Christmas break found the Peirsol household in complete chaos as Ashley and Aaron were both back for the celebrations. It was just the two of them and their parents, until Christmas eve, when their house would be inundated with random family members and screaming kids.

Naturally, Aaron couldn’t wait.

“Have you talked to Skylar?” The IM popped up onto Ashley’s computer screen just as she was checking into prices for flights to Australia.

Ashley sighed and minimized the ticket information, glancing out into the hallway where she could see Aaron’s bedroom door ajar; he was sitting at the computer, watching her with a cheeky expression on his face.

“No, and stop IMing me,” she typed back, then closed the box.

The only sound in the house was that of typing as Aaron wrote out his response and hit send. “You’re lying.”

“I am not.” It was hard to show being indignant on the computer, but Ashley managed it pretty well.

“I can see you, and I can tell you’re lying. Your ears are all red.”

Instinctively, Ashley covered her ears, then realized she’d need to type out an angry response. “STOP LOOKING AT ME WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU!”

There was no response, and Ashley couldn’t see Aaron in his room (he’d disappeared from view) unless she tipped her chair really far (something she knew from experience not to do). “What are you doing?” she typed, biting on a fingernail.

“I’m not looking at you,” was Aaron’s response.

“Good.” She tipped back in her seat. “Did you notice Ian’s sunglasses?” She yelled down the hall.

Aaron groaned and typed, “No.”

“He looked really hot,” Ashley said aloud, smirking at her computer screen.

Click click click. “Ash, I don’t care.”

“You should,” Ashley typed, snickering to herself. “He might be your future brother-in-law.”

“Good luck to him.”

Ashley rolled her eyes. “He has a huge pool.” Send.

“Shut up.” Send.

“Did you know his shoe size is 17?” She typed, knowing he was very close to screaming at her.

“I’m signing off,” Aaron typed in bold.

“But then I can just yell down the hall.”

She could hear his loud groan, and she smiled to herself. “I have heard from Skylar; she’s busy with finals and stuff,” she typed at last.

There were several moments of silence and then another IM popped onto her screen. Ashley jumped, unaware that anyone besides Aaron was on at this hour. (It was only ten o’clock at night.) To Aaron, she typed, “Skylar IMd me. I’ve gotta go.”

Aaron was in the bedroom faster than Ashley had ever seen him move.

“Let me talk to her,” Aaron insisted, getting ready to tip his sister out of her computer chair.

“No,” Ashley replied, typing something to Skylar that Aaron couldn’t see.

“Please, Ash? Come on.”

Ashley sighed heavily, as if she shouldn’t possibly be required to deal with this. “Fine. Whatever. I’m going to get some coco. If Ian IMs me, DO NOT TALK TO HIM.”

Aaron waved her off in annoyance. “Yeah, yeah.”

He read the IMs quickly; they were standard ‘hi, how are you’ and ‘how bad is it in the Peirsol house’ types.

Aaron cracked his knuckles and got to work.

“Are you still angry at Aaron?”

There was a long pause before Skylar typed back. “I was never angry with Aaron.”

“You weren’t?”

“No. I told you, I don’t care what he does with stupid Amanda Beard.”

At least now Aaron was starting to understand where all the hostility had come from. “You should have come home for Christmas. He really wanted to see you.”

It was so long waiting for her response, that Aaron was sure she’d signed off. “I didn’t want to see him.”

“Why?”

“Because I like him, and he doesn’t like me, and you know how bad unreciprocated love is, Ash. It sucks. It’s best to just get over it and move on.”

Aaron stared at the screen in shock, just as Ashley came back into the room with a steaming mug of coco.

“Get what you want?” She asked, moving aside so Aaron could jump off the chair.

“Yeah,” he said hurriedly, running down the hall.

Ashley set her mug down. “Where are you going?”

He smiled at his sister; the first bright smile he’d had in months as he randomly shoved clothes into a duffel bag and shoved his wallet in his back pocket. “To do what I should have done months ago.”