I raised a gloved finger to the door, Chase's gift in my other hand, and pressed the doorbell. God, I couldn't believe I was even wearing gloves. It was a good thing I'd bought them for ice-skating, or else I'd have been out of luck. I heard footsteps sound behind the door, before I was greeted by Mr. McCaugh.

"Hey look, it's the Fischers'!" he said loudly for everyone inside to hear. "We were beginning to think ya'll weren't gonna show."

"Sorry we're a little late," my mother said from behind me. "Dinner ran a little later than expected."

A complete understatement. There wasn't enough time to give the entire story, and I don't think anyone in my family wanted to relive the last two hours ever again.

In short summary, Aunt Sylvia oh so kindly forgot to mention that she'd baked the sweet potato fries in peanut oil nearly costing Aaron a trip to the emergency room. Miraculously, Mom found his epipen right in time after arguing with Dad about who had it last.

By the time we put an end to that disaster in the making, the food had gone cold and no one really had an appetite to finish it. But if that alone wasn't enough to account for a bad day, it was enough to set Aunt Sylvia's time schedule behind to miss her train. After visiting us, she was supposed to be on the way to El Paso, where my uncle lived. Unfortunately she'd have to make a bed on the couch tonight, and set out tomorrow at noon.

"That's alright, you ain't missing too much around here," he said, letting us in. As I walked into Chase's home, I was overwhelmed with the smell of Christmas. I didn't know how else to describe it, but almost like the scent of pinecones mixed with tensile right out the box. (Which really didn't make any sense because their tree is artificial.)

I didn't dwell on my thoughts because I caught sight of his mom after bypassing the foyer. I followed her into their icicle lit living room to say hello. She was sitting on the sofa with a box in her lap. I'd walked in on her trying to wrap a gift that undoubtably belonged to someone in my family, last minute.

I took a step back to spare her own dignity, but she caught me before I could.

"You might as well come in, you've already seen it," she said. Her accent wasn't nearly as thick as her husband's but it held a distinct drawl. I've always found it funny how people exaggerate our accents. Most of us in Austin don't sound that different from anyone else in the country, but there are a select few that distinguish the stereotype. Chase's parents definitely had stronger voices than anyone else I knew, and I loved it. His father grew up on a ranch in southern Houston, and his mom, a city girl from Dallas. Whenever she talked, it reminded me of the heroines in old Western movies. I've never told her that, but she would definitely take it as a compliment.

I inched forward into the room to see that there was a smile on her face as she placed the gift on the floor next to her.

"Sorry,-" I started to say, but she beat me to it.

"It's my own fault for waiting until now. I forgot to wrap it, and then I heard your voices at the door. We didn't think you all were still coming. Just don't tell your mother because it is hers after all."

"You've got my word," I said with a smile of my own.

It was a good thing she'd finished it, because Aaron came in the room shortly after. "Hi Mrs. McCaugh!" he exclaimed. "I've got a present for you."

He held it behind his back.

Her brown eyes were bright although they crinkled as she shot him a warm smile. "Well, are you gonna let me see it?" she played along.

"Yeah, but it's actually from my mom," he positioned the box in front of her. She placed a hand to her chest before taking it from him. My mother entered next.

"Merry Christmas Linda," she said. "I hope you'll be able to put some use into now that we're getting this kind of weather."

Mrs. McCaugh peeled back the paper, to reveal a Barney's gift box. She took off the lid, and reached inside, retrieving a cream fuzzy sweater.

"Oh, this is beautiful."

I was halfway out of the room as the both of them exchanged gifts. Heading up the stairs, I nearly ran right into Chase who was on his way down.

"Hey," he said, putting his hands around me to keep his balance. I chuckled.

"Hey."

"I thought I heard your voice."

"Sure did."

"So," he said leaning against the railing. "I hope you brought me a gift."

"That depends on if you've got one for me."

