Lemons
December #3 Christmas & Being Thankful For Friends
*Susan’s POV (Afternoon, Thursday Christmas Eve)
I’m at the airport with Hannah waiting for the LA flight to get in. Em, Kenz, Zayn, and Niall are flying in today for Sammie’s party tomorrow night. Today the six of us are doing some stuff downtown to show the boys around before they go to Emily’s parents’ house to meet them for the first time. Both Emily and Kenz’s families are gathering at Em’s house to make things easier.
We’re all going to the house so they feel more comfortable. They’re pretty nervous. I mean they’re meeting their girlfriends’ families. It’s a big deal. Both couples have now been together for a little more than seven months so they’re getting serious. They’re both so cute together! I hope they make good first impressions.
It’ll be strange being with two couples today without my Liam, but it’ll still be fun. I’ll have Hannah. He and I are gonna Skype at some point during the party tomorrow so he can meet everyone. He’s nervous but I keep trying to tell him that the girls are really welcoming. It’s Niall and Zayn that will be like my father and give him a hard time.
I know I haven’t met them in person yet but those two are my best guy friends now, Louis too. Hannah and I went to his and Sammie’s apartment the day after we flew in from NYC and he is even more of a sweetheart than we thought. He hugged us both when we got there and treated us like his own family. He said “Sisters of Sammie’s are sisters of mine.”
We’ve hung out with them a few times since then and had tons of fun. We wanted them to hang out with all of us today but they’re spending the day by themselves celebrating Louis’ birthday and getting ready for the party. And so, Hannah and I are at the gate waiting for all of them to get here. It was just announced that the LA flight landed so we should be seeing them any minute.
Suddenly they appear and we run to Emily and Kenz hugging them. After, we hug Niall and Zayn as if we’ve known them for years. “So what are we doing first, ladies?” Niall asks. “Since it’s lunchtime, we figured we’d introduce you boys to Chicago pizza.” Han says. “Yeeees food!!!” Niall shouts. “Excuse his food obsession.” Kenz says playfully punching Niall in the arm.
We pile in a taxi and take it to our favorite pizza place in the city: Pizzeria Uno. I swear it’s the best in Chicago. The best part is it’s a half hour at most from the airport. It’s our go-to after landing. It takes around 45 minutes for them to make their deep dish so they take your order while you wait for your table (they’re quite busy!) and it’s ready by the time you sit down. It’s amazing.
We get there and our order is taken. While we’re waiting, us girls can see Niall and Zayn just looking all around taking everything in. We look at each other and smile to ourselves. Seeing how amazed they are by things we see every day is adorable. In a little while, we’re seated and minutes later our pizza arrives.
“This is the biggest, deepest deep dish I’ve ever seen in my life!” Niall exclaims. He proceeds to take the biggest piece and put it on his plate. The rest of us laugh and take our pieces. We all watch as Niall and Zayn are about to take their first bite and they stop, mouths open.
“What?” Zayn asks. “We wanna see your first taste faces.” Emily says. They laugh as they take their bites. Their faces are priceless. I wish I took a picture of how they looked. “Oh my God…” Zayn says after swallowing. “BEST PIZZA EVER!!” Niall shouts, food still in his mouth.
We all laugh so hard our stomachs hurt. “See? Knew you’d love it, baby.” Kenz says wiping some sauce off of Niall’s face. We finish our pizza and then take the boys to Millennium Park. On the way, the boys are holding Kenz and Em’s hands and looking around at all of the decorations as we walk down Michigan Avenue. They keep saying that next to NYC, this is the next best city decorated for Christmas that they’ve ever seen.
The first thing we come to is Crown Fountain. The boys comment on the different pictures that are showing up on the sides. “Yeah it’s too bad you guys weren’t here a couple months earlier. In the summer, water spurts out from the sides and down from the tops of the towers.” Kenz says. “No way!” Zayn exclaims. We all chuckle. “Yes way! When there are faces on the sides, they make it look like water is coming out of the mouths.” Emily says. “WICKED!” Niall shouts clearly impressed.
“I think I know where we’re vacationing this summer.” Zayn says leaning down to kiss Emily’s head. “Oh my gosh, yes! I definitely wanna come back when this badass fountain will be running.” Niall says. We laugh and the guys look at all of the different pictures and videos that pop up and play on the towers. After they’re done, we go to basically everywhere else in the park:
First is the AT&T Plaza to see Cloud Gate (or “the bean” as us Chicagoans call it). We go underneath the bean and take some goofy pictures of our reflections. We walk through the McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink, but we don’t go skating. The guys seem disappointed until we tell them we’ll be going tonight with our families.
