With the wind picking up outside and the snow coming down even heavier than before, it was no surprise that Blaze's parents and mine gave us permission to stay at Ali's house for the night. It was a relief to hear those words, "yes you can stay." If I didn't want to brave the fast falling snow just to walk next door, I could understand Blaze's feelings on the matter. He lived quite a ways farther then I did.

     It was settled. The three of us claimed the living room as ours for the night and spread blankets around on the couches. We replaced the gray throw pillows with pillows from the guest bedroom and set up our own areas to sleep in. Ali took the dark grey loveseat, letting Blaze and I figure out the corner couch situation. Eventually, we decided on sleeping with both our heads in the corner.

     When Ali's father arrived home, the snow had been falling hard for several hours and he regaled us with his tales of driving home. Ali's father has always been a quick one to laugh, even after Ali's mother died. She'd died of heart complications before I met Ali and Ali sometimes said she wished I could have met her. She really must have been something special. Even with this setback, Ali's father had done an amazing job of raising an independent, confident young woman.   

     "Those roads are not a place for teenagers tonight," Ali's father, Mr. Gorden, huffed as he sat at the table. "I'm glad your parents told you to stay put. Of course, you could have stayed anyways."

     He winked. I shared a look with Ali over the table. We'd agreed long ago that Mr. Gorden was the cool parent out of all of our parents. As much as our parents might have trusted us, mine and Blaze's wouldn't have allowed co-ed overnights. But with Mr. Gorden around, all I had to say was that I would be hanging out with Ali for the night and Blaze would mention he was going to a buddy's house. Easy peasy once you got past the little white lies.

     As a sort of payment for letting us stay the night, the three of us had prepared dinner. And like before with the cookies, Ali and I cooked while Blaze made suggestions based on his taste-testing. The smell of roasted chicken wafted around the kitchen mixing with the dinner rolls and rice.

     "You guys didn't have to make dinner," Mr. Gorden had followed us into the kitchen.

     "Yes, we did," Ali breezed over to plant a kiss on his cheek and steered him back to the dining room. "Now sit, it's almost ready."

     Blaze held the pots and pans while I scraped and transferred all the food into more dining table appropriate dishes. Then Ali snatched them up and took them to the table leaving Blaze and me alone.

     He put the last of the dirty dishes in the sink and leaned to look out of the window that was just above the sink. He had his long sleeve rolled up just to his elbows and when he braced himself against the sink, the slight muscles in his arm twitched.

     I caught myself staring and mentally slapped myself. Instead of focusing on his arms, I transferred my gaze to the window as well.

     "How's it looking out there?" I asked innocently, I hadn't just been transfixed by his body. God Nova, you sound like a lovesick teen.

     "It's looking pretty bad," Blaze sighed and stepped away from the window. "Ali's car might be covered in the morning."

     "Really? Let me see," I took Blaze's spot at the sink and looked out into the driveway.

     "Do you see it?" Blaze's voice was a lot closer then I'd excepted and I jumped, elbowing him in the stomach.

     I turned to see him rubbing where I'd hit him and squeaked, "Are you ok?"

     "Yeah, I will be. Remind me never to sneak up on you again," Blaze's hazel eyes twinkled below his tousled hair.

     "If you guys want food, I'd come get it. It's not getting any warmer," Ali bursts back into the kitchen.

     It was in the moment that my stomach gave a loud rumble and we all burst out laughing. I had to admit, I was hungry.

     Dinner disappeared a lot quicker then it had been made and Ali's father commented on how pleased he'd been not to be the one cooking for a change.

     "Well I suppose I should leave you young people to it," he said getting up from the table.

     He disappeared upstairs and left us to our own devices. After all the dishes had been rinsed and left in the dishwasher, Ali and Blaze grabbed a good chunk of the cookies we'd made earlier while I searched Netflix for a Christmas movie to watch. Ali's suggestions all had to do to with the romantic ones and Blaze didn't understand why we couldn't just watch Die Hard. In his words, it was "a perfectly good Christmas movie."

     While Ali and Blaze fought about what constituted the perfect holiday movie, they forgot about me. They also forgot I had the remote. So that's how we ended up watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Jim Carrey's version mind you. We're cultured individuals.

     While the Grinch and Max went about their high jinks on the screen in front of us, the semester finally caught up to all of us. Blaze was out and slightly snoring before Cindy Lou even visited the Grinch. His head had fallen on my shoulder and as I carefully moved to lie him down, he reached out and grabbed my hand. He muttered something about not wanting to lose his pillow and so I put his head in my lap. He kept clinging to my hand so I rested it on his chest and went back to watching the movie.

     Not too long after Blaze, Ali fell asleep as well. Her fuffy hair framing her perfect little face. She looked so peaceful. Well until she started snoring louder then Blaze. I threw a pillow at her and she made a noise of disgust in a sleepy voice and turned over with her back to me. Thankfully she didn't start snoring again. At least for a little bit.

     And that was how my night ended. Just me, some cookies and my two snoring friends.