted him to look at me with those laughing blue eyes and smile because then I would know that everything was all right between us. That college had not caused us to drift apart. But he did not look at me and instead the silence only deepened. I decided to break it.

“So how’s school, Jake?”

“Good.”

“Miss Wisconsin much?”

“Yea, sometimes.”

“What’s it like in Delaware?”

“Nice. No sales tax.”

“I see.” I bit my bottom lip, not knowing what to say to him. He had barely looked at me since I had approached him and his mother. What the hell was wrong with him?

“Are you training to be a mime?”

At this, he gave me a funny look. “What do you mean by that?”

I shrugged. “It’s just that most of your answers so far have been one-word. I thought you were trying to limit your audibility because you wanted to be a mime.”

“No, of course not.”

I bit my lip and murmured “I see” again. I glanced at my watch and noticed I only have five minutes left on break. I guess this conversation would have to be finished another time.

“Well, Jake, I gotta get back to work, so I guess I’ll see you around?”

He glanced up. “Yea, I’ll see you later.” I was expecting something else, but I just ended up standing there for a second or so before walking off, feeling like a big idiot.

Mrs. Ross came to check out fifteen minutes after I had gotten back from break. She walked up to me.

“I see you decided to get The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants for Emily then?” I asked her.

“Yea, Jake thinks she’ll like it.”

“Where did Jake go anyway?”

“He went to warm up the car for me.”

I nodded but did not say anything else as I scanned her other books and removed the security tags on them. I handed the bag to her and wished her a merry Christmas.

She smiled. “You too, dear. I don’t think your mom told you, but we’ll be over for Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow.”

I felt my heart skip a beat. That meant that Jake would have to come over and we would have to talk about whatever the hell was wrong with him! “That’s wonderful; I can’t wait.” She smiled back, and for the rest of the day, nothing could ruin my mood.

Christmas Eve was the big night in my house. Not Christmas morning, but Christmas Eve. My mother spent most of the day cooking prime rib, mashed potatoes, and other things for our Christmas Even dinner. Only Jake’s family had been invited, but they were good friends indeed. Tomorrow we would go over my grandma’s house, but we would open our presents tonight.

When Jake and his family first arrived we all greeted each other. Mrs. Ross hugged me and gave me a kiss. I gave Emily a hug, and I shook Mr. Ross’s hand; he was always a very aloof figure. Jake seemed to avoid greeting me and instead was putting the presents under the tree. I walked over and stood behind him. I subsequently kicked him lightly in the stomach.

“Hey, what was that for?” He was not laughing, but then he did not seem pissed off either.

I shrugged. “I figured it was the only way to get your attention. Do you think we could talk?”

“About what?”

“About the way you’ve been acting. You barely looked at me yesterday at B&N, and I didn’t see you at all during Thanksgiving. What the hell is wrong with you?”

Jake bit his bottom lip, and looked everywhere but at me. “I don’t think I know what you’re talking about.”

I wanted to slap him. Truly. No, I wanted to make him eat sand until he cried. Instead, I let out an aggravated sigh. “Fine, forget it.”

He did not stop me from leaving the room. Nope. I decided to try and forget about him until I would have to see him when dinner was ready in about an hour. Of course the next thing I see when walking into the family room is my mother and Ron kissing under the mistletoe. “Ew, gross, guys,” I muttered as I passed them.

My mom just laughed and Ron yelled back, “Oh, grow up, Andrea!”

I rolled my eyes. Would dinner just start so we could open presents and be done with everything?

“Could you pass the bread, please, Emily?” Ron asked Emily. “So, Jake, how’s Delaware?”

Jake nodded. “It’s good. Sometimes we head into Philly since it’s nearby.”

Ron nodded. “How are your grades?”

“I’m doing decently. I managed to have a 3.2 GPA.”

“Not bad. Meet any nice girls on campus? Must be a lot of them?”

Jake laughed and I felt a sting of jealousy at the idea of Jake with a Delaware girl. “Yea, there are quite a few girls there. Haven’t found one I really liked yet though,” Jake said before quickly looking at me then back at his food.

