Miss Perfect and The Bad Boy

seventeen - christmas

My eyes slowly fluttered open as I woke up the next morning. I realized I had fallen asleep in Alex's arms. His casted arm was draped around my shoulders and my face was against his bare chest.

I looked up at him. I was surprised to see him looking back down at me. "You're awake early for once," I mumbled, closing my eyes again.

"I couldn't sleep," he said in a raspy voice.

I frowned. "Is something hurting?" He hadn't touched the painkillers the doctor gave him out of fear, and I was glad he wasn't falling down that path again, but it had to hurt to deal with all those broken bones and nothing to stop the pain.

He ran the hand that wasn't in a cast over his face and kept it over his eyes. "No, it's not that, I was just thinking all night."

"About what?"

Alex was quiet for a moment. "Yesterday, when I was talking to my mom, she said she wants me to come live with her in Texas," he said slowly.

I froze. "What did you say?"

"I told her I need time to think about it."

I stared up at him. I would have thought he'd say no. "So, it's a possibility."

"I don't know." He groaned. "My choice doesn't really matter. She's at a meeting with the city council right now. Since they all know about my dad's drug problems now, I might have to go. At least until I'm 18, but that's in March."

"When are they going to tell you if you have to leave?" I asked nervously.

He finally looked back at me. "They said they're having a meeting January 10th. To decide what's going to happen."

I buried my face into his chest and hugged him tighter, making sure not to hurt his bandaged ribs. "What if you actually have to go?"

"We'll figure it out," he said quietly. "I'm not leaving you."

He couldn't really say that, though. Not truthfully, at least.

♡

2 hours later, when we finally decided to leave Alex's bedroom, the living room smelled like cinnamon and there was boxes all over the floor. Alex looked over at me, confused, as Melissa walked into the room with Emma running after her.

"Finally, you two are awake. It's past noon," she said, holding out a pan with a towel wrapped around her hand as a makeshift oven mit. "I made snickerdoodle cookies."

I reached over and took one as Alex just stared at her. "What are the boxes for?" he asked.

"I brought out all the Christmas stuff since it's in a few days," she explained. "Nicole, are you spending Christmas with us?"

I nodded. "Yeah, my parents are in India. They're spending the holidays with my mom's parents."

Alex gave me a dirty look, as if he was angry with me for speaking to his mom, just as Melissa smiled. "You guys start with this, I'm going to finish the pudding and then I'll come help."

As soon as Melissa went back into the kitchen, I bent down to the floor and opened the first box. "This is going to be fun."

"You have a weird definition of fun."

"Come on," I said, crossing my legs.

He rolled his eyes but sat down and helped me rip open the first box with his good arm. In it, was a bunch of frames pictures just thrown in.