Chapter 24

Thursday 24th December 1998

For a Christmas Eve, things felt remarkably un-jolly. Not for a lack of festive feeling… more for a lack of Dakota.

We’d seen her off on her flight to Ireland at Gatwick Airport the day before. It felt surreal saying goodbye to her: even though she would be back in three days, somehow it seemed like it would be so much longer. When we shared a farewell hug, I almost couldn’t bear to let her go.

Such a heavy blow had her departure left on me that I’d remained in a gloomy state since. Kendal had suggested we go bowling, to give us something fun to do; I honestly wasn’t that up for it, but agreed to go as I felt bad refusing. In the meantime, I’d taken up residence at the piano at home…

Whiiich I don’t believe I’ve mentioned before… it’s out in the conservatory which I also haven’t mentioned. Look, covering the full layout of my house hasn’t really been my top priority…

I sat at the piano and played some melancholic music because it’s all I really felt like doing. Wallowing in my misery, I performed the opening piano solo from George Michael’s Cowboys and Angels, and my mind drifted into a fantasy of Dakota and me dancing together to the song, just the two of us in the whole world. I had no idea how I had grown quite so love-sick in less than 24 hours…

“Alex, some superhero people are here to pick you up,” Lucy chimed from the doorway. I simply closed the piano’s fallboard and headed out of the conservatory-

Only she wouldn’t move to let me pass.

“Gonna say thanks?” she sneered.

“Thank you.”

“Man, I’ve not seen you this down since Diana died…”

“I wasn’t this down when Diana died, you idiot…” I sighed to my ever-exaggerating sister as I forced my way past her. After dashing up to my room to grab my coat and my wallet, I threw my shoes on and muttered a goodbye to my family (and prevented Lucy from following me out the door to “go shoot the breeze”). Kendal’s car was parked up right outside, with her, Bao, Zahid and Harriet inside. Whether one or more of them had come and knocked on the door, or Lucy had seen them pull up, I don’t know. … maybe Kendal called her, somehow…

“Hey Alex!” Kendal greeted me as I squeezed my way inside the car. “Ready to bowl your socks off?”

“Yeah…” I replied lightly, buckling up. As one would expect, she was already pulling away by that point.

“Still down, huh?” Bao asked, sat next to me in the back with Harriet on his other side.

“I wish people would stop saying ‘down’…” I sighed. I took up the trusty stance of resting my elbow on the part of the door where the window emerged with my cheek rested in my palm.

“Okay, sorry… … but you are…”

Bao twiddled his thumbs a little, as though he felt uncomfortable even making that claim. Guess I was being difficult again.

“Alex.”

Zahid’s turn now, already sounding exasperated.

“She’s been gone for one day. You lived for sixteen years without her.”

“He’s in looooove, give him a break!” Kendal chuckled from the driver’s seat.

“I get that he’s in love,” he insisted, “but there’s more to life than her.”

“That’s how love goes, though,” Harriet spoke up. “He’s love-sick. It’s sweet!”

Then she peered past Bao to look at me.

“Not to belittle how you’re feeling, of course.”

“Can you all just stop saying I’m in love, please?” I asked drearily.

“You are, though,” Bao observed. “And Dakota’s not here- well, you know that, obviously, but what I mean is it’s not like we have to be all hush-hush about it…”

“It’s not that.”

Not that I wanted to talk about what it actually was.

“Forget it…”

Besides, I didn’t want everyone to just be talking about me.

“So, err…”

“No you don’t!” Bao cut me off. “You know I can’t forget it and I don’t want to anyway. And this isn’t even me being nosy this time. Well, it’s part that, but…”

“Come on,” Zahid added, “if you’re gonna stop us talking about it, at least tell us why.”

“Yeah!” Kendal concurred with her usual enthusiasm.

I let out a whine of annoyance before speaking, just to make clear that I was unhappy in relenting…

“It’s just all pointless. I’m never going to…”

I stopped, taking a moment to figure out how to phrase it.

