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AMÉLIE AND NEIL silently agreed not to tell the poets anything. nothing about his attempt, nothing about his parents. eventually they'd find out, but it wasn't something they had to know right now. amélie's house was decked out in christmas decorations. charlie, knox and marianne had come over to help earlier. amélie was hosting a christmas party for all of her friends. her dad had reluctantly agreed, and left the house to her and her friends for the night.

she'd been baking all sorts of christmas treats all day, she almost forgot to get herself ready. she grabbed herself a dark red long sleeve dress, and put on black sheer tights underneath. she wore her mothers necklace, and a dark wine lip. it was 6:54, so it wouldn't be long until people started arriving.

neil was first, of course. he smiled, two gifts in his hands. they were both small. he kissed his girlfriend tenderly, hugging her tightly for an extra second so he could inhale the perfume on her neck.

amélie pulled away from him so she could point to a wooden coffee table in the living room. there was nothing on it except for a tacky christmas table cloth draped over top of it. "you can put the gifts on the table."

"this one is for you." neil chuckled, holding up a small blue box. "i know we weren't supposed to get anything other than our secret santa gifts, but-" it wasn't wrapped.

"neil!" amé groaned. she hadn't thought to get him anything, and immediately felt bad.

neil shoved the box into her hands. "i couldn't resist. open it, please."

"fine." she sighed, opening the top. inside was a pair of silver dangly earrings with a green jewel. "they're beautiful." she exhaled.

"i love you." it was the second time she had said those three sacred words, but they still sent a rush of adrenaline through neil's veins.

"i love you too." he managed. he helped her put the earrings in.

"you look beautiful, very festive." he complimented her. she did a plié, holding the bottom of her dressed.

"thank you." she blushed, throwing her arms around neil and kissing him with passion. before things could go any further, charlie and marianne came bursting through the door.

"getting a bit frisky are we?" charlie smirked, causing amé and neil to scramble away from eachother.

"charlie, that's not a way to greet your hosts." neil rolled his eyes, hiding the smile he had. if he was being honest, he wasn't embarrassed. he was proud of his girlfriend.

"sorry. happy holidays you two." charlie snickered. marianne was on his arm, nodding and smiling.

"happy holidays marianne!" amélie grinned, going in for a hug.

"it feels like it's been ages. the cold makes time feel slower, i suppose." marianne kissed both of amélie's cheeks. she wore a red santa hat.

"nice hat."

"it's mine, thank you very much." charlie groaned, taking the hat from right off her head.

"the table for gifts is in the living room." amélie pointed.

"hi, are we late?" meeks interrupted. pitts was at his side.

"not at all." amé shook her head. she accepted her role as a door greeting person.

"i'm happy to see you guys." neil smiled, hugging both of his friends.

"we're happy to see you neil! you need to tell us about the play." pitts smiled, meeks nodding quickly in agreement.

"well, i'm sure we can find some time to do that later." the two when off into the living room to talk to charlie.

"hi!" chris noel greeted the couple at the door, knox beside her.

"chris!" amélie excitedly said. she hugged her friend. chris was the first person she met in vermont.

"amélie! long time no see!"

"so you guys are just going to ignore my presence?" knox groaned, pushing through the doorway.

"sorry. hi knox." amélie sheepishly grinned. chris let out a snicker.

"hi." he grumbled, leaving to the living room. chris followed behind him.

"hi guys." todd quietly greeted the party. everyone seemed to be on time, coming to the door one after another. it was perfect.

amélie looked at neil's face light up when he saw todd, and couldn't help but go into a hug with her boyfriend's best friend. "i missed you."

"i-i missed you too?" todd said back, furrowing his eyebrows.

"todd." neil simply said.

"neil." he responded. the two hugged in silence for about a minute. it was beautiful. somehow, someway, todd could sense what happened, but didn't speak a word of it.

"is cameron coming?" neil asked, pulling away from the hug awkwardly. he acted like it never happened.

"nah, parties aren't his scene." todd shrugged.

"he's apart of the secret santa!"

"i bet he lost his paper with his person on it." charlie added in, laughing.

"well, that's unfortunate." amélie shrugged, looking around the room. "i guess everyone's here."

