Gone Soft

Ch. 12 Santa had too many cookies (Holidays pt. 1)

It was two days before Christmas, I was cleaning the house in preparation for Austin coming over for diner. My parents had wanted to have him over for diner, since his parent haven't celebrated christmas with him since he was a child. He said that his father thought "christmas was for children" which made me hate him even more. As I finished wrapping Austins present I heard the doorbell ring.

"Honey I think that's your boyfriend!" She yelled from downstairs.

"Ok!" I also yelled as I sprinted down the stairs. I swung the door open to a smiling Austin, who was also blushing simultaneously, which also made me blush.

"Hey" I laughed at how awekard we were.

"Hi Mia." He went in for a big bear hug, wrapping hi arms tightly around me, nearly lifting my feet up from the ground. Yet, another plus that came with his chubbnies, he gave the best hugs.

"I like your ugly sweater" I giggled at the gaudy red and green knit sweater, with terribly decorated christmas tree on the front of it.

"Ugly?! I thought it was cute!" He said in a sarcastic tone of voice, to which we both laughed harder at.

"Why don't you come inside?" I said, seeing that we were still standing in the door way. I led him to the kitchen table, as dinner was almost ready. My family was Italian, so my Mom always made the tastiest Christmas dinners. Austin casually greeted my parents, as they had met they the number of times he had been over to my house.

We made causal conversation, until a delightful aroma came from the kitchen to right under our noses, as my mother set plate after plate of lasagna, sausages, rolls of bread, charcuterie bores full of olives, cubes of cheeses, and difftert sliced meats. I looked over at Austin, his face looked like a little boy on Christmas morning. His eyes were wide, and his jaw was basically on the floor, looking at all the food, mesmerizid.

"Aus you good" I chuckled to myself. I loved seeing him this happy.

"Huh- Oh yeah. I'm great. This looks absolutely spectacular, thank you so much Mrs. Carter-"
"Oh Austin don't be silly, you know you can call me Tammy." My mom said in a polite tone with a smile on her face. It always made me happy when one of my friends, or in this case boyfriend liked her cooking.

My mother, father, and younger brother gathered at the dinner table, and we started to dig in. Noone spoke for a while, as the only sounds that were made were the munching of everyone chewing.

My family talked about their lives, etc. I had finished my plate, and was tempted to take more, but didn't want to be uncomftabley full. This thought triggered me to look at Austin. Just as I had almost expected, he had slipped into his own world, where the only thing he knew was taking the next bite. I noticed my father and brother had picked up on how much he was eating, but I knew they wouldn't say anything, as I had explained what Austin was going through beforehand.

I slipped my hand off the table and onto Austins thigh, and gave it a tight squeeze.

"Aus-" I whispered to him without looking in his direction, to make him less embarrassed. He paused, fork in hand and turned to look at me in the eyes.

"I- I didn't mean to do it again..." He let out a defeated sigh, looking down at his now tight fighting sweater. He pulled down on it, I could tell how uncomfortable he was.

"Do you want to exchange presents maybe?"
"Yeah... sure" He said in a quiet voice. I excused us from the diner table and walked over to the living room, where the Christmas tree was. I grabbed his present and sat down on the couch, he did the same, leaving a distance between us when he sat down. I looked at the gap, and slid over so that my arm was touching his.

"Thats better" I said under my breath. "Here- open yours first." I turned to him, handing him a large blue bag, with little sparkly snowflakes. A big smile appeared across his face as he eagerly ripped through the gift wrap. He pulled two familiar sweatshirts out of the bag, two I had stolen from him over time (I still kept my faviorte one). He smiled, looking at me.

"Hahaha thanks Mia."

"You're welcome now open your real present, it's at the bottom of the bag."
He layed the sweatshirts on the couch beside him and reached his hand into the bag, pulling out a small pullstring bag. He carefully pulled open the bag, revealing two bracelets, one black with a white bead in the center, and the other white with a black bead in the center. He looked at me, surprised.

"Ones for you and ones for me." He took the black one and slipped it on his wrist, I did the same with the white one.

"I'm never taking this off. I love you so much Mia." He leaned in closer to me, wrapping his warm arms around me. I turned my head to wispear in his ear.

"There promise bracelets... that we'll grow old together no matter what."

"I promise." His voice cracked slightly, I pulled away looking into his watery blue eyes.

"Oh Aus don't cry!" I said as I placed two hands on his face, wiping the tears away with my thumbs.

"It's okay Mia, they're happy tears." He said in a low wispear. He turend to hand me a pink box.

I quickly slid the top open to reveal pink, white and red roses. I looked up at Austin.

"They're beautiful baby! I love them."

"They last forever, like we will." I jumped onto his tummy, squeezing him tightly, as his arms wrapped around my toreso. We snuggled closer together, I could feel his sweater ride up on his full tummy. My shirt also rode up slightly, just enough so I could feel his soft belly jiggle against mine.

We gradually both fell into a paritally food induced coma.

Partially awake I heard my mom speaking. "Aww look at them all snuggled up!"

"Eww that's gross mom" My brother said in his 12 year old annyoing tone of voice." They're comments secretly made me smile. It made me so happy hearing them talking about me and Austin together.