He squinted his eyes, and pretended to think. "Hmm, I don't know. There may be something up there, let's see."

I rolled my eyes at this ridiculous game, and followed him up the stairs with his gift in my hands.

"Mkay," he flicked on the light, "Let's see what we've got here."

I was surprised at how neat it looked in here. His Mom must've made him clean up for the holidays, that was the only explanation.

But, then it occurred to me how long it's actually been since I've stepped foot in here. At least a month. I hadn't been hanging around Chase's house nearly as much as I used to since..well I couldn't place a distinct moment exactly. He'd been at my house several times, but it wouldn't make much sense for me to visit him here since he was barely home anymore. That was it. He'd said so to me himself, that he'd been avoiding home because of his parents. It was so strange...I'd just spoken to the two of them downstairs, and if I didn't know any better, I would have assumed nothing was wrong. To me, being here was just like it's always been. I'd almost forgot how different it was for him.

Chase hovered over his desk, as he searched through it, for my gift probably. Nice going. I didn't comment, but I wanted to.

I sat on his bed and crossed my arms making an effort to tap my foot for emphasis. He pulled a box out from the bottom shelf. I cleared my throat.

"Okay," he said, pulling his desk chair towards the bed. He sat down and slid the box over to me, before outstretching his own hand.

"Merry Christmas," I said as I placed the box into it.

"Thank you," he said, before lifting it to his ear and giving it a good shake. "Feels light."

"Hm," I said jiggling mine, "I was about to say the same thing."

A smirk crawled onto his face as he tried to guess what was inside. "Both of us open on the count of three?"

"You're a loser I hope you know that." He frowned. "Fine. On the count of three."

"One, two..." he started.

"Three."

The only sound that could be heard in the room was paper being torn up. Neither of us were neat, and both of us eight year olds trapped in seventeen year olds' bodies. Paper fluttered to the floor, shreds of snowflakes mixing with Christmas trees. Every other year, we've gotten each other cheesy presents. Last year mine was a barbie karaoke machine he'd bought for ten bucks off e-bay. We'd asked each other what gifts we never got as kids, and he'd replied with Heelys.

I bought him roller skates.

You can imagine our excitement for this year. He beat me to the gift, and took the cover off his stripped box. I couldn't even describe the look of confusion on his face as he tried to decipher it. He held up the USB to his face as his eyebrows met in the center of his forehead.

"I'm sorry, but what is this?"

"Read the card."

He hadn't even noticed it was there to begin with. I handed it to him, and he began to read it.

"Is this some kind of list?"

"Mhmm. It's a schedule, see." I pointed to each title on the card. "All of our favorite movies are on here...Horror movies at least. I burned them all into this," I showed him the USB. "I felt bad about missing out on the twenty-five days countdown, so I'm hoping this makes up for it."

"All our horror flicks are on this?" he held up the USB.

"All twenty of em. I couldn't find half of them in stores cause they're so old. Thankfully we still had some on tape."

A smile didn't even begin to cover the look that he shot me. "Come here," he reached out and leaned forward.

"Hold it. I'll hug you after I open mine. Depending on if I like it or not."

"Well hurry up and open it," he nudged me.

"Okay pushy." I lifted the cover off, and peeled back the tissue paper. At first I didn't know what I was looking at. There were two silver hooks of some sort inside, and a coil of twine.

Now, I understood his confusion. Why did we both have to be so complex? I picked up one of the hooks, and turned it around in my index finger and thumb. "I'm sorry, but I'm really confused right now."

He reached out and took the hook from me.

"Ya know, I was really hoping you would put it together yourself. I was gonna wait till your birthday next month, and finish it for you, but I thought you could figure it out." He handed me the card which only read,

Catch some bait with this, Kaya Fischer

"...Huh?"

