*Sammie’s POV (Morning, Thursday Christmas Eve)

It’s about 6:00am on December 24th. People normally associate this day with Christmas Eve and I always have too. However, this day is now also associated with Louis’ birthday. I wanted to do something special for him, so I got up extra early to make him breakfast in bed. I’m just finishing so I put everything on the tray and carry it to his room.

I slowly creak the door open with my foot to reveal Louis soundly sleeping on his right side. The guy is twenty four years old today and somehow he still looks like a little boy curled up in bed. I tiptoe over to the right side of the bed to face him and I gently say his name. It takes me a few tries before his eyes flutter open.

“Happy Birthday, Louis.” I say holding up the tray of food slightly. “Oh my gosh…you didn’t. Love, you didn’t have to do this for me.” he says slowly sitting up. “Of course I did, Lou. It’s your birthday and if it weren’t for your birth, I don’t know where I would be right now.” I say setting the tray in front of him.

“Thank you so much, Sammie. Everything smells delicious!” he says grabbing his fork. “Thanks, I got up at 5:15 to make this for you so it better have been worth it.” I say jokingly. He takes a bite of my chocolaty chip pancakes I made that he always goes nuts over. “Mmmm!” he says leaning on me as if he’s just fainted, “You make these like nobody else.”

I laugh and say “Why, thank you. Now as soon as you finish eating and we wake up a little bit more, we’re gonna go shopping for the party. We’ve got a lot to do before tomorrow night.” He grabs my shoulder saying, “Yeah we do, AND we need to put up and decorate the Christmas tree!” he cheers. “Yes, AND I have another surprise for you at the end of the night for your birthday!” I cheer right back.

“Sam, you don’t have to do anything else for me. This great breakfast and you being here is enough.” he says. “Well I don’t care. I already have it ready and I know you’ll love it, so hush.” I say nudging him. He nudges me back and I let him finish eating while I eat some food myself and get dressed.

At around 8:00 we head out to shop for some more decorations for the apartment. Louis already had a few, but not near enough for what I like to have up. Even combining the ones I brought from my apartment with his wasn’t enough for me.

Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday and I really get into the spirit of it, so I hang tons of decorations aside from the tree. Louis thinks it’s a little overboard what I want to put up, but I assured him that it will look very festive.

We buy some more tinsel, garland, and lights in particular. We also buy little figurines of Christmas story characters to put on the table. Last, I say we need Christmas dishes to put the food in/on. Louis shakes his head at me. I find the cutest ones and we’re finally done. It takes us a while to do all this considering it’s the day before Christmas so we finally finish getting decorations at around 11:00.

Next we go to the grocery store to get the last of the food for the party. We’re gonna get pizza for the main course tomorrow, and we already got the dessert and drinks. All we have left are the snacks. Despite Louis’ objections we’re getting a veggie platter. He says that no one will eat it, but I know for a fact that all of the girls like veggies so he is very wrong.

Louis proceeds to grab a million bags of chips. I shake my head in disbelief. “What? Us guys have to eat too!” he says grabbing some salsa and dips as well. We ring everything up and go home to get the veggies in the fridge as soon as possible and to get started decorating.

We have so many bags at this point and I almost feel a little sorry for Louis when he can barely carry the bags of chips and salsa/dips that I made him carry since he wanted them so badly.

We get home at 1:00 and after we put all the food away and lay out all the new decorations, we have lunch. “It’s gonna take the rest of the day to put all that up and do everything for tree.” Lou says looking at everything spread across the whole living room floor.

“Not necessarily. I’m a Christmas expert, thank you very much.” He raises an eyebrow at me. “Oh really? What time do you think you can get done putting up all the decorations and doing the tree, Miss Expert?”

I think briefly trying to remember what my record time was last year. “I can have all the decorations done and the tree put together and lighted within four hours. If I start at 2:00 I’ll have that done by 6:00 for dinner.” He stares at me shocked. “Time me, Tomlinson.”

We finish lunch and I get the Christmas tree out and the lights. It’s a few minutes before 2:00 so I’m preparing myself for everything I have to do. I have a water bottle attached to my belt loop so I can get a quick drink if I’m thirsty and I have a roll of tape around my wrist just in case. “Done this before, huh?” Lou asks chuckling.

“Oh yeah. Many times, my friend. Get ready for shock and awe.” He laughs again before looking at the clock. “One minute, Sam. Ready?” “Let’s do this.” is my response. It feels like forever before Louis shouts “GO!” and I begin. Like lightning I start putting up the decorations and lights around the room. It’s looking really good.

Once I’m done with decorations I check the time: 3:00. Wow, and I’m already starting the tree! It’s the lights that will take the longest though. Especially if I need to untangle them. I’m sorting through the branches and putting the tree together as fast as I can. I finish putting the topper on the tree and straighten out all the bent branches.

When finished, I look at the time: 4:30. Damn, it took longer than I thought. I quickly get out the lights to untangle them and make sure the majority of the lights are lit when I plug them in. Quick as I can, still getting it to look good, I start wrapping the lights around the tree.

