Santa's Helper • Luke Hemmings

Nine - Christmas Tree

Luke and I both sit cross legged on the white carpet floor in his living room, in front of the tall bare tree in front of us. Luke empties the entire contents of the shopping bags over the floor, meaning seemingly hundreds of decorations flooded the ground.

"So where do we start with all this?" Luke questions, grabbing a snowman ornament in his hand and observing it. God, he's adorable.

"First we should decorate the tree," I say.

Luke nods, grabbing a few baubles in his hands and standing up from the ground. I watch him begin to hang then on the branches as I quickly stand up and grab the TV remote. Luke pauses and furrows his eyebrows as he watches me tamper with his TV. I soon find the Christma music channel and turn and grin to Luke as Merry Christmas Everyone begins to blare through the speakers.

"Is the music really necessary?" Luke questions, continuing with hanging the ornaments onto the tree.

I nod as I walk back over to him, picking up some decorations and beginning to help with decorate. I hear Luke humming along to the Christmas song, but each time I would look over to him he'd quickly stop. It seemed almost crazy how adorable I find him and how into a guy I've found myself. I never really thought it was possible to feel so warm towards a person before, but there's something special about Luke that I love.

I realize that the remaining branches were only at the top of the tree and me being a major short ass, there's no way I can reach. I stand on my tip toes and attempt to hang the snowflake onto the branch, but seem to fail. I hear Luke snicker as he takes the snowflake from my hand and stretches over me to hang it up.

I pout. "That's not fair, I almost reached that."

Luke chuckles. "Sure, Ruby. Here, I have an idea." He steps in front of me and bends forward. Is he gesturing for me to get onto his back? Oh dear, that wouldn't end well.

"No," I say quickly, shaking my head.

"Yes," Luke protests, still in his position waiting for me to climb onto his long back. "Don't you trust me?"

I've only know you five minutes! "I guess..."

I jump onto Luke's back and his arms securely wrap around my legs as he lifts himself up. He hands me a bauble to hang onto the tree and I carefully take it. We continue this routine for a little while, with Last Christmas playing in the background - everything seems pretty perfect. In fact, I'm worried that in a few days after Christmas is over that Luke and I won't hang out like this anymore.

Luke hands me the glittery star from his hand and I look at it. "Don't you want to do the honours, Luke? It is your tree."

"You do it," Luke encourages, stepping on his tip toes so that I could reach the tip of the tree. I smile as I place the star onto the tree carefully, adjusting it so it would stay.

"What's going on?" A voice beams.

Luke wobbles on his feet and I struggle to keep my balance. The star drops out of my hands - as do I from Luke's arms as the two of us collapse onto the ground. Obviously I had to be the one to break Luke's fall. Ouch.

Luke slowly crawls off of me - allowing my arm to finally relax. I think it's broken. I move my arm a little to release the pain and look to see pointy heeled shoes in front of Luke and I on the ground. I look up and see the same lady I saw Luke yelling at that one time. His mom, obviously. Well, shit.

"Get off the ground, Luke, the maid only bleached the carpet last night," His mom scowls.

Oh dear. Luke and I drag ourselves up off the ground and I brush myself down once I'm back on my feet - my entire body still recovering from Luke's body weight crashing onto me as I break his fall.

"What on earth is going on in here, Luke?" Luke's mom folds her arms over her chest and glares to Luke with daggers.

Luke bites on his lip and faces me with a smirk. This isn't going to end well. He snaps to his mom, "well, we're clearly baking a cake, mother."

His mom scowls, taking a step closer to him. "This isn't funny, Luke. I don't know what kind of game you're playing but this is going too far." She lowers her voice as if she doesn't want me to hear her, even though my ears manage to string out her mumbles. "You know we can't do this after what happened those years ago."

Luke groans. "Get over it, mom. Katlin's gone. There's nothing we can do about it."

Kaitlin?

Luke's mom flinches at the memory and suddenly with such an tense atmosphere, Jingle Bells playing from the speakers seems to be making things worse. "Just take the tree down, Luke. We're not discussing this with her here."

Well, okay then. I blush as she gestures to me, but Luke seems to be more determined than I had thought. "Her name is Ruby and she's staying here to help me decorate. If you want to join us, that's down to you."

His mom glares between Luke and I before she turns her back and storms out of the room - slamming the door shut behind her. I sympathetically look over to Luke, still confused as to what his mom was referring to when she mentioned a Kaitlin.

"I'm sorry that didn't go how you planned, Luke," I finally say, strolling over to him.

Luke shrugs, covering the fact that he's genuinly disappointed that his mom had declined his offer to stay and help us. "I knew she wouldn't stay, Ruby; she's forever hung up on what happened seven years ago."

It's ambitious, maybe even suicidle, but I ask anyway. "What happened?" I say in barely a whisper.

Luke gulps, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand and letting out a deep sigh. Shit, I've made him uncomfortable. I nervously wait for him to choke words out, feeling guilty that I had even asked. "My sister died."

Shit. I can't seem to string out words. "Oh. God, I-"

"You don't need to apologize or say you hope I'm okay because it happened years ago, Ruby," Luke shrugs and a small smile is on his lips. "Besides, let's just forget any of this had ever happened."

I gaze up at Luke and suddenly his lips look so inviting. My heart pounds in my chest as I observe the gorgeous, broken boy in front of me and all I want to do is place my lips onto his. He leans forward and my heart stops. Is he going to kiss me? I wait nervously for him to inch closer, although everything seems to be ruined once the door swings back open.

We both step away from each other, Luke giving me a nervous smile before we see Luke's mom barging into the living room with a box titled with: Christmas Decorations. Luke rushes over to help his mom and I can't help but grin.

"You're right, Luke. It's time we put the past behind us and finally move on as a family," His mom smiles, before looking over to me. "Thank you, Ruby."

I blush like mad - jeez, everything really can have a happy ending. Luke comes over and wraps his arm around my shoulder and presses his warm lips to my cheek. My cheeks seem to keep getting warmer and I lean into him.

"So have you changed your mind about Christmas yet?" I whisper to him, looking up to his grinning face.

"I've learned that people don't love Christmas, they just love what it's all about and spending time with people they love...and like a lot," Luke says softly, "and I happen to really like this."

The end.