I could tell he was very satisfied with his own game. I wanted to wipe the smirk off his face as he picked up the other piece of my gift and laid the two hooks beside each other on the bed. Next he took the coil out and began to wind the bottoms of the hooks together. I craned my head to see what he was doing, but I was still just as lost as before. It wasn't until he secured the other ends together that I began to see the shape. Locked together, the two hooks formed a heart. I read the card one more time, and it took everything within me not to burst out laughing.

Kaya Fischer. They were fish hooks! He was making me a heart-shaped necklace out of fish hooks.

"Chase!" I exclaimed, enveloping him in my arms.

"Shit Kay-"

I rushed at him a little too fast, because it nearly knocked the both of us off the bed. I heard the hooks fall to the floor, but I really didn't care in that moment. This boy was my best friend, and nothing would ever change that.

He landed on his back against the bed, with me on top. I opened my mouth to apologize, but all that came out was laughter. "Sorry." I said between breaths. I could barely control myself.

"You are crazy," he said in all seriousness.

"I know."

And, then we were both laughing. The ridiculous charade continued until we were both breathless and staring into each other's faces.

"I love it," I said to him. It made me almost feel bad about my own gift to him. He's basically given me hand-made jewelry and all I did was burn a few movies onto a USB.

"Me too," he said before correcting himself. "My gift not yours."

"I know what you meant."

It was like he'd somehow read into my mind, but that's just how we were. We knew exactly what each other was thinking by a simple look. And right now he was staring right into my face.
I could tell he was about to say something, but thought better of it. His eyes flickered as the moment passed. But then, he was no longer looking into mine. His gaze was further down.

It had moved to my mouth.

Everything within me froze. This time, I tried to speak but I didn't know the words to say.

I bit down on my lip, and his eyes followed. Oh god, that was the wrong   message. His gaze found mine again, like a confirmation. He'd never looked at me this way before. His usual playful smirk was gone. The confident face he always wore was replaced by one of fear...almost but not entirely. That wasn't the right word. He looked nervous. He was nervous because of me.

I didn't know what was happening. His nerves must have passed onto me because I was nearly shaking as I watched him study my face.

"Um," I broke the silence.

And just like that, he flinched away as though he'd touched a flame. He moved to the other side and bent over the edge of the bed, coming up with the necklace.

"I'm sorry," he placed it next to me. "This fell."

I picked it up and closed my hand around it. He looked as though he were baffling an internal conflict, because he couldn't face me.

"Thanks."

"Yeah." He even said this to the other direction.

I didn't know what almost happened, but I wasn't about to let things get weird between us. 

"Chase."

"Hmm?" He looked down.

"Look at me."

He did but I could tell it was a struggle, despite how he tried to come across.

"I-"...I was going to bring it back up and tell him to forget about it. Just act like it didn't happen. But it did. I didn't know what that meant for our friendship. We'd almost crossed a dangerous line and I still wasn't sure how to feel about it. "I really appreciate the gift."

Relief passed over his face. I didn't have to say anything because he understood. We wouldn't talk about it. It would stay here in this room where it belonged.

"I'm glad," he said. "Just don't try to cast it in the lake," he joked.

"As long as you don't install anything on yours," I smiled.

And just like that, the awkwardness of the last few moments was gone. But, it was still clear in my mind. Even after we said our goodbyes, and I climbed back into the car with my family, I couldn't shake away the look on his face. Once something like that happens, there's no returning to the moments before. It would be easy to shake it off, and pretend that it's nothing.

I couldn't do that because it wasn't nothing. Chase had almost kissed me. As much as I'd like to call it something else, that was the truth. And, it's not that one moment that makes things different. It's what comes after.

Every single thing changes. I have to question whether his hugs and his smiles were only friendly after all. I remember the things Mason said about him. How he'd always be so convinced that we were more than friends. He'd get so threatened whenever was with him.

I tried so hard to make him believe what I thought was the truth. That there was nothing between Chase and I. We were just friends.

I didn't mean to lie to Mason because at the time, that's what I believed myself.

Now, I wasn't so sure.