Home for Christmas (13 page)

Carina looked at the legal pad and glanced up a few seconds later. She shifted her eyes to me.
No way. I didn't do
great
, but I lost?!

“Laur,” Carina said. “I'm sorry to say . . . you are
not
the loser.”

“Mean!” I said.

Carina looked at Clare. “Clare, I'm sorry, but you scored the lowest.”

“What?! Argh!” Clare shook her head at herself. “I think we should stick with Khlo on this one and go with the fact that we're having so much fun that who cares about a silly score?”

Khloe reached over to hug Clare and rock her like a baby. “Oh, bestie. Did you not hear the second part of my response?”

Clare tried to frown, but the sparkle in her blue eyes gave her away. “Okay, okay! I'm going to wash my mug. You guys come up with my dare.”

She stood, smoothing her red cotton pj pants. They
had silver glitter candy canes along the bottoms.
Très
holiday chic.

I formed a huddle with Ana, KK, Carina, Lex, and Bri.

“It's obvi, right?” Khloe asked in a whisper.

“Garret,” Ana said, tucking a loose light-brown wave behind her ear.

I looked over to make sure Clare was still gone. “Definitely. I don't want to do anything embarrassing, but what about a little push?”

We stopped whispering when Clare padded into the room. The six of us broke our huddle and re-formed a circle. Clare, eyeing us warily, sat back down.

“If you tell me I have to run your neighborhood in my pj's,” Clare said, “I'm going to be very cold
and
very mad.”

I waved my hand, dismissing the notion. “You'll be plenty warm, Clare. We promise. Let's go to the living room and I'll grab what you need.”

Clare looked at me sideways but didn't say a word. She followed us out of the game room and into the living room.

“You guys chill in here and I'll be back in one sec,” I said.

“Are you going to give me any hints?” I heard Clare ask the other girls.

“How long have we been friends?” Khloe asked her.

Giggling, I went into the guest room where Clare was staying and swiped her phone from the night table.

With phone in hand, I went to one of the hall closets, where Mom kept a box of miscellaneous Christmas stuff. I dug through the random assortment until I found exactly what I wanted.

“Perfect,” I said aloud.

I put my hands behind my back and re-entered the living room. Clare was on the carpet in front of the fireplace with Khloe. Ana and Bri were on one couch, and Carina and Lexa sat on the other.

“Who wants to explain?” I asked.

The girls motioned to me.

“Clare,” I said. “This is your dare.” I put my hands in front of me, revealing her BlackBerry in its cheery yellow case and a red Santa hat complete with faux-fur white trim and a white pouf at the tip.

Clare frowned and scrunched her nose. “You want me to wear a Santa hat while I call someone?”

I sat cross-legged in front of Clare. “Close. You're going to wear the Santa hat, we'll take a pic with your phone, and you're going to send it to Garret with a holiday message.”

Everyone but Clare burst into giggles.

“Guys.” Clare's tone was pleading. “Please, please, puh-lease! Not Garret!”

Khloe shook her head. “Sorry, gorge.” She took the hat from me and placed it atop Clare's head, adjusting it until it looked just right.

“You look
so
cute!” Carina said. “Really! I don't think this is a bad thing, Clare. Garret will think it's awesome that you put yourself out there.”

“Truth,” I said. “I know he likes you. The night of my birthday party was crazy, but I
did
catch Garret looking at you. A few times.”

Clare tilted her head. “Really?”

“Really,” I confirmed.

Clare was quiet for a minute. “Okay! Anyone have gloss?”

Brielle passed her a tube of Sephora gloss. Clare took the wand and swiped the peachy color across her lips. She dabbed a bit on her cheekbones, rubbed it in, and had an insta-glow.

“Um,” I said, looking at Brielle and Ana.

“Clare, you just taught us an EBT,” Ana said.

“Essential Beauty Trick,” Brielle explained. “Lauren, Ana, and I have been trading those for years. Now we have a new one.”

“Cool,” Clare said. “I just learned that from
TeenStyle.
”

I waved a hand at Khloe. “Come out of the shot,” I said. “Clare, stay on the hearth. The fireplace gives off the perfect light.”

I turned on Clare's camera and pointed it at her.

“You look
ridic
cute,” Khloe encouraged Clare.

That made Clare grin.

“On three,” I said. “One, two . . . three!”

On three, I hit the capture button. I knelt down with the phone and everyone crowded around the screen.

“Your first shot is perfect,” Ana said. “Lucky!”

