Day twenty five! Presents under the tree.
Sorry guys, I sort of failed at the advent thing, but I still wanted to write this one because I’ve had it in my head since the beginning so here you go, hope you enjoy!
Part IV of ‘Vanessa is going to kill Charity before the season is over’. In which Charity turns Christmas into a game of pass the bloody parcel with only one contestant.
Charity drags her down to the floor, the pair of them falling beneath the tree like they’re seven and sneaking a peek at their presents before morning. She reaches right to the back of the pile and roots around until she finds a large, misshapen parcel that looks like it contains a pile of lumpy socks. “How about this one, babe?”
Vanessa looks uncertain, she scrunches her nose a little as she takes it, looking at Charity like she’s expecting it to explode over her lap. Typically, it’s wrapped so thickly in tape it’s going to take her right up until next Christmas to get through it, but her girlfriend is looking at her like they’re leaving out cookies for Santa. Vanessa picks until the tiniest fraction of tape comes away and she can get ahold of it and peel and finally pull the paper away to find- there’s another layer.
“Come on,babe, it’s a special one. Open it.”
She rolls her eyes but peels back the next layer. And the one after that. The one after. Next. “Charity-” she protests but she bounces where she’s sat, smiling almost shyly, even though Charity doesn’t do shy. She didn’t do sadness or vulnerability either until Vanessa. There were a lot of things she didn’t do until her. A lot of things Vanessa didn’t either.
It’s a lot smaller now, anyway, She must almost be there. There’s something hard, a sharp edge poking through the paper. It feels like a book. She pulls back the last layer of paper at last, the mountain that’s built up tumbling around her (it’s going to take so long to clean up- because of the tape there are tiny scraps embedded into the carpet).
It is a book. Goat Rearing from Home. “It’s, erm-” Maybe if she opens it she can feign interest while she thinks of something to say. She opens it into her lap and she stares. And goes on staring. Then blinks, but it’s still there. The ring nestled among the carved out pages.
She looks up suddenly, tinsel brushing the top of her head. Charity is looking right back at her, nibbling at her lip and looking as nervous as Vanessa has ever seen her.
“So, will you? Marry me, I mean.” She grins a little sheepishly, but Vanesssa can only stare and the smile slips from Charity’s face. “Right, okay, let’s just forget I asked then, okay? It’s fine I can return the ring and-”
“What? Charity, no! Of course-” The words spill out of her and she stops because she can barely breathe, but her own smile is spread so wide her jaw aches. “Of course I’ll marry you. Here, now, next year, in Vagas- wherever. We could even-”
But Charity, her financee, stops her with a kiss and she feels like the lights on the Christmas tree are burning right inside her, sparkling and warm and bright.
stormborns
jacobvanloon
annaxmalina
jbbartram-illu
areudirty
germansingergirl