I get all of the lights around the whole tree, spaced pretty evenly, and I plug them in to see how it looks. I’m very satisfied with how it turned out so I shout “DONE!” and Lou looks at the clock. He pauses dramatically before slowly turning to me and saying “5:56! You truly are the Christmas expert, Sam.” “Thank you, thank you very much.” I say in an Elvis voice.

We have our dinner while watching one of our favorite Christmas specials on TV: Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town! We both sing all the songs although I sing slightly off key. Lou doesn’t seem to notice or care, adding to the list of reasons why he’s so awesome. After it’s over, we turn off the TV and turn on our favorite Christmas music to sing to while we decorate the tree.

The ornament boxes are out and we start to put some on. There are generic ones that are round ones all different colors and patterns, candy canes, and then we get to our personal ones from our childhoods. Our ornaments are all mixed together so I sometimes pull out ones of his, and he finds mine. Talk about embarrassing memories and pictures revealed.

It’s been a night of music, decorating, and lots of laughs. This is one of the best Christmases I’ve ever had and it’s all thanks to Louis. We get done putting all the ornaments on and we stand back to admire our work. “Nice job, Sammie.” he says putting his arm around me. “You too, Louis.” I say putting mine around him.

“Want some cocoa?” I ask. “Sounds great.” he says. I make the hot cocoa and put it into two Christmas mugs. We’re sitting at our little table drinking it when I remember my surprise for him. “Oh my gosh, I almost forgot!” I say getting up to go to the fridge. “What is it?” he asks.

“Remember how I told you I would get two cakes for the party? Well…only one of them is for the party.” I say setting the box onto the table in front of him. “This one is for you.” I say smiling and opening the box to reveal a cake that says “Happy Birthday Louis!” that has red and green frosting with music notes and theatre masks on it. “Sammie…I love this! It’s absolutely perfect. I don’t know what to say.”

I just give him a hug and say “Don’t say anything. You don’t have to. This is another way of me saying thanks to you, for all you’ve done for me in the last seven months.” He hugs me again and says “I will always be here for you. I promise.” We go to put the empty boxes in the closet when I see there’s something that I missed in the decorations.

“Hey Lou, I forgot one thing.” I say taking it out of the box. “Ah, the mistletoe.” he says. Oh shit. “How about you hang it over the doorway for our couples that will be joining us tomorrow?” he proposes. “Okay…” I say heading for the door. I try and stick it up there, but I can’t reach it. “Here, let me help ya.” Lou says. Next thing I know, I’m being lifted into the air by my hips. I stick it up there and he puts me down. “Thanks, Lou.”

“Of course.” It’s at this moment that I realize he and I are standing under it. He looks up too and says in a joking manner, “Well how about that? We’re under the mistletoe. Know what that means?” For the love of God, why? “Pay up for helping you today.” he says pointing to his cheek. Oh thank God…I kiss his cheek and he kisses mine in return. “C’mon, let’s get ready for bed.” he says. At this point, it’s about 11:00. One hour until Christmas!!! We both are ready for bed and look at the time: 11:15.

“Well, it’s only 45 minutes until Christmas. Wanna stay up for it?” Lou asks. “Yes, please!” I decide to go ahead and put the food we have, on the Christmas dishes we bought today. I put saran wrap over the dishes and put them in the fridge.

When I’m done with that, Lou and I decide to figure out what kinds of pizza we’re getting. We decide on takeout from Pizzeria Uno. The girls and I adore that place. We choose a veggie one for Mackenzie and me and a meat one for the guys, along with regular cheese and pepperoni. Once that’s all done we look at the time and it’s about five minutes until midnight.

We spend the last few minutes talking about what we want to accomplish in 2016. Louis wants to be cast in another show and continue living with me through the rest of my senior year. “What about you, Sam?” This is something I’ve been pondering for a few weeks now and I decide to spill my guts.

“I really want to figure out what I want to do with my life. I mean all the girls know what they’re good at and will have set careers by the time they finish college. I don’t even know what I’m good at. The girls want me to go to AMDA like them, but I don’t have a performing talent like they do. I’m just scared that I won’t find something meaningful to do with my life, you know?”

“Sam, you’ll find it. You’ll know what you want to do because it’ll suddenly hit you over the head. It’ll seem so obvious once you figure it out and when you do, the biggest sense of relief will wash over you. That’s what happened to me with acting and it’ll happen to you with whatever your gift ends up being.” he finishes taking my hand in both of his. He is THE most comforting human being.

“You know just what to say all the time. You’re like a…wise old owl.” I say. He laughs and looks at the clock. “One minute to midnight. Let’s watch the clock!” I scoot to sit myself next to him. Some seconds later, we see the clock turn from 11:59 to 12:00. It’s officially Christmas. Louis looks at me. “Merry Christmas, Sammie.” I look to him. “Merry Christmas, Louis.” I say before we hug each other tight.

Notes

I have to admit, Loummie is my favorite :) This is also one of my favorite chapters so far. I hope you liked it too! Until tomorrow, take care lovelies! <3