I nodded.
“Parfait.”

“You like it?” Khloe asked Clare.

The blush on Clare's cheeks that
wasn't
from the lip gloss gave us her answer.

“Now, what do you want to say?” Lexa asked. She lay out on her side, stretching her toes toward the fire.

“Dreaming of you,” Khloe said, straight-faced.

“Khloeee!” Clare said, lightly hitting Khlo's upper arm. “Yeah, right!”

“Our first dream kiss was amazing?” Khloe tried again.

That made everyone laugh. Even Clare. I laughed so hard that my sides hurt.

“Yes, Khloe,” Clare said when she had recovered from her giggle fit. “That's exactly what I'll say.”

“I know! Kiss me under the mistle—,” Khloe said.

“Stop!” Clare cut her off. “No. More. You've been quite helpful enough, thank you.”

I passed Clare her phone, and we watched as her fingers hovered over the keypad. Suddenly she started typing. “There,” Clare said a few seconds later. “How's that?”

Lexa and I read the message to ourselves.
This started as a dare, but I realized I rlly did want 2 say Happy Xmas. Not that I won't c u b4 then.
C u 2mrw.

“Niiice,” Lexa said. “Send it!”

Clare took a deep breath, held it, and pressed send. “Ahh!” she shrieked. She tossed her phone away from us and onto the couch, where it landed facedown.

“What's wrong?” I asked.

Clare pulled the Santa hat over her face. “What if Garret has his phone near him right now? He could be looking at my message! Oh my God.”

Khloe pulled Clare's hands down from her face. “I
hope
Garret's looking at it. It was a sweet message, Clare. There wasn't anything embarrassing about it. In fact, I'm proud of you.”

Clare looked up at Khloe. “Proud of me? Why?”

Khloe sidled next to Clare and slung an arm across her friend's shoulders. “Because even though it was on a dare,
you
made the first move. That's so cool and brave. I know that I wouldn't have the guts to send a guy that I was crushing on a message first.”

“I had to,” Clare said, shaking her head. “It was a dare.”

Khloe cocked her head. “C'mon. If you
really
hadn't wanted to do it, do you think we would have made you?”

Clare looked down at her hands, then back at us. “No. It was a good excuse for me to say something to Garret.”

“Exactly,” I said. “This sounds so nineties, but girl power! Now it's up to Garret. You put yourself out there in a very non-pressure-y way. I bet he's reading it now and probably scared to respond.”

Carina took a sip of my favorite holiday tea—Celestial Seasonings Sugar Cookie—and tucked her legs under her. “You think boys are scared to message
us
?”

“Totes,” Khloe said. She leaned back against one of the brown leather recliners. “Think about it. The pressure is really all on
them.
They're usually the ones to ask us out, so they have to deal with the possibility of rejection. We have all the power. We can ask them out or not, say yes or no.”

“I never thought about it like that before,” Clare said. “If Garret's reading my message, he—”

Beep! Beep!

All of our heads swiveled to the couch. Clare's phone was blinking.

“I'm
not
checking that!” Clare said. “I can't! Not yet.”

Lexa got up and bounded over to the couch. “Then I will.”

“Omigod.” Clare pulled the Santa hat back over her head.

Lexa pressed a few buttons on the phone, and I watched her face for signs of a good or bad response from Garret.

Emotionless, Lexa cleared her throat. “He wrote back and attached a photo.”

“What?” Clare asked, dropping the hat. “A photo of what?”

“See for yourself,” Lexa said, a smile curling over her lips.

Clare took the phone and her eyes scanned the screen before she looked up at us. “OMIGOD! LOOK!”

Ana took the phone, and we crowded around her. There was a photo of
Garret
in a Santa hat!
Thx, C! Tay had 1 of these @ his house, 2. C u 2mrw.

“Clare!” I said. “This is awesome!”

“He so didn't have to take a pic,” Bri said. “It means that he majorly likes you. And he put a smiley face. Double points.”

Clare looked from one of us to the next. “You think?
He wasn't just posing in that hat to spare me from being super embarrassed?”

“Brielle is right,” Ana said. “This is great! You might be kissing a boy in real life—not your dreams—before Christmas!”

“Cheers to that,” I said, holding up my mug of tea.

“To kissing real-life boys, not just dreaming about them,” Khloe said.

“And to Clare for sending the pic and message!” Lexa added.

“To Clare!” we all said, and clinked our mugs together.

16

Sasha