Page 153 of How My Neighbour Stole Christmas
Storee:His name was Renny Bottom—legit that was his name—and it was at prom. We made out under a table so we wouldn’t get caught. He touched my breast and got scared that he touched it too hard.
Cole:Did he?
Storee:I wish he’d touched it harder.
Cole:LOL!
Storee:Okay, favorite Christmas movie?
Cole:“Home Alone.” Kevin is a badass. I thought I’d booby-trap our house once, ended up gluing my pillow’s stuffing to my dad’s bare chest. Mom had to shave him to get it off. He complained about his nips being cold all winter.
Storee:LOLOL! Oh my God. That’s amazing.
Cole:What’s your favorite Christmas movie?
Storee:Ugh, tough pick. Hmm, I think I’m going to go with “The Year Without a Santa Claus.”
Cole:What’s that?
Storee:Seriously? It’s one of those puppet stop-motion movies. It’s about a year when the world stopped caring about Santa, so he went to a small town to see if people believed in him. It’s where we get the wonderful characters of Snow Miser and Heat Miser and their beautiful mother, Mother Nature.
Cole:You know what, sounds familiar.
Storee:So good. Music is on point, the puppets are weird, and Santa is skinny the whole movie until Christmas Eve when he eats something and fills out. My mom will still give my dad his dinner and say, “Eat, Papa, eat.”
Cole:Oh shit, I do know what you’re talking about. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that movie.
Storee:Well, that needs to be fixed.
Cole:Only can be fixed if you come over here.
Storee:Working on it. Don’t worry. It will happen.
Cole:I’ll believe it when I see it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Cole
Despite the grim distance, the happy humpers made it work.
Through texts, randy photos, and passing by with a smirk.
We are sad, they are sad, everyone’s sad the thrusting has ended,
but now it’s competition time, and everyone has attended.
“Are you ready for this?”Max asks as he rubs my shoulders as we stand at our workstation.
I swat him away. “Can you not do that?”
“You look tense. I thought you needed it.”
I’m tense because it’s been two days since I’ve been able to kiss or even see Storee, and now that I’m waiting for her to arrive at the Candy Cane Showdown, I’m anxious.
It hasn’t stopped us from talking though.
We’ve been texting, communicating. She’s been sending suggestive pictures, and I’ve been dying inside that she’s just a house away and we can’t do anything about it.