“We’re never going to be together anyway. Even with the tiniest glimmer of a possibility that I’d manage to confess to her, there’s no way in hell she feels the same way about me-”

I had no chance to say anything else as Kendal slammed the breaks on hard. Thankfully we were still in a residential area, or else that would’ve almost certainly caused some kind of traffic accident.

She turned to me, looking past her headrest; her cheer from moments ago had seemingly been boiled away by anger.

“Are you blind, or just stupid?” she hissed at me.

“What…?” was about all I could muster between misery and shock.

“She loves you too! It’s, like, the most obvious thing in the world to everyone but you! Why do you think Ricardo never asked her out? Heck, why do you think she spends so much time with you? And- and- she loves you, damn it!” she concluded, actually fuming.

“That’s not-”

“Yes it is!” she snapped. “I dunno why Melody turning you down has messed you up so much but it is actually possible for someone to fall in love with you! You’re a good guy, okay? And she… aaaaargh!”

After that almost tribal roar, she continued driving forward, faster now, agitated.

“You’re flying to Ireland. You’re gonna go and confess to her, today.”

Surprising myself, I simply laughed at this.

“Kendal, you- you wouldn’t believe what I just heard you say-”

“You cheat!” Bao interrupted me, leaning into the gap between the two front seats. He was addressing Kendal. “You don’t get to do this!”

“It’s nothing to do with that!” she wailed back.

“To… to do with what…?” I foolishly asked.

“Oh jeez…” Harriet exhaled softly. Not a good sign.

“Err… well, we’ve been betting on when you and Dakota would get together…” Bao confessed. “I had Halloween but I’ve had to change that now-”

“Which I didn’t agree to,” Zahid butted in, shaking his head disapprovingly.

“You don’t even have a horse in this race! You just bet ‘not any time soon’!”

Bao then turned back to me.

“Kendal bet Christmas. So she’s cheating.”

“That’s your problem with this?!” I all but screeched back. Kendal’s crazy idea was starting to sink in now, and alarm bells were ringing in my head. I addressed her:

“You can’t just do this!”

“Watch me, lover-boy.”

“This is crazy, though! I don’t have any luggage or… or anything!” I pointed out desperately.

“You’ve got your passport in your wallet, that’s all you need,” she shrugged. “And I remember the way to the airport so sit tight and deal with it. You’ll thank me when you get back.”

I’ll spare you the rest of my protesting… needless to say, she quickly wore me down. Not that I could do much other than leap out of the car or something. Thinking about it, there were a few points where she had to stop at traffic lights where I could’ve done just that…

“Come on, Alex, it’ll all work out,” Harriet assured me with that comforting tone she’s mastered.

“Mhm…” I replied simply, fishing my mobile out of my pocket. If I was giving up on a normal Christmas, I at least needed to inform my family. I rang the home phone; Dad answered.

“Hello?”

“Hi, it’s Alex… listen, uhm… I’m not gonna be home for Christmas…”

How was I even going to explain this?

“What do you mean? Where are you?” he asked, sounding more cross than concerned.

“With my friends, but… it’s a long story and they’ve sprung it on me… uhm…”

Bao proceeded to snatch the phone out of my hand.

“Hey, Mrs Matthews. … oh, sorry. Hey, Mr Matthews.”

Great start…

“Yeah, I’m his friend, Bao. We’re sending him to Ireland so he can confess to the girl he loves!”

Well. That was one way to explain it…

“Yeah, I know it’s Christmas… but if he doesn’t tell her now, he never will! Think of your future grandchildren!”

“Jumping the gun, Bao!” I wailed out.

“He’ll be back on Boxing Day with a girlfriend and everything, so just trust us on this! … yeah, I know you haven’t met us yet, maybe we’ll come and see you sometime? I heard your name is Bernard Matthews, like the company that does turkey drumsticks and stuff? … no, we’re already on the way to the airport. … yeah, he’s not got any luggage…”

Bao gave me a look that read “your dad sure does go on”.

“Uh-oh, we’re heading under a tunnel, gotta go now-” he concluded quickly, pressing the end-call button and casually tossing the phone back into my lap. “Sorted.”

