“Riles, it’s three days before Christmas, I did all the concerts and holiday specials that I was asked to do, I’m officially on break until New Year’s Eve, what could we possibly have planned for today. It’s the day before Christmas Eve, the day practically invented for doing nothing.” Maya groaned out, sitting up in bed and tying her messy hair in a bun on the top of her end. Riley was standing in front of her, her hands on her hips and a wide, mischievous smile on her face.

“Well, my dearest peaches, apple of my eye, we have a Christmas party to go to!” Clapping her hands, Riley spun in a circle and Maya couldn’t help but snort, a small smirk on her face. But, after a moment, a frown replaced her smirk and she sighed loudly, standing up from bed.

“I have no interest in going to a party, especially not a Christmas party, especially a Hollywood Christmas party, where I don’t know half the people there and I hate the other half.” Maya said, a strong hint of disdain in her voice as she moved past Riley and made her way into her bathroom, sticking her toothbrush into her mouth.

“Alright, Scrooge, I think the party will be fun.” Riley stood in the doorway, her arms crossed over her Rudolf sweater, an incredulous look on her face.

“Of course you do, you love anything and everything Christmas related.” Maya said with an eyeroll, her voice muffled around her toothbrush. Riley smiled to herself, nodding slightly before directing her attention back to Maya.

“You’re not wrong about that, but come on Maya, I do really think this party will be fun.” Rinsing her mouth, Maya turned around to look at Riley full on, who looked seconds short of begging. “Come on, you don’t have to perform, we can just go, eat a bunch of sweets, wear cheesy outfits and dance all night, it will be so much fun, please, please, please.” Riley took a couple steps towards her, taking Maya’s hands in her own and Maya groaned, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to say no to Riley.

A smile started to form on her face and she could feel Riley’s excitement growing, before long they both were smiling widely at each and Riley knew Maya had given in.

“Fine, fine. But, I get to wear whatever I want and if I want to leave, we leave, got it.” Riley smiled, nodding her head before clapping her hands together.

“Yay!!! You won’t regret it Maya, I promise.” And with a wink, Riley was disappearing out of her bathroom and down the hallway to her own room. “And we’re leaving in a half an hour to go shopping so get dressed!”

Maya had a strong feeling she was going to regret this.

…

“Dude, these kinds of things totally aren’t your scene, why are you even going.” Lucas asked from his position on the couch, watching his brother move around their apartment, grabbing his phone and wallet and shoving them into his pocket.

“Because dude, mom and dad certainly aren’t going to be inviting us to Christmas parties any time soon, and knowing us, Christmas dinner will probably be cold pizza or leftover chinese food. I want to do at least one Christmas thing this year, and this party is going to have free food and gift bags, so consider me in.” Zac said with a small shrug of his shoulders.

Truth was, he wasn’t totally jazzed about this party, but he had gotten invited by some director he had met and apparently invites weren’t very easy to come by, so he would have felt a little rude about saying no. Besides, he was always down for a party, he just hoped that people wouldn’t be trying to talk to him all night.

He had never been a huge fan of Christmas, Christmas’ were just never a huge family thing at their house when they were kids. It was always about the galas his parents went to, or the extravagant party his parents threw every single year. Sure, him and Lucas got the presents that they wanted every single year, but it was more to keep them quiet then it was an act of love by his parents.

Lucas simply shrugged, turning his attention back to the tv in front of him. Zac sighed slightly, grabbing his jacket and throwing it over his shoulders, eyeing the back of Lucas’ head with a small glare.

“You coming?” He asked, raising his eyebrows as Lucas looked back at him with confusion written all over his face.

“What?”

“Bro, I can’t go to this thing by myself, you gotta come with me. You might have fun, come on.” Zac tilted his head slightly, truth was, he really didn’t think they would have much fun, but he definitely wasn’t going to suffer at this thing by himself, that’s for sure. “Besides dude, I thought you loved Christmas.”

“I do love Christmas, I just don’t really want to go to a party where I won’t know anyone.” Lucas said with a sigh, but he stood from the couch and moved over to where Zac was standing in the kitchen, grabbing his phone from the table and pocketing in. Zac smirked, he knew that Lucas wasn’t going to turn him down now.

“I hardly think I’ll know anyone either, so we can just talk to each other, now come on, let’s go, we’re gonna be late.” Zac clapped his heads together and Lucas rolled his eyes, grabbing his coat from the hook.

“Fine, let’s go. Maybe you’re right, maybe this will be fun.” Lucas said with a small grin, gesturing for Zac to lead them out the door.

This was gonna be fun, Zac could feel it.

…

Two hours into this party, and Zac was starting to regret bringing his brother along. For the last 45 minutes his brother had been engaged in conversation with this brunette wearing a reindeer sweater and had left Zac standing by the food table all by himself. He had a cup of eggnog in his hand and he was surrounded by a bunch of people that he didn’t know and who definitely weren’t making any kind of effort to talk to him.

