"Merry Christmas Whit" Nick said as he entered her room, made his way over to her bed and kissed her forehead. All of the girls had flown back home on the fifteenth and stayed until the twenty third. All of the guys had went to their own homes too on the fifteenth, Brian and Kevin had arrived back on the twenty third, AJ and Howie had never left since all their family was in Florida and Nick had flew to California, arriving home only two hours earlier.
"Merry Christmas Nick, and I was going to meet you at the airport, if you'd have told me what time your flight was coming in, I've missed you ya know" Whitney said as she rolled over and forced herself to sit up in bed, rubbing her eyes.
"I know, I know, but theres no way you could have gotten up and been waiting in the airport at six o'clock this morning. But no time to argue, you gotta go open your presents" Nick instructed.
"Ok, who all is downstairs?" Whit asked as she stood up and put on a sweat shirt over her tank top to keep the cold of the house from giving her the chills.
"Everyone except Brian, Howie and us" Nick answered, Whit nodded as the two made their way out the door and downstairs.
"Finally ya'll, I'm ready to open my presents" AJ said as the two walked into the livingroom. Everyone sat around on the floor, ready for their gifts, Kevin who was the one that was most awake was in charge of passing out everything. He started to sort them out one by one, "Damn Kev, your too slow, move out the way" AJ said, impatiently crawling under the tree and beginning to throw presents out, he loved Christmas.
"AJ man chill, something might be breakable in there" Howie replied, giving his friend a strange look.
"You got something breakable in here?" AJ asked.
"No, not personally" Howie answered.
"Ok then" AJ laughed as he continued at his work.
Finally the task of sorting and opening was done, everyone sat around in the floor, inspecting their gifts. "I've got something else for you,tonight" Brian whispered to Amber, he'd planned a night for them, just the two, Amber nodded, her suspicions already rising.
"Clasp this back for me" Whitney said as she slid the charm Nick had given her onto the gold chain that hung around her neck. It was the butterfly with wings outlined in diamonds, the exact one she had shown Lauren in the mall back in August.
"Here, I forgot this" Nick whispered as he handed her an envelope.
Whitney causually opened the envelope, but a smile spread across her face when she realized it was the plane tickets to Australia for two weeks that she'd discovered at the guy's beach house while searching through herself and Nick's memories. "Yea, we're going to Australia, thank you Nick" she chimed.
"Your welcome, thats where you wanted to go, right?" Nick skeptically asked.
"Yes, I love it there" Whit answered, reasurring her boyfriend.
"Aww AJ, he's so cute, where did you get him?" Lauren asked as she played with the Shitzu puppy she'd been given, they were very hard to find in Orlando especially around Christmas.
"Oh I just worked some magic, you'd been wanting one forever and its not like I'm gonna disappoint you" AJ answered.
"Do you ever?" Lauren replied.
"Nope" AJ answered, kissing her.
"Uhh, I'm gonna be sick" Whitney said as she sat with Nick and watched the two, she hated the mushy love stuff.
"Me too" Nick laughed.
"Ya'll are just jealous cause' ya'll don't have the charm" AJ mocked.
"Thats funny, what charm J?" Howie asked, raising an eyebrow.
"All the charm that I posess" AJ explained.
"You ain't got no charm, and whose cooking Christmas dinner?" Brian said, joining the conversation.
All eyes turned to Whitney, she was the only one who was going to stand over a stove for an hour and cook, "Damn, why does everyone make me cook?" she asked. They all put on their 'please' faces. "Alright, but I'm not cleaning up" she gave in.
"Your just so gulliable" Ashley laughed.
"Yeah yeah, what do ya'll want?" Whit asked, yawning.
"Ham and biscuits..." Kevin spoke up.
"Mac and Cheese, it's a must.." Brian began.
"I don't care what you make, I just want some chocolate cake" Nick said, stretching out on the floor beside her.
"Ok...so thats ham, macaroni, biscuits, how about green beans, that sound Ok to ya'll?" Whit asked.
"Yep, do you need to go to the grocery store?" Brooke asked.
"Yep, lemme go brush my teeth and put on a hat and I'll be ready, anyone else riding?" Whit answered, standing up.
"You mean your going to the grocery store, in public, like that?" Lauren asked as Whit appeared back downstairs. She had on the Nike gym shorts she'd slept in, a sweat shirt and sandals on, a hat covered her head.
"Yes, god ya'll are to self concious, c'mon Nick, will you ride with me?" Whit replied.
"Yea" Nick said, standing up and stretching as he followed behind her. An hour later the two arrived back at the house, bounding into the kitchen were AJ and Brian searched through the cabinets.
"God it took ya'll long enough" AJ complained.
"We haven't been gone that long" Nick defended.
"Yes you have, its been an hour" Brian accused.
"Whatever, somebody hand me the butter" Whit instructed as she began to prepare dinner. At one everyone sat around the table, preparing to stuff themselves to the limit.
"Ok dude, who here ate peice of the cake, already?" Brian asked, taking the cover off of the dessert.
"I sorta did" Nick answered.
"You coulda stole me a peice while you were in here eating, you knew I was about to starve" AJ interuppted.
"You are going to be so fat one day..." Lauren began.
"Nope, never, cause I'm the bone daddy" AJ laughed.
Everyone sat around the table after finishing their meal, casually talking about anything that was of interest. "So, what are we doing new years?" Howie asked.
"Our flight for Australia leaves at ten on the first, so I don't wanna be too hung over" Whitney stated.
"Why don't we all just throw something, we can have ya'll at the airport by ten, no problem" AJ said, looking across the table at Nick and Whit. Everyone agreed in their seperate ways.
At ten o'clock Amber and Brian stood on his deck, once again swaying to the beat of some melody in the background, they always found themselves there. "Whats the rest of my Christmas?" Amber asked.
"A ring that holds a promise" Brian whispered.
"What kind of promise?" Amber asked when he didn't continue.
"A promise that we will always be together, that no matter what we'll be together, because we can overcome anything" Brian answered as he reached in his pocket and pulled out a gold ring, in the center a small diamond. "I know we haven't been together long enough to get married, but I'm just giving you this as a reminder that when I'm waiting at the altar and I look up to see the girl that is meeting me there, I'm going to see you" he added.
Brian could speak the sweetest words known to the world, his shy accent adding to the effects and causing Amber to flow over, "I promise you that Brian" she whispered as the gold band slipped onto her ring finger.