#25doc17

She took a deep breath and plugged the lights into the socket. She stood back and looked around the room admiring the way the lights lit up the house. She called Isaac into the room to adire her handy work. She’d spent days getting ready for their first christmas party in their new home, painstakingly hanging strings of lights around their home, all leading towards the living room in a grand display that included their tree as well as lights around picture frames and the fireplace. It was a sight to see, and just as Isaac stepped into the room it all went out.

“Oh my god, what just happened?” She asked quickly, her voice in a slight panic.

“Maybe you blew a breaker.” He laughed motioning towards the lights around the room, pushing open the curtain to see the streetlights were out as well.

“No no no no no.” She began repeating as tears came to her eyes. “This can’t be happening, everyone is supposed to be over tonight.” She began to panic, burying herself in Isaac’s chest as her anxiety rose.

“I know but it’s fine, these kinds of things happen darling we can’t control everything.”

“I know.” She began, pulling away and trying to wipe her tears only for them to be replaced by more. “I just was so excited and looking forward to this part and now we’ll probably have to cancel.” She said, now crying harder.

He pulled her to his chest and shushed her. “It’s okay baby, it’s all going to be okay. Let’s go lay down a little while and maybe the lights will be on when we get up.” She nodded softly and he picked her up, taking her upstairs and laying her on the bed before sliding in next to her.

It was still dark when she opened her eyes again, the power still out in the neighborhood. Isaac was no longer beside her and when she looked at the clock on her phone she decided it would be best to cancel the party. She quietly walked down stairs, rubbing at her eyes and doing her best to hold back more tears. “Isaac?” She called out, hoping he would at least be moral support as she made these cancelation phone calls.

“In the living room baby.” He yelled back. She sighed and walked towards the room that was once lit up beautifully and would now be dark and dreary as the rest of their home. Or so she expected.

When she walked into the room her mouth dropped and her eyes widened as she gasped in shock. The whole room was being lit with beautiful candle light. Tall candles, votive candles, big round candles, every size and shape of candle she could possibly imagine were arranged around the room providing a soft and beautiful light, similar to the light the light strands had provided earlier in the day. Tears sprung to her eyes as she looked around the room.  “Where did you possibly find all of these candles?” She asked wiping the happy tears from her eyes.

“Crafts stores mostly.” He explained with a laugh, lighting the last candle and setting the lighter on the table. “You were so upset that I had to do something, and besides who doesn’t love lighting nearly 300 candles in an hour?” He smiled and kissed her head just as there was a knock at the door. “Now go greet our guests, I have a few more candles to light.”

“I love you Isaac Lahey.”

“I love you too Y/N Lahey.” He kissed her head again and then left the room. She wiped at her eyes again, took a deep breath, and opened the door to their guests.

It was absolutely freezing. There was a bitter chill in the air as the snow fell down around the small campus. The snow had started to pile high, concealing most of the bricked paths but classes were still on. She had waited until the very last second with her fingers crossed waiting for an email from her professor saying class would be canceled but with 5 minutes left until class started there was no sign of such an email. She slipped on the first shoes she could find, a pair of flats in no way suitable for the weather, and grabbed her books and papers up in her arms, rushing out of her dorm.

It looked like it was freezing from inside the building, but outside of the building it was enough to freeze your lungs if you took too deep of a breath. With her head down in a meek attempt to block the wind from her face and, her being in a rush, led to her missing the other students walking around a large part of the path. So she was incredibly surprised when she landed ass first on the ground, her books and papers flying and water soaking through her too thin clothes. She watched as students continued to walk around her, hurrying to their own classes, until she saw him.

He was the only guy on campus worth giving a single fuck about. He was smart, kind, incredibly handsome. She’d had a crush on Isaac since she sat behind him in algebra their freshman year. They’d gone to the same parties, had been in some of the same courses, she was even pretty sure they were in the same major. They’d never said more than 10 words to each other and now he was coming straight towards her while she was flat on her back on a slab of ice.

She did her best to smile and be cool as he reached his hand out to her until he was slipping in the same way she had mere moments ago. Doing her best to stifle her laughs it was only a matter of moments before they both were giggling uncontrollable.

“What a sight we must be.” She laughed, not even attempting to sit up.

“This is what I get for being helpful.” He began choking out between chuckles. Together they laid on the ground, until they were finally able to crawl off the ice and into the snow. From there they both stood and Isaac held his hand out for her to shake which she gladly took with a smile. “Isaac Lahey, I’m not helpful.”

“Y/N Y/L/N, I’m a mess.” They smiled and shook hands, looking over each other's soaked clothes and Y/N’s books and papers scattered in the snow near by. “You look wet and cold.” She noted in an attempt to be cute though she mentally slapped herself as soon as the words left her lips.

He smiled and nodded. “So do you. Why don’t you come back to my dorm and warm up? I’ve got Coco.”

“Do you have marshmallows?”

“Do I have marshmallows? Are you kidding me? Of course.” He smiled, lighting up his whole face.

She thought for a moment, the boy of her dreams had asked her back to his dorm, at this point she was never making it to class on time so what was the harm or skipping, and she was rather cold. She smiled and nodded. “Well then how can I refuse.” Together the gathered up her belongings and headed to his dorm, more than happy they’d both been so graceful.

