"don't just exist, live"

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

"I know, mom, I promise I won't forget the rolls," I speak into my phone.

It's Christmas Eve which means tonight we're heading over to my parents' house for dinner. It's going to be my family, of course, plus Jemma, who's been having Christmas with us since before I can remember. Sterling is also coming alone with his dad, Nancy, and Charlotte. It should be fun.

"You sure I shouldn't just tell Chase to bring them?" She offers, teasing with a hint of seriousness peaking through her words.

"I forgot the rolls one time!"

She laughs at my expense. "Sorry, Delly. You're right, I trust you completely."

"Thank you!" I cry out dramatically. "Anyways, I've got to go, I still need to pack." I glance over at the empty duffle bag on my floor.

We're only gone for a couple days but I still need to pack a descend amount of stuff. Probably too much considering I'm a chronic over packer.

"Alright, alright. I'll leave you to it. Drive safe and I can't wait to see you tonight."

"Bye mom, I love you."

"I love you too, sweetie." I end the call and flop back down onto my bed. The last thing I want to do is pack right now, it's overly stressful. I'd much rather be reading or taking a nap. But, I have no choice.

Begrudgingly, I pull myself out from my warm comforter and start organizing my clothes and toiletries into my bag. Luckily, once I start, I get it done quickly, and I'm ready to go in record time. Ignoring the fact that it's much too full, I zip my duffel up and drag it out of my bedroom.

Because we're just so in sync, Sterling walks through the front door just as I decend down the stairs.

"Jesus, what the hell is in that thing?" He points to the bag slung over my shoulder.

Ignoring his judgmental glare, I set it on the floor and take a deep breath. God am I that out of shape? I just walked down about 15 stairs and I feel like my legs are about to give out from under me.

Sterling just looks down at me in amusement, clearly enjoying how obviously tired I am. But then, his face goes super serious followed shortly by a look of shock.

I grow concerned. What the fuck is he looking at me like that for?

"Delaney Lawrence," he starts. "I'm going to ask you a question and I need you to be completely honest with me."

"Alright..." I say skeptically. "What is it?"

"Is there a body in there?"

"Oh my god," I grumble.

Ladies and gentlemen, my boyfriend. Prepare yourselves.

"Just tell me. I can handle it. I just need to know the truth. I'm sure we'll figure something out, and I promise not to rat on you." He continues on, obviously very pleased with himself.

"Sterling–" I warn but he cuts me off.

"It's okay, I think I saw a shovel in your shed. How good are you at digging?"

"You are such a child."

"Oh god, I knew it. There is a body in there. It's Owen's, isn't it? Or maybe Luke's?"

I don't even bother dignifying him with a response. I just stand there in front of him, staring at him with my mouth agape.

"Yup," he confirms himself. "It's both. Well, at least they're together in death too. I'm sure they both appreciate that, which means the likely hood of them haunting us is pretty low."

How the two of us aren't laughing right now? I don't know. I think I'm in shock over his commitment to this joke and Sterling is much too entertained to stop.

"Will you shut up already?" I ask sincerely. If he's going to keep going I at least want to take a seat.

"Yeah okay, I'm done. That was fun though, wasn't it?" He bends down and places a quick kiss on my temple.

"Sure, darling."

"But really, what the hell is in that thing?"

As nonchalantly as I can, ignoring that this bag weighs as much as a baby elephant, I say, "Just my things for the weekend."

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

After convincing Sterling I did not overpack and I don't need to go put things back in my room, we load up his car and climb in.

Jemma and Chase left a few hours ago because they didn't want to get caught driving in the snow. Unfortunately for me and Sterling, we couldn't leave early because he was stuck at hockey practice.

He takes the car out of park and begins to back out of the driveway. But, instead of continuing down the road, he breaks and turns to me. "You've got the rolls?"

I narrow my eyes at him. "How do you know about the rolls?"

He stays silent, I don't. "Oh my god! My mom texted you, didn't she?"

"She may or may not have. I plead the fifth."

"Nice try, dumbass. We're in Canada. I don't like the two of you being in cahoots with each other."

"Sorry, babe, you know we love you, I just wanted to make sure." He takes his foot off the break and continues driving.

"Well, you didn't need to. The rolls are right there–" I point to the back seat where all presents are stacked.

"Uh, Laney." His tone is apprehensive.

"What?"

"The rolls aren't there."

"Shit!" I curse, unbuckling my seatbelt, before dashing out of the car and back into the house.

Two minutes later I hop back into the car, this time with the bag of rolls in my hand.

Sterling lets out a loud, exaggerated sigh, "I sure am glad I asked you. We couldn't have your screw up ruining my perfect track record."

"Perfect track record?" I ask.

He shrugs his shoulders flippantly. "Yeah, they love me."

I ignore him, not giving into his cockiness, but he's right — not that I'd ever let him know that — my parents adore him, because honestly, what's not to adore.

"Well, my track record is spotless. Because you know what? I'm their daughter."

"And I'm their future son in law. Family all the same," he admits certainly.

He has a fucking answer for everything. This answer though, gets my attention. We've never really discussed marriage together before. Although I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about it a lot.

"Oh really?"

"Really."

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

We arrive at my parents' house a little later than expected because of the weather, and, by the time we get there, everyone is already settled in and making dinner.

I run out from the car and straight into the house, carrying the rolls. Sterling follows me with all the presents.

"Sorry we're late! Sterling drives like a freaking grandma in the snow," I tell my mom who greets us at the door.

"I was carrying precious cargo," he responds as he gives my mom and hug and sets down the bags of presents.

I smile at his words but he has other plans. "I was talking about the presents, Laney. Don't be self absorbed."