“I’m so dead…” I whimpered.

…

As soon as we reached the airport, things became a blur. I barely had time to think as I was swept to the counter to book a ticket (thankfully fairly cheap) and have my “going to confess to the girl he loves” story regaled to as many staff members as were in earshot. Harriet, at least, was astute enough to notice how embarrassed I was getting, and did her best to whisk us all away to somewhere a little more private.

“It’s okay, Alex,” Kendal insisted with a pat on the back, “soon enough you’ll be smooching Dakota in public like every other teenage couple and you won’t be embarrassed at all!”

“Well right now I’m not smooching her and I am embarrassed so please stop,” I pleaded.

“Hey, Alex. A word between guys,” Zahid started. Once he knew he had my full attention, he continued: “if you manage to screw this up, I’ll beat you to a pulp.”

“… okay, thanks for the added pressure…”

This from the guy who didn’t think anything would happen between Dakota and me. (Then again, that’s what I would’ve bet on.)

“Come on, man! You can’t mess this up!” Bao chimed in, sat directly opposite me. “It’s three words. Just three words: ‘I love you Dakota’. No, wait, that’s four words…”

I exhaled heavily. At that point in time, I couldn’t see it going well at all.

The others stayed with me until my flight was called. I could feel my guts churning as they wished me goodbye and good luck, and waved me off on my way to the departure gate. Suddenly, I was utterly on my own, making my way through an airport on a journey unplanned and unprepared-for. From the moment I settled down at the gate, my mind began running simulations, over and over, to try and figure out how in the world I could possible confess to her. All of the waiting at the gate, the boarding, the time before take-off, the entire 90-minute flight; everything was background noise as I thought so hard that I almost gave myself a headache.

Even heading through Dublin Airport, a place I’d never seen before, taking in my surroundings came second.

By the time I left the airport, two hours must have passed and I was none the wiser on how to do this. The sudden chill of the outside world was the first thing to truly snatch my attention away from my thoughts: I shivered, and then came to a halt as the sight of my snowy surroundings finally hit me. Almost everything was dusted with a blanket of fine white, save for criss-cross patterns in the car park where vehicles had driven about. More snow was gently falling as if to make up for it.

At least if I made it as far as Dakota’s place, I’d be able to see the beautiful snowy sight that she’d described…

That thought lead my mind to tumble back down the rabbit-hole of futile planning as I kept moving.

Bao had suggested I just say it outright… “I love you”. But how could I simply say that, with no set-up and no certainty that she felt the same way? Putting aside the fear that she didn’t and that I would be jeopardising our friendship, the logistics of this were driving me mad. Knock on the door, either Dakota or Saoirse would answer… unless there were other people there, of course… and then assuming Dakota is the one to answer, how do I lead? How do I explain myself being there? If I say the others sent me here then I immediately have to say why, which means leaping straight to “I love you” anyway. Was there anything else I could say first instead? Or any way to divide the explanation from its reasoning? Hell, in the moment, face-to-face, would I even be able to tell her at all?

And wait.

Where was I actually going?

I slowed to another halt. I had no idea how long I’d been walking for, or where precisely I was. I couldn’t have gotten too far from the airport, but far enough to not want to waste time finding my way back. Never mind knowing how far it was from the airport to Dundalk, I may’ve wandered off in the opposite direction.

I’d been so wrapped up in my thoughts…

“Are you okay, sonny?” an older man wrapped up in a dozen layers of clothing asked me. I must have looked as lost as I was.

“Uhm…” I spoke up, treading towards him through the snow to properly address him. “This is probably a stupid question but… which way is it to Dundalk?”

His immediate reaction was to widen his eyes, which promptly had me worried. He raised an arm, his hand emerging from amongst his sleeves, and pointed off to the right of the direction I’d been walking.

“That way, about 70 miles,” he informed me. For a moment, the world seemed to spin around me and my balance was thrown. “You’ll be wanting to take the bus, from the airport. That or a taxi.”