We then go to Wrigley Square where we show them the Millennium Monument. After, we show them the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. The girls and I have seen tons of performances there. We come upon the Great Lawn where we see it covered in snow and totally deserted.
“Normally, people have picnics and see concerts here but during winter no one comes here.” Mackenzie says. “C’mon, it looks like a great place to build snowmen and have killer snowball fights!” Niall says. “Yeah well I wouldn’t recommend doing that if I were you.” Emily comments. “Why couldn’t we? It’s a perfectly good spot.” Zayn says.
“See that sign? We aren’t allowed to go in. It’s closed.” Hannah says pointing to the sign that says ‘The Great Lawn is Closed to Protect the Grass.’ “Well poo!” Niall says making a big frown on his face. The girls and I laugh and Mackenzie rubs Niall’s arm. “Okay…I think we’re done. Is it about time to go to your house, Em?” I ask. “Actually it is. Time flew by!”
We get a taxi to Emily’s house. The guys comment on how close together all of the houses are in the residential part of the city and after about 20 minutes we pull up to the house. When we get out, walking to the door Emily seems to see the look on Zayn’s face. “Nervous, babe?” she asks him.
“Very. I just want them to like me.” he says grabbing her hand. “Same here. It’s a lot of pressure.” Niall says to Kenz also grabbing her hand. “You’ll do great. Just be yourselves and they’ll love you.” Hannah says. We all take a deep breath before ringing the doorbell.
The boys end up doing wonderfully as expected. They are very polite and seem to handle the hassling from both families well. Niall just finds Kenz’s family teasing him to be hilarious. Zayn is definitely quieter than normal but he’s still friendly. We all sit around and visit and have dinner before heading back out to Millennium Park together to go ice skating.
I can tell that this whole day has made Hannah feel really down because she wants to spend Christmas with Harry. In the car I sit next to her and rub her back a little to comfort her. We hug and he gives me a small smile mouthing “thank you” to me.
At the rink, I skate with her the whole time, both of us taking some tumbles to the ice. I of course am sneaking glances at the two couples. Hannah probably is too, but can you blame us?
They’re skating together holding hands and there’s one time that Kenz and Niall fall on top of each other, Niall on top of Mackenzie face to face. They of course share a stereotypically romantic kiss before getting up. A few times during the night, Zayn has Emily on his back and he skates her around.
One of the songs that comes on while we’re there is Let It Go from Frozen and us girls get together immediately and sing, harmonizing and everything. The rest of the people applaud us after; it was great.
To end the evening, we all get in a big line and skate around the edge of the rink holding onto each other. It was such a fun day overall. Most of the day my mind was actually off of Liam.
We return our skates and get in our separate cars to go home. Niall, Kenz, and her family go together while Zayn, Em, and her family go together. Hannah is sleeping at my house so we take a taxi there once everyone else leaves. We get there and it’s about 9:00. “So what do you want to do now?” I ask Han. “We could watch a movie, I guess.” she answers.
We end up deciding on a Christmas movie because it seems appropriate. We immediately pick one of our favorites: White Christmas. It’s probably because of the music/dance numbers, but either way we watch it and sing along.
It gets to the part of the movie where one of the leading women, Betty, sings a song with the words “Love, you didn’t do right by me.” There’s a lyric in the song that goes “you planned a romance that just hadn’t a chance.”
When I hear that, I think of my long distance relationship with Liam; I look at Hannah and she’s already turned to me probably thinking the same thing. Is it possible that our romances with Liam and Harry didn’t have a chance? Are we just wasting our time? We seem to read each other’s minds. “No. No with us it’s different. We’re gonna make it through long distance. Right?” Hannah asks…more like pleads.
“Well…I mean…there are no guarantees in reality.” is all I say before Hannah is at my side hugging me. “BUT! It could still work out. You could beat the odds! Just because most long distance relationships fail, doesn’t mean ours will too.” I say hugging her back. “So while we’re waiting for our relationships to potentially be shot to hell…we’re supposed to just—“
“—enjoy it right now and don’t think about it.”I say finishing her sentence. “Unfortunately we can’t see the future. But if we keep stressing out about it, we won’t cherish our time being with them now. We have to keep our spirits up no matter what the future holds.”
There’s silence before Hannah sits up and says “I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through Christmas without you.” I pull her into a hug. “Me either.” I say. If I didn’t have Hannah to do everything with, I would’ve been missing Liam the whole time. It’s funny…It’s around the holidays when you seem to be especially grateful to have true friends.
I’m at the airport with Hannah waiting for the LA flight to get in. Em, Kenz, Zayn, and Niall are flying in today for Sammie’s party tomorrow night. Today the six of us are doing some stuff downtown to show the boys around before they go to Emily’s parents’ house to meet them for the first time. Both Emily and Kenz’s families are gathering at Em’s house to make things easier.