"let's get this party started!" knox celebrated, popping a champagne bottle amé had on her dining table.

the party was in full swing. everyone was chattering quietly against the christmas record that played in the background.

chris waved amélie over to the dining room table. she held a gingerbread cookie in her hand. "amélie, did you make this?"

"yeah."

"it's just great! will you show me the recipe?"

"of course! i'll bring it over sometime this week." amé nodded, smiling. the boys were playing around, getting drunk and dancing to the music.

chris came in closer and lowered her tone. "so, i broke off my engagement with chet."

"did you?" amé asked, shocked. a smile was playing at her mouth.

"yeah."

"i was wondering why you came here with knox."

"well, he never caught my interest." chris shrugged. her eyes were locked on knox. "until i saw chet's real side. he's a jerk, and so full of himself. knox has been nothing but nice to me. i decided to give him a chance."

"well, whatever makes you happy." amé nodded, hugging chris's side.

"i am happy." chris nodded, a warm smile on her face. "i've barely seen you this year."

"yeah, aurela's busy." amé shrugged. she, on the other hand, couldn't keep her eyes off neil.

"you and neil, huh?" chris nudged her, breaking her out of her trance.

"yeah.." she sighed lovingly. "i like him a lot."

"you can tell." chris snorted.

the boys called everyone back into the living room, because of knox's request.

"i'm getting restless, can we open the gifts now?" he groaned. he had half a glass of champagne in his hand.

"yeah, fine." amélie shrugged. knox giddily tore open his gift like a child, but his face dropped when he saw what he got.

"okay, who the fuck bought me deodorant?" he complained, making everyone laugh.

"face it, you stink, knoxious." charlie shrugged, doing a bad job of concealing his grin.

"oh, dalton, i'm going to kill you." knox growled, shaking his head. he grabbed his present off the table and held it out. "neil, i had you."

neil opened the gift carefully, and was greeted with 4 fountain pens, all engraved with n.p. "woah. these are expensive."

"for writing your future plays." knox smiled goofily. neil smiled at this.

"thank you, knox." he nodded. he ran his finger over the engravement of his initials. "todd, i got you. it's kind of a dorky gift, i suppose."

todd took a small book from neil's hands. he flipped through the pages. "is- is this annotated?"

"yeah. it's one of my favorites." neil nodded, waiting to see his friends reaction.

"thank you." todd simply whispered, true gratitude in his voice. "marianne, this is for you."

marianne smirked at her gift. it was in a department store bag. she took out a pink spritz bottle. "oh my gosh! todd, this is such a nice perfume."

"my mom helped me pick the scent." todd blushed, shrugging.

"it's actually like, really fancy. thank you." marianne admired, spraying the perfume and inhaling it with joy. she put it down to grab the gift she bought. "meeks, i got you a record. i hope you have a player."

meeks grinned once she spoke the word 'record.' "thank you! i love elvis."

"is that an elvis presley record?" pitts joyfully said, looking over meeks's shoulder.

"yup." he said proudly. "charlie, i had you. you'll like this one."

charlie tore the paper, and grinned at the sight of a topless woman. "jeez..." it was a porno magazine. "thank you, meeks! i'm going to enjoy this."

"gross!" marianne gagged, elbowing charlie.

"well, i had cameron, and he's not here.." pitts spoke, putting his gift down.

"pitts, i had you. it's nothing special." amélie pushed out a wrapped book to him. he unwrapped it carefully. it was a brontë sisters work.

"i've always wanted to read this, thank you!" pitts flipped through it quickly, smiling.

"that's the end of the exchange, i guess." knox sighed. he was still pissed about the deodorant joke.

"happy holidays guys!" amélie grinned.

"thank you, amélie, for hosting." chris smiled, holding onto knox's arm.

"let's do a toast." todd smiled. he grabbed the bottle of champagne while neil passed out the champagne flutes.

"okay, okay.." todd carefully poured a somewhat equal amount in each cup. he put the bottle down, and raised his glass.

neil followed his action. "on three, a toast to amélie, and every member of the dead poets society." todd softly spoke.

"i love you guys." neil whispered.

"1, 2.." everyone began, but the last number was replaced by clinks. outside, snow fell, trees were covered with lights, christmas decorations were plastered on houses, and neil was happy to be alive.

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three chapters remain! hope u guys enjoyed this christmas fluff :) i've been so inconsistent so i hope this extremely long chapter makes up for it 💕