The days before Christmas were pretty uneventful. It had only been a few days since the break started. Luckily the bruise on my face had disappeared, most likely thanks to Manfred putting ice on it when he brought me home all those days ago. Although I still had a cut on my lip and my body looked green and yellow from the healing bruises. I met up with The Misfits on the 21st December, celebrating "presmas" as Sam had called it, and handing out some presents.

It was all merry until sometime after midnight. Sam ended up on the floor in food-paralysis, or maybe it was because of an allergic reaction, it's hard to know for sure with him. Manfred and Tor tended to him while Odd laughed his ass off. When Sam began coughing violently, Robert started to make a fuss, running around the small basement in hope of finding something that might be of help. He didn't. The others, including me, sat silently and watched. It was a pretty fun scene. Especially when Manfred hit Robert over his head to make him sit down and shut up. He had also thrown Odd over his shoulder, carried him over to the storage room, and locked him inside. When Odd's presence disappeared and Robert finally calmed down, it didn't take long before Manfred and Tor managed to snap Sam out of his paralysis.

Sam had fallen asleep soon after and it didn't take long before the rest of us followed suit. Not before letting Odd out though. Manfred earned a punch in the face from him. He had only laughed at it. Most likely since Odd wasn't very strong physically, but I saw him squint his eyes in pain and remembered the hit he had taken to his face. Odd must have hit him on the remaining bruise.

I was the last one awake, and only because Eric held me up. He wasn't there. Mostly because the only person he actually knew was me and because The Misfits were socially awkward, terribly so. Well, except Manfred and Sam, but that didn't add up when the others would refuse any outsiders.

Anyway, he kept me up by chatting non-stop with me. Somehow he had made it into some kind of thing, flirting I mean. It happened in almost all of our chats these days, but I was still unsure how to interpret it. Best friends didn't flirt with each other. Usually best friends wouldn't do that to each other either. A small voice in my head reminded me.

The day after, Eric and I met up at Millie's. It was crowded, more so than ever, and even if we hadn't been planning on working that day, we helped out by taking orders or stand at the counter. I even helped out in the bakery, and Millie saw that place as a sanctuary.

When the last couple of customers started to leave, Eric and I sat down with a loud sigh in our usual booth with some hot chocolate. Millie had assured them that they could stay past closing time. Just don't forget to lock up when you leave, she had said and then left shop for the last time until it opened again on the 2nd of January.

Eric and I stayed in the café way longer than we should have. Doing nothing really. By the time we finally came to the conclusion that we should leave, the moon was high in the sky and the temperature had gone from -4 Celsius to -oh god we're gonna freeze to death. My parents weren't at home, they wanted to work until the 24th, so that they could keep the rest of the holiday open for me. We decided on Eric's house, mostly because it was closer to the café.

His house was dark, parents and brothers most likely asleep already. As we took off our coats and shoes we giggled like girls on a boy band concert. We kept shushing each other, not that we stayed silent for long, in fact we probably giggled louder after each shush.

Stumbling into Eric's room, I felt lightheaded. We continued to laugh and giggle as well as pushing each other around. It wasn't until Eric accidentally made us trip that we fell silent. We landed with a soft thud on his bed, him on top of me. At first we were both quiet. I could feel his breath fanning my face. Time stood still. Or at least it did so until a loud crash, followed by the angry screeching from some cat, made us both jump back into reality. He let out a nervous chuckle before getting off me.

"Uhm... do you want a shirt or something?" he asked reluctantly while scratching the back of his neck. I nodded, scared that my voice wouldn't come out if I tried to speak. At least the room was fairly dark, so my tomato face might not have been noticed. I hurriedly stood up and walked over to the window, looking into the dark neighborhood. Eric stood with his back to me, rummaging through his wardrobe, and soon a shirt was thrown my way. With a blush, I turned around so that he couldn't see my front. The bruises might have faded, but they were still there, yellow and utterly ugly. It was a thin t-shirt, very thin, making my every nook and cranny visible, it was slightly disturbing as I didn't have any pants.

"Eric? Can I have a pair of pants too?" I asked and turned around.

The picture in front of me was God-like. Eric was standing in the light provided by the moon, shining through his bedroom window. His chiseled body almost glowing, thanks to him not wearing a shirt. Dark curls fell in front of his eyes, making me unable to see them. He was turned to me, his mouth slightly open. I found myself staring at his lips; plump and kissable. I shook my head to make my unnecessary thoughts disappear, that's when his tongue slipped out to wet his lips. Thank you for breaking my thought-disappearing-session. I put my hands in front of little me. It's way too late for youngsters to be up.

The spell was broken by a sudden sneeze. Then I realised that I was the one that sneezed. Eric had apparently also snapped out of his daze and hurried to me. He took my shivering body and wrapped me in a large, fluffy blanket. I realised just a little too late that he had wrapped it tightly around me, and I now couldn't move, at least not enough to walk. My toes were still exposed to the cold, so was my nose and eyes. I glared at Eric. Who had a hand over his mouth, obviously trying not to laugh. The blanket covered half of my face, so I tried to wiggle myself free so that I could speak. It didn't work.

"I can't move," I whined, although the blanket made it muffled so I doubted he had heard me. He burst out laughing at my attempt to speak, but then scooched the blanket down a bit, making me able to tell him to help me to the bed. By throwing me over his shoulder like some potato sack, or burrito.

Finally, on the bed, I wiggled in my blanket-prison in an attempt to break free, to no avail. Eric threw himself next to me, making the bed shake, and me squeak as it I was sure that I would manage to roll off the bed. I peeked over the edge of my burrito; Eric was staring at me. Grinning like an idiot he pulled me closer to him. Engulfing me in his warmth.

I groaned as the heat became unbearable and began to squirm in the thick layers of blanket. Thankfully, he noticed and finally unwrapped me from the blanket. When I was free he smiled at me, and wrapped his arms tightly around me once again. I blushed, well hidden in his chest. Slowly, I wrapped my own arms around him. We hadn't been this close since that party, weeks ago. To be honest, I wasn't even sure if I wanted to forget the whole 'maybe-rape' anymore.

Eric's scent took over my senses, I wanted to bury my face in his chest, which I not so subtly did. Then, of course, I remembered that he was shirtless. My face heated up even more, and I felt little me wake up once again. That's not good. I quickly turned around, so that my back was against his chest, at least he wouldn't feel it poking against him. He hugged me closer, and then pulled the blanket and the duvet up to our chins. The warmth was finally enough to make me drift off to sleep.

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