“Okay… thank you,” I nodded bitterly, before adding a “Merry Christmas”. While I had no idea what to do, I began heading back off in the direction I’d just come so that I would be headed roughly for the airport and wouldn’t appear to be ignoring his advice.

“Merry Christmas!” he replied back with cheer and a wave.

So, I thought. Bus was probably easier as I at least knew roughly where to get on one. Though I’d seen taxis waiting at airports before. Not sure which was cheaper. But of course…

Because I seemed determined to shoot a dozen holes in my feet with my overthinking…

The currency was different here.

I had a wallet full of British pounds and pence. Ireland had its own versions.

I could convert my money, at the airport. Probably. Maybe? Do you do that separately?

And what was I supposed to do? Wander into the airport, exchange some money, and walk out again?

(Is that a British thing, to worry about being seen doing something like that?)

No. I got myself into this mess – or this part of a huge general mess my friends had thrust me into – and so I decide I would get myself out of it by my own means.

I turned in the direction of Dundalk and began marching through the snow. How far could 70 miles be when walking? It only took me ten minutes or so to walk a mile so if I kept good pace and didn’t stop… I’d be walking into the night, but I could surely manage that…?

After a little while, suburbia gave way to open expanses of white. Any hopes I had of course-correcting through asking strangers were pretty much lost, not that I felt comfortable doing so knowing how far away my destination was. Instead, I kept a road in-sight and followed the direction it flowed. All roads lead to home, they say. Or is it Rome?

The snow never let up. If not for my feet constantly moving, they would probably be freezing as I trod through the snowfall in my scuffed trainers. I could see my own breath as draconic huffs in front of my face. And slowly, like the incessant march of frost, the cold reached under my clothes, under my skin, until it dug down to my bones. My empty hands were free to embrace my arms in a vain attempt to retain some heat.

For a brief moment, I considered summoning my Lokon sword; to don my Painter costume and effortlessly resist the vicious chill that was assaulting me. But that would be stupid. I’d be stuck carrying the sword around with me, unless I squirrelled it away and teleported it to myself once I reached the Radley residence. And nobody I approached (if I did) would be able to see my face. I didn’t want to terrify people. Better to freeze to death.

Would that be so bad…? It’d spare me the inevitable humiliation and rejection.

What was I even doing? I’d let the others win me over, but what did they know? Why the hell would Dakota love me? What have I ever done that would make her fall for me? What about me is so lovable? Before all of this Lokon weapon and Painter stuff began, I had nothing going on in my life. The sum total of my exploits is playing piano, collecting Transformers and maybe gaming a little. I’m such a catch. And such a looker, with my skinny frame and my dumb face and my completely uncontrollable hair.

And if this was some big romantic gesture, it would surely fall on deaf ears, because there were a million other guys better-suited to a girl as incredible as her. I’m the bottom-most rung. When I see her, I decided, I’ll tell her that the others insisted I come out here, and if she asks why, I’ll declare I have no idea. Problem solved. We can move on with our lives. And I can watch her fall in love with someone deserving. I can let my heart be crushed and all will be right with the world. That’ll teach me for falling so hopelessly in love.

My wandering brought me to a small row of houses, dusted with snow, some of them flashing with Christmas decorations. The sunlight had more or less completely faded away at this point, only the snowy clouds retaining a pinkish hue in the sky. A young woman with vivid ginger hair was packing bags into the boot of her car. As the only person in sight, she was my sole option to course-correct my journey.

Unsurprisingly, she noticed my approach.

“Merry Christmas!” she cheered to me. “What can I do you for?”

“Do you…”

My voice seemed weak. I took a breath as if it would return me some strength.

“Do you know which way Dundalk is from here?”

Like everyone else I’d asked, her eyes widened.

“Well… you’re in Hollywood right now…”

“What…? How far have I walked?!”

She laughed at that.

“Sorry, sorry! I love doing that with strangers,” she remarked. “This parish is called Hollywood. Dundalk’s up north, maybe another 60 miles?”

… in all this time – however long this time was – I’d only managed to get about ten miles closer.