"You're just all about jokes today, aren't you?"

"It's called holiday spirit."

My mom just beams, looking at the two of us as if we just exchanged our wedding vows when in reality we were taunting each other for fun. God, I can't even imagine the look on her face when we do get married.

"Well c'mon you love birds, everyone is gathered in the living room." She takes Sterling's hand in hers and leads the two of them into the next room while I pull off my boots and set the rolls in the kitchen.

Sterling and my parents already have a great relationship. A few days after making our relationship official, my mom demanded we have dinner with them. So, we did, and they loved him almost immediately.

He brought my mom flowers and my dad a bottle of nice wine but he didn't even need gifts. His personality charmed them and I could literally see my dad's protective wariness wash away as he got to know Sterling.

Now, he has both their numbers and I'm pretty sure he has conversations with the two of them weekly.

I swear they love him more than me.

As for Sterling's dad and Nancy, we've had dinner once since the wedding and they got to know me as his girlfriend. I'm fairly confident I made a good impression on them, however, I'm not nearly as close with them. Sterling's dad is a busy man which makes planning a get-together relatively difficult.

I greet everyone in the living room, hugging everybody but Chase who decides to ruffle my hair like I'm five years old.

The last person I hug is Charlotte, who saw me last week for gymnastics class but acts as if I haven't seen her in ages. I laugh as she wraps her small arms around my legs and proceeds to sing about how much she's missed me.

I reach down and pick her up, hanging her little body on the side of my hip as Sterling makes his way over to the two of us and places a quick kiss on both our foreheads.

"God, I can already picture you two as a little family! My grandbabies are going to be perfect!" my mom exclaims, and I fight the urge to either face palm or slap a hand over her mouth. Maybe both.

Much to my dismay, I do neither and my dad is the one to react. "Lisa, please. I am not ready to be a grandfather yet nor are you ready to be a grandmother. Those kids are far too young to be parents."

"John, please, of course I know that. I'm just saying, when the time is right, those two are going to have models for children," my mom counters.

Both Chris and Nancy chuckle at my parents and I suddenly feel very awkward with all the attention on my relationship.

"It's not like she's having sex anyways, right Dell?" Jemma mutters only loud enough for me, Sterling, and Chase to hear, thank god, and Charlotte is completely oblivious. But, even still, I jab her in the ribs with my elbow and plaster a fake smile onto my face to make sure no one else notices.

"I'd get you back by talking about your sex life too but that includes talking about my brother's which makes me want to gag. You're a lucky son of a bitch, Jemma Campbell."

She places a kiss on my cheek — a teasing action, not a sweet one — and saunters into the kitchen to follow after my parents. The three of them, plus Chase finish getting dinner ready while Sterling, Charlotte, and I sit down on the couch and discuss our Christmas plans with his dad and Nancy.

Sterling's family is leaving late tonight to have Christmas at their own house. The next day we're all heading back to campus to have a 'friends Christmas'. It happened that none of us were traveling and we could all make it back in time to celebrate together.

We only get to chat for a little over ten minutes before dinner is ready and we're gathered around the dining room table. The night is next to perfect with great food and company and it ends in Charlotte wearing everyone's paper crowns from the Christmas crackers and talking about how pretty of a princess she is.

God, I love that child.

Now, we're scattered in the living room, the parents on the couch and the kids on the floor, about to exchange presents. The gifts are relatively boring, consisting of expensive alcohol, fancy mugs, candles, because the rest of the presents are being exchanged with the entire friend group.

Eventually, the night winds down and Sterling and his family get going.

I say goodnight to my parents and the two of them head to bed leaving me to third wheel with my best friend and brother.

We decide on watching Elf, a Christmas classic, and by the time the movie finishes, the three of us are wiped so we head to bed. Jemma and I crash the second our heads hit our pillows.

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

I wake up on Christmas morning with a text from Sterling reading, ""

I smile down at my phone before replying, ""

"Are you done texting your boyfriend yet?" Jemma asks as she rolls over to face me.

"Yup." I tap her nose with my pointer finger. "Merry Christmas, Jem."

"Merry Christmas, Dell."

The two of us put on our matching Christmas onesies, the same ones we've worn for the last four years. She's a tree and I'm a snowman.

We head down the stairs and are met with the familiar sight of my parents seated on the couch sipping coffee and Chase talking to them while he waits for us.

He's the first one awake every year. Meaning he has to wait for us to come down before we can start celebrating. And we never hear the end of his complaining.

Once we're settled, we dig into the presents and I can't help the smile plastered to my face the entire morning.

This day is the same every year. Consisting of my parents buying us a matching set of sweaters to wear during dinner, Chase getting us gag gifts, and Jemma and I exchanging the most obscure items we find at various antique shops.

I love that Christmas for me includes Jemma but I can't ignore the reason for that is because her parents can't celebrate with her themselves. Her parents are constantly traveling for work and she says she's used to it, which I don't doubt, but I know it hurts her more than she lets on. Despite that, I don't push her. If she says she's fine, she doesn't want to talk about it, and I know she'll come to me when she does.

After breakfast I give Sterling a quick call, showing him a haul of my gifts and chatting with Charlotte briefly. Once we hang up, I go back to hanging out with my family, watching just about every Christmas movie made, and eating our weight in sugar cookies.

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

I was a little unmotivated to write this chapter so I decided to make it kind of fun, hence all the banter. Which I'm glad I included because I missed writing Sterling and Laney's teasing. Anyways, it ended up being probably my favourite chapter to write because of all the funny moments.

Question of the chapter: Favourite Christmas song?

Please vote and comment!

Stay safe and healthy <3