Page 124 of Finding Olivia (Trace + Olivia 1)

“Don’t be such a baby. It’s Christmas!” She chimed, throwing her hands in the air with excitement.

I glared at her and then began to giggle. “Why are you wearing an elf hat?” I eyed the monstrosity on her head.

“It’s tradition!” She exclaimed.

I looked around and realized that Galen was wearing a Santa hat, Resa was wearing a Mrs. Klaus bonnet or whatever you wanted to call it, while Avery and the guys all wore elf hats, pointy ears included.

A giggle bubbled to the surface, and escaped my lips. At the sound of my laugh, I couldn’t hold back full-blown hysterics.

“I need a picture of this,” I wiped tears from my eyes and grabbed my phone from my pocket, snapping a picture of Avery before she had the chance to react. “This is so going in our dorm room,” I laughed, waving my phone around.

When her brother’s caught sight of the picture, they began to laugh. Pretty soon, even Resa, Galen, and Avery were laughing.

Once our laughter had ceased, Avery smiled menacingly. “Luckily, we have an extra hat,” she stuck one of those ridiculous elf contraptions on my head. “Now,” she smiled, “we can continue with presents.”

“What’s going on?” I turned around to see my mom standing in the doorway.

“Olivia’s making everyone laugh,” Nick grinned at my mom. “Join us,” he patted an empty spot of carpet beside him. I watched as she made her way across the room, to Nick, and sat down beside him. He leaned over, and whispered something in her ear, which made her smile and blush at the same time.

Avery and I exchanged a look and shook our heads. I had no idea where that was heading, and frankly, I didn’t want to think about the possibilities.

When they started making lovey dovey eyes at each other I wanted to point a finger at my head and yell, ‘Mom! Look at me! Your daughter! Over here! Stop staring at the guy young enough to be my brother!’

Nasty.

I didn’t understand how she’d become so smitten with Nick so soon. I would’ve thought that after finally getting the courage to leave my father…um, Aaron…the last thing she would have been interested in would be another guy. I guess I was wrong.

“I got you something,” Avery beamed and plopped a box in my lap. It was large, but light, and wrapped in shiny green paper with stockings on it.

“Avery, you didn’t have to get me anything,” I told her.

“I know,” she shrugged, smiling at me, while she played with a strand of red hair.

“I feel bad,” I frowned. “I didn’t get you anything.”

“Don’t,” she smiled. “Besides, Christmas is about giving gifts not receiving them.”

“Are you sure you’re Avery Callahan?” I tapped her forehead.

“Yes,” she rolled her eyes. “I do have a heart, you know. Now open it!”

I smiled and began tearing off the wrapping paper. It was just a plain brown box, tapped down on all four sides. I used the edge of my fingernail to rip off the tape and then took the lid off.

I pushed aside the red and green tissue paper to find a stylish infinity scarf in different shades of blue and a navy button down pea coat.

“Avery,” I gasped, pulling the items out of the box. “They’re beautiful.”

“I knew you’d love them!” She clapped her hands together. “As soon as I saw them, I knew you had to have them. There’s a hat too,” she shuffled more

tissue paper aside and pulled out a beanie in one of the lighter shades of blue from the scarf.

“Avery, this is too much. I can’t accept this,” I whispered.

“You can and you will. You’re my best friend, Livie, and I wanted to get you something nice, for putting up with all my crazy shit,” she smiled.

“I-I-thank you,” I stuttered, completely taken aback by the sweet gesture.

“You’re welcome,” she beamed.

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