We’re all going to the house so they feel more comfortable. They’re pretty nervous. I mean they’re meeting their girlfriends’ families. It’s a big deal. Both couples have now been together for a little more than seven months so they’re getting serious. They’re both so cute together! I hope they make good first impressions.
It’ll be strange being with two couples today without my Liam, but it’ll still be fun. I’ll have Hannah. He and I are gonna Skype at some point during the party tomorrow so he can meet everyone. He’s nervous but I keep trying to tell him that the girls are really welcoming. It’s Niall and Zayn that will be like my father and give him a hard time.
I know I haven’t met them in person yet but those two are my best guy friends now, Louis too. Hannah and I went to his and Sammie’s apartment the day after we flew in from NYC and he is even more of a sweetheart than we thought. He hugged us both when we got there and treated us like his own family. He said “Sisters of Sammie’s are sisters of mine.”
We’ve hung out with them a few times since then and had tons of fun. We wanted them to hang out with all of us today but they’re spending the day by themselves celebrating Louis’ birthday and getting ready for the party. And so, Hannah and I are at the gate waiting for all of them to get here. It was just announced that the LA flight landed so we should be seeing them any minute.
Suddenly they appear and we run to Emily and Kenz hugging them. After, we hug Niall and Zayn as if we’ve known them for years. “So what are we doing first, ladies?” Niall asks. “Since it’s lunchtime, we figured we’d introduce you boys to Chicago pizza.” Han says. “Yeeees food!!!” Niall shouts. “Excuse his food obsession.” Kenz says playfully punching Niall in the arm.
We pile in a taxi and take it to our favorite pizza place in the city: Pizzeria Uno. I swear it’s the best in Chicago. The best part is it’s a half hour at most from the airport. It’s our go-to after landing. It takes around 45 minutes for them to make their deep dish so they take your order while you wait for your table (they’re quite busy!) and it’s ready by the time you sit down. It’s amazing.
We get there and our order is taken. While we’re waiting, us girls can see Niall and Zayn just looking all around taking everything in. We look at each other and smile to ourselves. Seeing how amazed they are by things we see every day is adorable. In a little while, we’re seated and minutes later our pizza arrives.
“This is the biggest, deepest deep dish I’ve ever seen in my life!” Niall exclaims. He proceeds to take the biggest piece and put it on his plate. The rest of us laugh and take our pieces. We all watch as Niall and Zayn are about to take their first bite and they stop, mouths open.
“What?” Zayn asks. “We wanna see your first taste faces.” Emily says. They laugh as they take their bites. Their faces are priceless. I wish I took a picture of how they looked. “Oh my God…” Zayn says after swallowing. “BEST PIZZA EVER!!” Niall shouts, food still in his mouth.
We all laugh so hard our stomachs hurt. “See? Knew you’d love it, baby.” Kenz says wiping some sauce off of Niall’s face. We finish our pizza and then take the boys to Millennium Park. On the way, the boys are holding Kenz and Em’s hands and looking around at all of the decorations as we walk down Michigan Avenue. They keep saying that next to NYC, this is the next best city decorated for Christmas that they’ve ever seen.
The first thing we come to is Crown Fountain. The boys comment on the different pictures that are showing up on the sides. “Yeah it’s too bad you guys weren’t here a couple months earlier. In the summer, water spurts out from the sides and down from the tops of the towers.” Kenz says. “No way!” Zayn exclaims. We all chuckle. “Yes way! When there are faces on the sides, they make it look like water is coming out of the mouths.” Emily says. “WICKED!” Niall shouts clearly impressed.
“I think I know where we’re vacationing this summer.” Zayn says leaning down to kiss Emily’s head. “Oh my gosh, yes! I definitely wanna come back when this badass fountain will be running.” Niall says. We laugh and the guys look at all of the different pictures and videos that pop up and play on the towers. After they’re done, we go to basically everywhere else in the park:
First is the AT&T Plaza to see Cloud Gate (or “the bean” as us Chicagoans call it). We go underneath the bean and take some goofy pictures of our reflections. We walk through the McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink, but we don’t go skating. The guys seem disappointed until we tell them we’ll be going tonight with our families.
We then go to Wrigley Square where we show them the Millennium Monument. After, we show them the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. The girls and I have seen tons of performances there. We come upon the Great Lawn where we see it covered in snow and totally deserted.
“Normally, people have picnics and see concerts here but during winter no one comes here.” Mackenzie says. “C’mon, it looks like a great place to build snowmen and have killer snowball fights!” Niall says. “Yeah well I wouldn’t recommend doing that if I were you.” Emily comments. “Why couldn’t we? It’s a perfectly good spot.” Zayn says.
