𝑀𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑎

Chapter 17 ~ Onesie

Reece

Me and Mayella are back on track. We are back to being best friends. It feels good to not worry about blackmail from Bree. My face hurts from smiling so much at the store with Mayella. I forgot how much of a fun person she is when she lets herself be.

I dropped her off at her house before I headed home and helped mom cook some food. Dad took Grey and Rory to see some lights before dinner. I empty the bags as I come across the onesies we bought. I smile and tell mom I will be right back.

I hurry to Mayella's house and ring their doorbell. Luckily she answers that door and when she sees me, she gives me a smile, I hand her the onesie for her and she smiles. "Make sure to wear it tonight." I wink as I run back home without another word.

I run to my room and pull my onesie on too. I walk to the kitchen and see mom looking at me. "Where did you get that?" She smirks at me. "It looks exactly like the onesie I gave you when you were little."

"Yeah um Mayella saw it at the store." I cough out and see her smiling at the corner of my eye. I roll my eyes as the door opens and in comes dad and the kids. Dad sees my outfit and tries his best not to laugh. Rory and Grey on the other hand, love it.

Dad goes to the kitchen to help finish up food with mom. Rory and Gray go and play games. I head up stories so I can wrap Mayella's present. I got her two, one for tonight, and then tomorrow.

I finished wrapping it when the doorbell rings. I head downstairs to see Abby, Cole, Willow and her fiancé Maddox, and Mayella, who is in fact wearing the onesie. I greet them and I can tell Abby and Cole are having too much fun with this. Willow, on the other hand, is clutching her stomach in laughter.

We all go and sit down in the living room as we wait for dinner to finish cooking. It's always been tradition for us to go to Abby and Coles for Christmas Eve, but mom wanted to change it up. On Christmas Eve, we eat all kinds of salads. Potato salad, pasta salad, all kinds of salads. And on Christmas, Dad smokes a ham.

I take a seat on the recliner couch and pay attention to the hockey game in front of me. The parents are all in the kitchen drinking some wine, while the rest of us are watching the game. Me and Maddox talk with each other during the game and Mayella and Willow catch up.

I can't help but stare at Mayella in awe as she wears a matching onesie with me. I didn't think she would go through with it. As if she can sense I'm staring, she looks at me and gives me a smile. I wave my arm for her to come over to me.

She gets up from her seat, thankfully, Willow and Maddox are too busy looking at Willow's phone to even notice Mayella gone. Mayella walks to me but before she can do anything I lean forward and bring her down to the floor with me.

I tickle her as she screams and laughs while trying to get out of my hold. I grab her legs and pull her down when I see her getting up. I start laughing hysterically as we lay on the floor, laughing every time we make eye contact.

"Dinner!" Mom calls and I sigh trying to catch my breath from our laughing fits. I get up and hold my arms out to pull Mayella up. She takes me by the hand and let's go once she is up. We all head to the table and say prayer and eat.

We talk, laugh, and make a bunch of jokes. I'm glad to have life back to normal again.

🎀

"Present time!" Rory yells. We have a thing where on Christmas Eve, we open one gift. On Christmas we open all gifts and then during dessert, we play game exchanges.

I opened a gift from mom which was a new hoodie that had my name on it. I thanked her as I watched the rest of them open gifts. Mayella still hasn't opened one so I take this opportunity to go grab mine.

"Sage?" She turns her head to me. I nod my head up to the stairs. She follows as I open the door to my clean room. She takes a look around as if she wasn't in here a month ago. I go to my dresser and grab the gift that I wrapped before she arrived.

She sees the gift in my hand and gasps. I handed the gift bag to her. She looks up to me with teary eyes. "Thank you." She whispers and I nod. She opens in and pulls out a shoulder purse. I know how much she loves those things.

This one is sage green, and it says her name on it. She gasps again and examines the gift. She opens it and sees I stuffed it with her favorite candy bag, as well as a gift card to the local bookstore in town.

She sits on my bed as she looks over it again, I sit down with her. She looks at me and smiles. "I love it." She doesn't smile though, neither do I, but I can tell she is honest. I stare at her and take in her face.

I can see she is doing the same but trying not to make it obvious. I look down to her lips that are agape. I can see the lip gloss that she applied, I can see the glitter in the lip-gloss. I don't know it, but I can feel myself leaning in.

She is too. I can feel her breath on my lips. I can almost taste the mint from the gum she popped in her mouth after dinner. I see her close her eyes and I do too. Our lips brush against each other but the knock at my door breaks us apart real fast.

Dad walks in and smiles at us. From his view, me and Mayella are sitting on my bed admiring the gift I got her. "It's movie time." We nod and make our way downstairs.

That was close.