“O-Okay… thank you…” I nodded shakily. I was about to continue on my ridiculous journey, but she held a hand up, gesturing for me to halt.

“Wait, wait! I’m actually heading up there myself. I can take you if you’d like?”

It was a miracle. A Christmas miracle.

I turned back to her, and dropped to my knees under the weight of my immense gratitude.

“Thank you… thank you so much…!” I wailed, my eyes stinging.

“It’s no problem… please, get up, you’ll get your knees wet…” she implored me.

…

I had never been so happy to be in a car. It felt like forever since I’d sat down, or been in relative warmth. I was even provided some biscuits, which went a little way to filling the gaping space in my stomach. Sat in the front passenger seat with a blanket wrapped around myself, I watched the early-evening winter wonderland pass by out of the windows.

“So,” my saviour, Regan, began, “what’s so important in Dundalk that you felt the need to make a pilgrimage?”

“Erm… well… my friend is from there, and she’s come back for Christmas-”

“Ah, right, say no more!” Regan chuckled. “I’m actually going to see my boyfriend.”

It almost bothered me how quickly she assumed…

“Well, hopefully fiancé, soon,” she continued. “One can dream!”

“Hopefully,” I echoed lightly, at a loss on how else to address that. “How did he… tell you how he felt?”

“We were at a party and he was drunk. He can talk for Ireland when he’s drunk.”

She sounded so fond of him. Her voice was rich with affection.

“So he basically blurted that he’s always loved me and wanted to go out with me.”

“Right…”

“Obviously I wouldn’t recommend that to you,” she added airily. “Maybe a little booze to loosen you up, though…”

I smiled at that. The last time that happened, I called Dakota beautiful, to her face. Then again, I didn’t want to confess anymore. Being tipsy would just make me a liability.

“To be honest, Alex? You’ve flown out to be with her on Christmas Eve. If she doesn’t get it from that, I don’t know what it’ll take. If my Joe had done that, I would’ve smothered him with kisses!”

“Did you always like him too?”

I looked to her, to read her expression. Her smile became bashful.

“I think I did,” she admitted. “Just took me a while to see it. Love’s not simple. Sometimes you don’t even recognise it, or it scares you.”

We came to a halt amidst traffic, and she looked at me reassuringly.

“If she means that much to you, then tell her. Put everything else aside and tell her.”

“I…”

Refusing or refuting her weren’t options. Not like this.

“I’ll try.”

“No, don’t try,” I was instructed. “Just do it.”

…

The car journey lasted no longer than an hour. As Regan didn’t know Dundalk well enough to take me anywhere specifically (her boyfriend had relocated there for work), she dropped me off in the centre of town. We parted ways wishing each other good luck and a Merry Christmas.

Past 7pm now. It was hard to see beyond all the lights in town, but the sky seemed to be fully dark at this point. And yet the snow continued falling. I shivered now that I was exposed to the elements once again.

I was here, at least. In the right place. I just had to find my way to Dakota.

More time passed as I wandered all over the place, quickly realising that I was still at a loss on where to go. I had resolved the long singular journey from point A to point B, and instead found myself in a labyrinth. Passers-by all cheerily wished me a Merry Christmas, which at least kept my spirits up a little. This insane day was feeling like Christmas Eve for the first time since… well, since it began.

I still wasn’t convinced that I could bring myself to tell Dakota how I felt, but Regan’s words had disturbed my decision to not say anything. Like tugging a loose thread, she had unravelled the certainty and now I was back to wondering how I would go about this. Should I at least hint? Should I try to set things up so that I could gauge her interest? Could I even do that accurately, if I’d not seen what made Kendal so certain?

… I’d literally spent most of the day wandering and wondering…

After however long of exploring the town – and quite possibly retracing my steps by accident at least once – my patience was wavering. It wasn’t like I could ask anyone if they knew where Saoirse and Dakota Radley lived, because the chances of any one person knowing them seemed slim. I would spend more time stopping and asking strangers than I was spending heading around without a clue. Not to mention, there wasn’t a large number of people around to begin with, and the number was shrinking as time went on (or as I moved further from the centre of town, perhaps).