“See that sign? We aren’t allowed to go in. It’s closed.” Hannah says pointing to the sign that says ‘The Great Lawn is Closed to Protect the Grass.’ “Well poo!” Niall says making a big frown on his face. The girls and I laugh and Mackenzie rubs Niall’s arm. “Okay…I think we’re done. Is it about time to go to your house, Em?” I ask. “Actually it is. Time flew by!”
We get a taxi to Emily’s house. The guys comment on how close together all of the houses are in the residential part of the city and after about 20 minutes we pull up to the house. When we get out, walking to the door Emily seems to see the look on Zayn’s face. “Nervous, babe?” she asks him.
“Very. I just want them to like me.” he says grabbing her hand. “Same here. It’s a lot of pressure.” Niall says to Kenz also grabbing her hand. “You’ll do great. Just be yourselves and they’ll love you.” Hannah says. We all take a deep breath before ringing the doorbell.
The boys end up doing wonderfully as expected. They are very polite and seem to handle the hassling from both families well. Niall just finds Kenz’s family teasing him to be hilarious. Zayn is definitely quieter than normal but he’s still friendly. We all sit around and visit and have dinner before heading back out to Millennium Park together to go ice skating.
I can tell that this whole day has made Hannah feel really down because she wants to spend Christmas with Harry. In the car I sit next to her and rub her back a little to comfort her. We hug and he gives me a small smile mouthing “thank you” to me.
At the rink, I skate with her the whole time, both of us taking some tumbles to the ice. I of course am sneaking glances at the two couples. Hannah probably is too, but can you blame us?
They’re skating together holding hands and there’s one time that Kenz and Niall fall on top of each other, Niall on top of Mackenzie face to face. They of course share a stereotypically romantic kiss before getting up. A few times during the night, Zayn has Emily on his back and he skates her around.
One of the songs that comes on while we’re there is Let It Go from Frozen and us girls get together immediately and sing, harmonizing and everything. The rest of the people applaud us after; it was great.
To end the evening, we all get in a big line and skate around the edge of the rink holding onto each other. It was such a fun day overall. Most of the day my mind was actually off of Liam.
We return our skates and get in our separate cars to go home. Niall, Kenz, and her family go together while Zayn, Em, and her family go together. Hannah is sleeping at my house so we take a taxi there once everyone else leaves. We get there and it’s about 9:00. “So what do you want to do now?” I ask Han. “We could watch a movie, I guess.” she answers.
We end up deciding on a Christmas movie because it seems appropriate. We immediately pick one of our favorites: White Christmas. It’s probably because of the music/dance numbers, but either way we watch it and sing along.
It gets to the part of the movie where one of the leading women, Betty, sings a song with the words “Love, you didn’t do right by me.” There’s a lyric in the song that goes “you planned a romance that just hadn’t a chance.”
When I hear that, I think of my long distance relationship with Liam; I look at Hannah and she’s already turned to me probably thinking the same thing. Is it possible that our romances with Liam and Harry didn’t have a chance? Are we just wasting our time? We seem to read each other’s minds. “No. No with us it’s different. We’re gonna make it through long distance. Right?” Hannah asks…more like pleads.
“Well…I mean…there are no guarantees in reality.” is all I say before Hannah is at my side hugging me. “BUT! It could still work out. You could beat the odds! Just because most long distance relationships fail, doesn’t mean ours will too.” I say hugging her back. “So while we’re waiting for our relationships to potentially be shot to hell…we’re supposed to just—“
“—enjoy it right now and don’t think about it.”I say finishing her sentence. “Unfortunately we can’t see the future. But if we keep stressing out about it, we won’t cherish our time being with them now. We have to keep our spirits up no matter what the future holds.”
There’s silence before Hannah sits up and says “I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through Christmas without you.” I pull her into a hug. “Me either.” I say. If I didn’t have Hannah to do everything with, I would’ve been missing Liam the whole time. It’s funny…It’s around the holidays when you seem to be especially grateful to have true friends.
Notes
So. Many. Links.! Sorry about that, but I wanted you all to see what these things in Chicago look like. It's gorgeous there, especially in summer. I hope you're liking how the story is developing :) If you aren't already please subscribe, vote, and rate this story.
Also comment what you think of everything. Who are your favorite characters/pairs? How do you think things might play out in all these different relationships? Let me know! Anyways, until tomorrow take care lovelies! <3
WHAT!!!!!! DID I JUST READ THIS RIGHT???? LEMONS HAS 20,000 VIEWS!?!?!? Holy crap, you guys. I love you all so much for reading this story. It is my pride and joy. :') <3
1/22/16