A Corny Christmas Present
This is just a random thing I wrote last night that incorporates today’s (animals) and tomorrow’s (Christmas) Doey week prompts. If anyone likes it enough, I’ll try and do a continuation of it.
It was the night before Christmas and Duncan was nervous as hell. He had spent all week going from store to store looking for the perfect gift to give his new girlfriend. Shopping for Zoey wasn’t like shopping for his past girlfriends. She didn’t give him exceedingly detailed lists or just say the one thing that she wanted. She was a settler. He went through around a month of asking and hinting, and only got “anything is fine” and “I’m sure I’ll love anything you get me”. Then again, he hadn’t been any better. But he figured he was easy to shop for; get something with a skull on it or a new punk rock album. Finally he was able to find a ‘cute’, or at least he thought it was something kinda ‘cute’ or whatever, flower sweater.
He stared at Zoey’s apartment door, frozen and sweating bullets. He finally rang the doorbell. Seconds later, Zoey answered completely dressed in festive Christmas attire; red and green everything, and jingle bell jewelry. The smile she greeted him with was brighter than a Christmas tree. She let him in and guided Duncan to the sofa which was next to her overly decorated tree. It was a real tree, too. That was rare for someone her age and living in an apartment. Duncan just envisioned his tiny girlfriend lugging up that well sized tree up four flights of stairs. Then again she was pretty strong for her built and size.
Zoey plopped onto the sofa next to him and leaned against his shoulder. She was almost like a little puppy. Duncan cleared his throat, “Uh um, I got you something.” He quickly handed her the box. She took it and looked at the handy work of Duncan’s less than professional wrapping skills. This made her smile get even wider.
She gently took the paper off the box and carefully opened it. Her face, if it was even possible, looked even more happy than she had before. Zoey rushed out of the room and ran into her bedroom, closing the door behind her. Moments later she came out wearing her new sweater on looking so cozy and warm.
“Oh!” she exclaimed as though she remembered something important.
“I got you something too!” She hurried over to her boyfriend and took took him by the hand. After pulling him up off the sofa, she dragged him over to her bedroom.
“Ok close your eyes,” she insisted. Duncan rolled his eyes at her childishness but did as she had requested. He heard a door open and felt her do her best to maneuver him into a certain spot in the room.
“Alright, you can look now,” Zoey instructed. As he began opening his eyes, she over excitedly yelled,
“Merry Christmas!” When Duncan full opened his eyes he saw a terrarium with a green corn snake.
“I um asked your parents, and uh Gwen too, about if you have had any pets when you were a kid,” Zoey fumbled nervously, tucking her hair behind her ears. “They said you had a dog when you wee little but um I’m sort of-“
“Allergic,” Duncan finished for her.
“Hehe yeah,” she continued. “And that you had a pet tarantula but-“
“I don’t want to die in my sleep.”
“Yeah. And Gwen said you thought her pet lizards-“
“Yeah, them! They were kinda cute… ish. Hehe. Um so I went to the pet store and asked the man at the counter for a reptile, and he recommended this lil’ fella.” Duncan couldn’t help but understand why the salesman recommended a corn snake. Just by looking at Zoey, she wasn’t a BIG snake kind of gal.
“So?” Zoey looked up at him with her big eyes. “Do you like him?” With a sigh and a smile, Duncan lifted the snake out of it’s home and let it coil around his arm.
“I love it, babe,” he replied. He kissed his girl on the cheek. “Thank you.”
“So what are you gonna name him?” she asked as she petted the little snake on it’s scaly head.
“I was thinking ‘Ringo’,” he answered with a smirk. Zoey giggled. It was sweet of him to name his new pet after a member of her favorite band.
For the rest of the night Duncan and Zoey stayed up late watching classic Christmas movies, and listening to Zoey’s super rare Beatles Christmas records. They ended up falling alseep on the sofa. Around six a.m., Duncan woke up to find his girlfriend sleeping, laying against his shoulder. Trying hard not to wake her, he gently placed Zoey on the sofa. But before he could slip away he felt a strong but tiny hand grab is wrist and tugging on it.
“You need to go?” Zoey asked drowsily as she sat up.
“Yes,” Duncan answered mournfully. “Gotta visit my folks for a ‘family Christmas’. Traditions and crap.”
“That sounds really nice,” she commented, stretching and letting out a small yawn.
“Do you,” he began to ask, “want to come with?” Zoey perked up immediately. “My parents would probably like to, um, meet you and stuff…” She quickly said ‘yes’ and ran into her bedroom to change her clothes and pull herself together.
The next half hour was a car ride filled with questions, Zoey going from excited to scared to happy to nervous, and Duncan constantly reassuring her it would be fine. It didn’t help that they had stopped for coffee on the way there. That just made her hyper, jittery, and turning her at first small anxiety into almost freaking out. Duncan was able to calm her down right before they turned onto his parent’s street. They drove down a ways and stopped in front of a quaint white and blue house.
“Um Duncan,” Zoey’s eyes went wide. “Why are there police cars in your parent’s driveway?” She got nervous again. “Is someone getting arrested?!”
“I wish…,” he signed as he put the car in park. “I hope you don’t mind a house full of cops.” The stress melted off of Zoey’s face and was replaced with uncontrollable laughter. They didn’t leave the car until she was sure she was fine. She felt like she was going to pull something, she laughed so hard. It didn’t help that Duncan made the comment that they wouldn’t have a problem getting to the hospital, and would have a “blue light free pass” to run a few red lights.
Once all was calm and only just a smile was left on Zoey’s face, the two walked hand in hand up to the front door. They both took a deep breath and took one last look at each other before Duncan knocked on the door. And what happened next, well, that is a whole other story.
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