“Why would you get to do that?”
“Because!” I cried.
I actually didn’t have a reason. Because it was Christmas? Kind of.
Declan chuckled again. “I’ll ask Mum. She’s in charge of Christmas this year.”
Something about that sounded weird. There was a tone in Declan’s voice that was… slightly off.
“Does it feel strange?”
“What? My leg?”
“No, being back at your parents’ house for Christmas? We normally spend it together.”
“I guess so.”
Declan wasn’t the best at articulating his emotions. One of the many reasons I’d chickened out of ever telling him I loved him before. I wasn’t quite sure whether he loved me back, not in the way I wanted him to. I knew he loved me as a friend, but maybe our closeness was different for him, more brotherly than lovers.
Anyway, he wasn’t going to tell me how he felt about being in his parents’ house again so I’d have to work it out for myself.
I asked questions and, as I did, I started cooking myself some pasta because I was starving.
“Hey, if we’re going to be like kids again, staying with your parents for Christmas, we should do our kid stuff again!”
“Like what?”
“Like go to the market and get hot chocolate and mince pies.”
“Do you ever think of anything but your stomach?”
“No,” I said, just as I shovelled the first mouthful of pasta into my mouth.
“Fine, we’ll go to the market,” said Declan. He tried to make it sound like a chore but I could hear the smile in his voice.
“It’ll be fun,” I assured him. “Hey, we could go to the lake, too.”
This time, there was no reply.
“Declan? Are you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m here. I guess we can go to the lake. You’ll have to skate without me.”
“Oh. Of course. I don’t need to skate, though. We can take a walk around and watch everyone and soak up the atmosphere.”
“No, I want you to skate, Sonny. You love skating.”
“Not without you, I don’t. I just want to visit and walk around, honestly Declan.”
His reply of, “Yeah, sure,” didn’t tell me much either way. All I knew was that I’d upset him and I didn’t know how to fix it.He said, “You know, you don’t have to spend Christmas in the middle of nowhere. You can visit for a couple of days and then head back to the city.”
“I’m staying. You invited me and I’m claiming squatters’ rights. Besides, I’ve already written to Santa to tell him where I’ll be on Christmas Eve and I don’t want him to leave my presents in the wrong house.”
It was music to my ears when Declan gave a weak chuckle again.
Chapter 3
Declan