I tried to suppress the blush that I know came to my cheeks, but I failed.

After dinner, we all gathered around the tree and traded presents. Most of them were clothing from my parents, and Mrs. Ross and bought me a beautiful light blue sweater. My parents bought Emily a makeup set and a cute jean jacket. She loved it. I ended up buying Jake a hoodie (his favorite article of clothing) and one of those video gamer books.

Jake handed me a small box and smiled sheepishly at me. Probably the first smile I got from him in four months. I opened it, very much feeling his eyes on me. It was a jewelry set, with earrings and a necklace, in the design of a snowflake. It was a beautiful.

“I saw that in a store in Delaware. I thought you would like it,” Jake said shyly. I was amazed. Usually I got a shirt from him that his sister or mom picked out when shopping with him. Sometimes he would buy me a book or a movie, but never jewelry. I honestly did not know Jake could pick out jewelry on his own.

I looked at Jake and thanked him with everyone’s eyes were on either me or Jake. His mother wore an expression of surprise, obviously not knowing what Jake had gotten me before I had opened it. My mother interrupted the silence with the offer of getting everyone some dessert. Ron threw another log into the fire and turned the Christmas music up a little louder. Jake excused himself from the room and after a moment I decided to follow him. We would have to talk now.

“Jake, wait up!” I called after him. He stopped and turned around, eyebrows raised.

My mother passed us, holding pie in her hands and giving me a mischievous smile.

“I just wanted to tell you that the necklace and earrings are really beautiful. I’m just a little caught off guard, with the way you practically ignore me and then you give me that.”

Jake ran his fingers through his hair. “I just it in a store in Delaware and thought of you.”

“Yea, but…” I bit my bottom lip. “Why are you acting so weird around me, lately? I thought we were friends.”

“Yea, it’s just, oh Andrea don’t make me say it.”

“Say what?” What was he talking about?

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. Isn’t it obvious?”

“Isn’t what obvious?” I said, truly perplexed.

“That I love you?”

“Uh, what?” All I could do was stare at him.

“Yea, I realized it when I was at college. Every time I tried to hook up with a girl, all I could think of was you. It was terrible. That’s why I stopped e-mailing you, I didn’t know what to say. I successfully avoided you over Thanksgiving break, but I knew it would be impossible since our families always do their Christmas Eve thing. So I figured I would just say as little as possible to you and soon I would be back in Delaware trying to get over you. Not exactly fool-proof plan, but it was a plan.”

“A horrible plan,” I mumbled.

“And this isn’t exactly how I pictured telling you or anything. Now I feel like a complete idiot and…”

“You are a complete idiot.” He gave me a confused look but smiled when he realized I was joking. I laughed and ran my hand through my hair. As I did this I managed glance at the ceiling and finally noticed where we were standing. And finally realized why my mother had given me that look when she walked by. We were standing under the mistletoe. I laughed even harder. Jake followed my gaze but did not know what to do at first.

“Well, it’s a tradition,” I started to say.

Jake shook his head. “No, it’s ok, after what I just said, it would just…” he trailed off.

I smiled, for once in the past four months, I felt happy. I guess Jake confessing his love for me had been a long way coming. I tried to ignore the blush that came to my cheeks and instead pulled Jake towards me.

Okay, so maybe everything was not okay. Jake and I still had a lot to talk about, but we had three more weeks or so. That could wait. What mattered now was Jake, me, and that mistletoe. For a moment the Christmas magic seemed to be back in the world and there was peace on earth.

Author's Note: HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! Hope you enjoyed my third-installment of my holiday specials, I have been doing the passed three years. I have yet to actually proofread this but wanted to get it up anyway, due to my lack of updates. My transitions are a little crappy and I know there are probably some typos or grammar mistakes, but I'll fix those later. It's 2:13am, and I'm tired. Besides, I have to go back to work tomorrow (which is why I included that customer rant part in there, hehe). So, happy holidays. Hope you enjoyed! Tell me what you think!
-Ashlita