Isaac stood in the corner of the room. The house was filled with a mix of his friends and people he didn’t know. He sipped on cup half filled with spiked egg nog; though he couldn’t get drunk the taste of the bourbon made the mixture almost bearable in small sips. Christmas had never been a particularly Merry time for him but when Lydia insisted that everyone get together while on break from college he wasn’t able to turn her town. What he didn’t realize was that when she said everyone she meant everyone. Including people he’d never even spoken to.

This hadn’t been his plan for the night, he’d just gotten home a few days prior, he was hardly settled into his winter break schedule or a routine at Melissa's and here he was somewhere he didn’t want to be with people he didn’t want to be around drinking something he didn’t like all because the popular girl from high school said to. He had a sour expression written all over his face until he saw her across the room, leaning up against the door frame to the kitchen and sipping lightly on the drink in her hand. They’d gone to highschool together and if it hadn’t been for the smile he’d spent years looking at he wouldn’t have even recognized her. She looked older, now 21 as were most of the occupants currently in the house, and even prettier than he remembered. He’d once gotten a C minus in chemistry because he couldn’t focus on anything but her face, even if he would never work up the courage to say anything. But that was ages ago and he was more confident than he had been back then and they were older, more mature, and rejection wasn’t as big of a deal as it had been when they were 15.

He took slow steps towards her, and even when he was stopped by people intent on having a conversation with him, his eyes never left her. It took nearly twenty minutes but he was close enough to smell her perfume. He painted on a wide smile and took the final step to stand before her. “Y/N?” Isaac asked timidly, leaning up against the other side of the door frame.

She looked up quickly and her eyes and smiled widened. “Isaac? Wow I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Isaac nodded and looked down at the floor. “Yeah, well Lydia has a way of convincing people. You look great by the way, you haven’t changed a bit since high school.”

She blushed and looked away. “Neither have you.” She mumbled.

They continued their conversation, reminiscing about high school and talking about their lives since. Isaac threw his head back in laughter and that’s when he saw it, the little white and green plant hanging above the doorway. He wasn’t sure if Lydia had put it up to keep the werewolves from acting up or just as christmas decoration but he knew the tradition and planned to keep it up.

“Hey, Y/N?” He said with an awkward chuckle then pointed to the mistletoe above their heads.

She looked up and her smiled grew. “I suppose this is a good a time as any to kiss you, it only took me six years.” She pushed onto her toes and wrapped an arm around Isaac’s neck, planting a sweet kiss on his lips. The two smiled as the pulled away. “Better late than never.” She said softly.

He nodded, a goofy grin still on his face. “I say we do it again, make up for six years of waiting.” And with that he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a long kiss, the one he’d dreamt about in high school and was thrilled to be experiencing right under the mistletoe.

She looked in the mirror and took a deep breath as she straightened her red and green elf hat. Santa had finally come to the mall and a friend of her’s had convinced Y/N to work with her as an Elf for Santa’s workshop this year, well until it came the day to take in their applications and her other friends had bailed without telling her. Now she was stuck in an itchy elf costum, working with a bunch of people she didn’t know, and didn’t like, for a grumpy old man who she was pretty sure she’d seen slapping a few asses of elves on the last shift. But it was money, and in America money can still be exchanged for goods and services, so she brushed a bit of blush onto her cheeks and gave a wide smile as she walked out into the main area to trade places with the elf standing beside Santa, ushering kids onto his lap.

Isaac was sick of working the graveyard shift in the graveyard. After his father had died someone else had taken over and asked him to stay on since he was the only one who seemed to know how to work a backo and not have plans after sunset. It worked for him for a little while, until the weather turned cold and the money in his pocket was hardly enough to pay for a school lunch. It became clear that he needed a new job and so when Lydia hold him about Santa’s workshop coming to the mall he was more than prepared to fill out an application and get paid for standing around a bunch of little kids, it sure beat burying dead people, well mostly dead. The costume wasn’t so bad, the hours were flexible, and best of all, he was getting paid. So he pinned his nametag, snowball, to his suit and stepped out onto the mall floor.

He had been assigned to take the pictures with Santa, simple enough all he had to do was stand behind a camera and hope no one’s eyes were closed as her snapped the picture. He hadn’t met any of his fellow elf workers, not personally but when he saw her with her rosy cheeks and big, bright smile as she stood next to Santa, ushering children onto his lap he was regretting not knowing her actual name. He looked to her name tag which read ‘Sugarplum’ and he was absolutely smitten.

Over the next several weeks the work became predictable but Y/N didn’t mind, most kids were sweet and the one’s that weren’t changed their attitude the second mall Santa gave them a look. She was getting used to the crew of workers and the more she washed the costume the less itchy it was. Not to mention the photographer on her shift, Snowball, had been eying her since their first day and she was growing quite fond of his smile. Unfortunately the season was coming to an end, with Christmas two days away she was afraid she’d never see Snowball again, or even get to know his real name. But that night as they closed up shop he finally decided to make his move. Walking up to her with a smile on his face he held out his hand for her to shake. “Isaac.” He smiled as he introduced himself.

“Y/N.” She replied

“Well Y/N when we’re not Santa’s little helpers anymore, i’d love to get to know the Y/N behind Sugar plum.”