Finding Beauty (Rewrite)

Chapter 27

~Beauty~

Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad, prospero ano y felicidad

Bethany jolted up in her bed. The alarm clock music was playing a lot louder than she had intended it to but since it was Christmas, she let it slide. She got up out of bed and did the salsa around her room. She swayed her hips to the music, shifting her weight between her feet and stepping them back to the rhythm like her father had taught her to. She was feeling extra energetic this morning.

Someone cleared their throat.

Teigan was leaning against the doorframe with a smirk on his face. She let her hair fall into her face to cover her blush. It had grown significantly since she was first brought there and almost touched her hips.

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Oh, only long enough to see you’ve got some smooth moves,” he teased. She noticed he wasn’t wearing his usual black hoodie or rock shirt but a checkered flannel and jeans.

"What can I say? My father was a good dancer. What about you? Got any smooth moves?"

He shook his hand. “No, not at all. More like two left feet.”

The two of them had spent the last two weeks playing all of the board games he owned millions of times. They had both decided that their favorite was Scrabble since it was the hardest to get tired of. Jenga was a close second because of how serious Teigan got. When the tower of blocks came crashing down he’d close his eyes and sigh - unlike Bethany who’s reaction was far more explosive with shouting and hollering. It balanced out the experience.

When they weren’t playing board games they were rating rock music together. They’d find an artist and listen to all the songs on their albums and give opinions on each track, deciding at the end what they thought of the whole collective piece. After a few times, Teigan deduced she had an alternative rock preference and created a new playlist for her almost daily. She’d be lying if she said he hadn’t changed her perspective on the whole genre.

Lingering over them was the issue of breaking the curse. Turns out finding someone to save wan’t as easy as one might think. Teigan made multiple trips into the city, following leads and/or keeping watch on the more problematic streets. No opportunities presented themselves but Bethany encouraged him - saying that this gave him more time to work on the heart change. This way he was sure that once he did save someone, the curse would break.

Teigan left her to get ready for breakfast. She sorted through her draws for something to wear and her eyes landed on the ripped jeans she had been wearing the night she was taken. Her bright eyes dimmed as she remembered she was missing
Christmas in New York City. It would be the first Christmas she didn’t spend at home. Then she felt a weird sensation come on as she realized - as scary as it was to admit - that in the last week or two the house she had viewed as a prison felt like a home.

She found herself sitting on the edge of her bed thinking about her last Christmas. There was something about the holidays that made her sentimental in the worst and best of ways.

She had woken up at noon from a long night of watching holiday specials with her mother. They had fallen asleep on the couch sometime between the ending of The Grinch and the beginning of The Polar Express. Her mother's plaid wool blanket was sliding off the side of the couch due to her absence so Bethany assumed she'd woken up first and was washing up.
She scanned the kitchen cupboards trying to decide if she should have eggo waffles or a bowl of cereal. She thought she could probably make the waffles festive by making the whipped cream look like snow but the Captain Crunch was already Christmas themed with the special edition red and green pieces. She scratched her head, pensively.