But there, up ahead of me, was a noisy old pub. And at least that would be warm, and have a whole load of people all in one place with the chance that someone would know Saoirse and where she lives.

It took me a couple of minutes to shore up my confidence, and a deep breath to steady my nerves, before I finally strode into the pub.

The noise from outside was a fraction of what it was inside, with couples young and old chatting and laughing and drinking, and folk tunes I didn’t recognise blaring out from a source I couldn’t spot. I felt myself shrink down in the face of all of this; a couple of people registered my entrance, but most of them were far too busy with their festivities to notice me.

I made my way over to the bar, squeezing past people, feeling so small and pathetic as I began reciting my question in my head: “do you happen to know where Saoirse Radley’s house is?” If the bartender didn’t know, they might know someone else who would.

“Alright there, boyo?” the bearded man in a ridiculous Christmas jumper behind the bar asked me. “You look a bit young for this place, what can I do you for?”

“Uhm…”

Damn it, could I manage to start a sentence in this country without an uhm or an err or something?

“Do you… this is probably, err… like, it’s okay if not but-”

“Spit it out, I’ve got drinks to serve,” he told me, with a playful demeanour rather than any kind of impatience or nastiness.

“- do you- or anyone here I guess, but do you know where Saoirse Radley lives…?”

I got there. Actually managed to say it. Wherever this awkwardness came from (again, being British?), I’d just barely managed to overcome it.

“You’re looking for Saoirse?”

I turned to see a gruff grey-haired man sat within earshot, a pint in his hand. He was sat with three other men who were all looking my way too.

“Yeah, uhm… I’m a friend of her daughter-”

They cut me off with belly-deep cheers.

“Our Dakota’s found herself a man!”

“I remember when she was a tiny little thing and now-!”

“I-It’s-”

I wanted to say it’s not like that… I wanted to counter them making an assumption just like Regan did… but it hit me at this point that it didn’t look like anything else. I’d flown out to see her on Christmas Eve. Of course that spells love.

“And you came all the way here to see her, huh?” the first man chuckled. “Cupid hit you with every arrow, didn’t he?”

“I guess so!” I grinned awkwardly.

…

I’d wound up entertaining the four men for several minutes trying to memorise the lengthy directions they provided from the pub to the Radley residence. It took me maybe fifteen minutes more to take the journey, but the sight of a small hill with a cosy-looking house at its top brought an immense sense of relief crashing over me.

Sadly, it only lasted a moment. Nervousness prickled my cold skin, and the reality sunk in. Up that hill, inside that house, she was there.

And that should be fine anyway because I wasn’t going to confess to her. “Why are you here?” “The guys sent me over.” “Why?” “No idea, how’re you?”

… hey, she was right. Her house looked beautiful under the falling snow.

This would all be fine.

I began making my way up the hill.

It would be simple. Greetings, I’d be invited in, and we’d go on as friends. Fly back to England as friends. Fight monsters as friends. That was fine.

Forget what Regan and the men in the pub thought. Forget what Bao, Kendal, Zahid and Harriet all thought. What did they know?

This was fine.

Almost there now.

Because me being in love with her didn’t matter, shouldn’t matter.

Screw me. I’d never be able to say those words in a million years, anyway. This was fine. It was fine.

The doorway had a large canopy in front of it, with mistletoe hanging down. I couldn’t help but find that amusing. Was the entire universe against me here?

It didn’t matter. None of it mattered. Life goes on. All fine.

My heart was threatening to explode from my chest. I was almost struggling to breathe.

I reached out, knocked on the door, and stepped back to the edge of the canopy’s shelter.

The longest short wait of my life ensued. Seconds felt like hours.

And then.

Then.

The door opened.

Dakota was stood there, in a slightly-oversized sweater, a skirt, tights, slippers. Lightly-tousled hair, shining green eyes, the most beautiful face in the world suddenly struck by surprise. Illuminated from behind like a messenger from heaven.

