Misalignment | ✔

epilogue: Santa

According to Matty,
the best way to spend
Christmas Eve
is shopping for
last minute
Christmas gifts.
Considering how hectic
the mall usually is
around the holidays,
I would tend to
disagree -
but after catching wind
of Matty's plan,
her girlfriend had
heartily agreed
to the scheme,
leaving me
outnumbered.

Natalia Davis
is quite the character,
as I soon find out.
She's completely
Matty's opposite
in more ways than one.
Brash and outgoing,
she seems to have
no filter
for either her
words
or her actions.
Not to say that
she's crude
or obscene,
but her self-confidence
is all too apparent,
a stark contrast to
Matty's introvertedness
and my own
more stoic demeanor.

It's quite the adventure today,
as Matty says,
late Christmas shopping
with her two favorite people.
An adventure
isn't exactly
how I would describe it,
but I can't disagree
with the enthused grin
on her features
(or with the
watchful eye
Natalia seems to be keeping
over our conversation).

I have a feeling
that she still is
trying to size me up,
figure out whether
I'm some sort of threat
to her relationship
with my best friend.
She doesn't seem
to like me so much
at this point,
and I can't say
that the feeling isn't
mutual.

Still,
Matty remains oblivious,
and continues to chatter
to the both of us
about what she wants
to get for her siblings,
and how she'll have to
figure out a way
to buy our gifts
without our seeing.
She and Natalia soon
fall into a discussion about
their upcoming Florida vacation,
and as a result,
I quickly lose interest
and fall into thoughts
of my own.

The mall looks
like Christmas
has thrown up inside it,
honestly.
All the cheesiest decorations
have been brought out
to decorate every storefront,
every bench
and every other available
open space.
Even the fountain
at the very center
of the place
is coated in
twinkling bunches of lights.
I'm probably
as big of a fan
of Christmas
as the next person,
but even I can tell
that this is
way too much festivity
in one place.

There's even a guy
playing Santa Claus
at one end of the mall,
presumably paid
to put on the white beard
and the suit
and to tell all the children
gathered about
that they'd better not
get on his naughty list.
We almost make it
past where he's sitting -
but then there's squealing
from my right side,
and after a quick word
to Natalia,
Matty is running over
to join the dwindling line
of children,
much to the amusement
of both her girlfriend
and I.

I almost wonder
if she's going to be
told that she
is too old for
the mall Santa -
but he welcomes her
with open arms
and the proclamation that
Santa Claus
is for all ages.
Matty seems thrilled,
but Natalia looks suspicious,
and I probably don't appear
any less skeptical.
Mr. Mall Santa seems
a little too happy
to have a teenaged girl
sitting on his lap
and telling him exactly
what she wants for Christmas,
at least in
my opinion.

I almost think
that Natalia
is going to rush
his seat
to save Matty
after a minute,
but she soon hops down
with her characteristic grin
and a thank you
to Mr. Claus
and rushes back to us.
Both Natalia and I
breath a sigh
of relief
as we escape
the all-seeing eye
of the Santa.

"What did you
ask for?"
Natalia asks as we
are on our way again -
but Matty
only shakes her head
with a secretive smile.

"It won't come true
if I tell you."

The rest of the afternoon
passes quickly.
We all manage
to purchase our gifts
without their recipients seeing
(much to Matty's delight),
and even stumble across
a local middle school band
playing Christmas carols
to support a local charity.
Matty, of course,
donates a few dollars
'in the spirit
of the season.'
I have a feeling
that she would have felt
obligated to donate
regardless of the
time of year.

Four o'clock comes
soon enough, though;
Matty and Natalia
are due to leave
for Florida
around six, so
we all reluctantly
head back to Natalia's car.
Matty, unsurprisingly,
is still bouncing with excitement,
perhaps more so
now that their departure
is growing closer.

"I'll see you
in a week,"
she tells me
as we pull up to
my house
half an hour later.
The kitchen light
is on inside,
as is the living room's -
leave it to my mother
to forget to turn off lights
in my absence.
"We'll be back
in time for
New Year's Eve,
I promise."

"Yeah,
I'll see you then,"
I say as I
step out of the car,
bags in hand -
and she flashes a smile
as they pull away,
leaving me behind
at the foot of my driveway.

I watch for a while,
even after Natalia's car
has already
disappeared from sight.
I watch,
lost in thought,
oblivious even as
the cold wind swirls
around me
in snowy bursts.

This week
won't pass
quickly enough -
I can guarantee that.

×

HEY LOOK, I FINALLY FINISHED IT!!!! WOAh--

I'm super sorry about the delay, guys. I've been busy (and writers block is hell, let me tell you...), so yeah. Many apologies or whatever.

But it's done. Misalignment is finished. Feel free to cry, I know I am.

Next will be Unparalleled - and for those of you who don't know, it's going to cover what happened before Misalignment: how Matty and Natalia met, what happened with them and Seth, etc. It's gonna be a ton of fun.

If you guys liked this chapter (or the story in general), please feel free to vote and leave me feedback! It'd be very much appreciated! And if you guys would like to give me general feedback about this story as a whole, that would also be great, as I'm going to start on revising it at some point. c:

Thank you guys so much for all of the support in the past few months as I've written this! Y'all are the best, omg. >u<