“Wow, standing alone at the snack table, you don’t look suspicious at all.” He was snapped out of his thoughts by a voice and when he looked to his left, he saw the raised eyebrow of a blonde girl, her lips curled into a smirk. He had seen her before, this was Maya Hart.

“Oh well, what if I was waiting for someone, or it was my job to alert the hosts of this party when they need to refill the food, so I have to stand here all night?” He asked, raising his eyebrow and taking a sib of his drink, she snorts, rolling her eyes.

“Then I would say you have a shitty job.” He chuckles and he takes a minute to look at her, she’s scanning the party like she’s looking for someone, and he can’t but notice how bright her eyes are and the shape of her lips as they curve up into a smile and when she flips her long blonde hair over her shoulder, he has to draw his eyes away from her, not wanting to see too creepy.

“Truth is, I don’t even know whose party this is.” He says and she laughs, and his heart beats erratically in his chest and the sound rings in ears even after closed her mouth and turned her attention completely to him.

“Truth is, me neither. I didn’t even want to come, my best friend dragged me along. She loves these kinds of things.” Maya says with a playful eye roll, grabbing a cookie off the table and taking a bite of it.

“I didn’t want to come either, I’m not a huge fan of parties, but I got invited and I didn’t want to be rude.” He gives a small shrug and she nods, her lips pursed.

“See I love parties, but I love the kind of parties where the lighting is dark and no one can see who you are and they aren’t professional photographers who are going to post all these pictures of you online where everyone can criticize you.” She sighs loudly and Zac licks his lips nervously.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. Not that I go to a lot of parties, but I get where you’re coming from.” He swallows harshly and she gives him a small smile. “So, if you’re here with your best friend, why are you standing by the food table talking to some stranger?”

“Firstly, you’re not a stranger, I know who you are Zac Friar, you’re on that show, Riley is obsessed. Secondly, speaking of my said best friend, Riley, she has been over there,” she points to the corner of the room, “talking to some guy for like an hour.”

Zac takes a look at where Maya was gesturing to and gave a loud snort when he realized who the guy was that Maya’s best friend was talking to.

“Well, we’re in the same boat, my brother ditched me to talk to some girl and it looks like that girl is your missing in action best friend.” Maya’s shakes her head slightly in disbelief giving out a small breathy laugh.

“Would you look at that.” She clicks her tongue and looks at him with a smirk on her face. He can’t help but return her smirk, shaking his head slightly. “I’m Maya.” She says after a minute, raising her eyebrow at him.

“Yeah, Maya Hart, you’re a superstar, I know exactly what you are.” She blushed slightly and he smiled softly, taking another sip of his eggnog.

“Ok yeah, I’m Maya Hart, superstar, but I’m also Maya, and it’s nice to meet you.” She said, holding her hand out for him to shake, which he did, he wasn’t going to deny the weird spark that he felt when their hands touched, and he felt his face get red, but took his hand away and rubbed the back of his hand to try and change the subject.

“Well, in that case, I’m Zac, and it’s nice to meet you too, Maya.” She smiled again, and opened her mouth to say something but before she could, and before he could blink there was suddenly a girl on her arm her cheeks flushed and a grin on her lips.

“Maya, you’ll never guess what just happened to me!” She exclaimed, giving Zac a small look before looking at Maya and then looking back at Zac, her jaw dropped. “Oh, you’re Zac Friar.” Her eyes were wide and bright and Maya giggled at her friend, who Zac could only guess was Riley and he couldn’t help but wonder if the exciting news she had for Maya had to do with his brother, who was still standing in the corner of the room, a smile on his face.

“Just Zac, nice to meet you, Riley, I presume.” She blushed and shook his hand, the smile never leaving her face. Zac looked at Maya who had a grin on her face, giggling at her best friend, Zac took the hint that Riley wanted to talk to her best friend, so Zac conceded, giving them both a smile. “I should get going, it was nice to meet you Riley, and nice talking to you Maya.” He gave her a wink and she grinned.

“You too, maybe I’ll see you around town sometime.” She replied with a wink of her own, causing him to blush slightly, he turned to hide his embarrassment, leaving the two best friends to talk.

Walking up to Lucas, who still had a smile on his face, Zac could feel his face still burning with his blush.

“Have a good night?” Lucas asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. Zac shook his head, a laugh escaping his lips.

“What about you, I know you did.” He winked, Lucas’ jaw dropping slightly, unable to form a response.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Zac left the party with a smile on his face, suddenly having a much bigger appreciation for the holiday season.

…

The next morning, Maya awoke before her best friend could come and fling her curtains open, but Maya knew that Riley was probably still asleep. Their walls weren’t that thick and she had heard Riley up most of the night talking to that Lucas guy from the party on the phone, so she would likely be asleep most of the morning.

Looking at her phone, she crinkled her eyebrows as she saw a handful of twitter notifications and texts from people she knew questioning her about her new relationship.

“What the fuck, new relationship.” Clicking twitter open, she laughed when she saw a picture of herself and Zac Friar from last night’s party, standing close together, both of them with wide smiles on their faces. They did look fairly chummy with each other, and while she hated when the media made up rumors like this, this didn’t fail to make her smile.