And I was home.

“Alex?! What the- what are you doing here?!”

“I love you.”

Without thought. Without consideration. Without warning.

I couldn’t tell you why it came so easily in the end. But there it was.

Slowly, the brightest of smiles spread across her face.

“I love you too.”

She said… she said it. Those magical, incredible, uplifting, mind-blowing words. Somehow – for some unfathomable reason – she really did love me.

I smiled back now.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she beamed at me, elated.

My entire world transformed in an instant.

I took a step forward; she did the same. We met beneath the mistletoe.

I suppose the moment spurred us on…

Our lips met. My first kiss… our first kiss.

Her lips so gentle, and sweet-tasting.

If the waiting felt like hours, this felt like weeks.

It was only when I put a hand to her cheek that she withdrew.

“Your hands are freezing…” she whispered at me, our foreheads together.

“Sorry… I’ve been out in the cold… I walked here…” I confessed.

“… all the way here? In this weather?”

“Well, someone gave me a lift most of the way…”

She giggled, and kissed me again.

And then she broke off, and grabbed my hand.

“Come on, in. Warm up, you lunatic.”

Once I was inside, she shut the door behind me. While I struggled to remove my frozen shoes with frozen fingers, Dakota rushed off yelling “Mam!”. I hadn’t even finished when she returned with Saoirse in-tow.

“Oh, hi, Mrs Radley-”

“You crazy boy!” she fussed, storming over.

“Sorry… but… well, I’m in love with your daughter…” I explained, finally taking off one shoe all the while.

Saoirse stopped dead in her tracks.

“… goodness me. You couldn’t wait a few days?”

“It’s romantic, Mam!” Dakota insisted as if that was enough of a reason.

“Let’s get you warmed up…” Saoirse relented.

…

For the next couple of hours, I was wrapped up in blankets like a bizarre Christmas present in the living room. Saoirse provided me with plenty of food and Dakota stuck by my side for pretty much the entire time. I recounted my journey, and we talked about all manner of things.

By 11pm, I was toasty and well-fed, and aching for rest. Sadly, I wasn’t going to have that opportunity.

“You’ll have to go like that…” Saoirse sighed while heading out of the room. “Your shoes should have warmed up now, at least.”

“Sorry about this,” Dakota whispered. “I hate Midnight Mass but I’m not gonna argue with her.” And she kissed my cheek before dashing upstairs to change. I seared her adorable get-up into my mind as she went.

We ventured back out into the snow and headed to a nearby church. I’d never been to something like this before, and it was alright even if I felt out of place. But then I would’ve gone absolutely anywhere with Dakota by my side. I was still on a high from the fact that she loved me. Actually, I don’t know when I’m going to come down…

It was past 1am when we returned to the house, and I was perfectly happy to fall asleep on the floor. Still, Saoirse insisted on setting up the sofa for me… with one proviso.

“No. Sneaking. Into Dakota’s room.”

Her iron will manifested when she said it. The kind that made me scared for my life.

I dread to think what the time was when I finally settled down for the night. Dakota and I had shared another kiss before she had departed for bed and I couldn’t get it out of my head. My disbelief and excitement were insisting on fighting against my incredible tiredness.

That was a good thing, really.

“Psst. Alex. You awake?”

I opened my eyes to see Dakota standing in the living room, illuminated only by the moonlight seeping through the curtains. She was wearing her pyjamas.

“Mhm…?” I murmured.

“Mam didn’t say anything about me sneaking down here,” she purred, tip-toeing over. “Room for one more?”

“Always.”

I moved back as much as I could, into the back of the sofa, and opened up the covers for her. She slipped in beside me and I kissed her the moment I could.

“Thank you, for…”

“For what?” she asked, so close to me.

“For being you,” I concluded. “I really do love you.”

“And I love you too,” she sang, emphasising each word. “Goodnight… boyfriend.”

My heart sang in kind.

“Goodnight, girlfriend.”

For the third time in my life, but for the first time as a couple, Dakota Radley and I fell asleep together.