My eyes scan the grand hall. There she is. Her long, wavy brown hair was shining in the sunlight coming through the large window. Beautiful, I smile as I make my way through the crowd of people setting up for the annual Christmas Eve event and cramped space in between the tables. Getting closer to where she is, I notice she is standing by the winding marble staircase we always used to sit on as kids while we watched all the adults mill about. She turns around, seeing me coming and with a huge smile, she casts her gorgeous sea blue eyes towards me and frantically motions me over.

“Hey, I haven’t seen you in forever! How are you?” She asks excitedly while hugging me.

“I’m great. How are you?” I reply with a huge grin on my face and a blush, that she hopefully won’t notice. She quickly goes on, ignoring or otherwise not seeing the blush.

“Good, good. Anyway, you need to tell me everything, how’s school? How’s soccer? How are your parents? How’s Rebecca?” She winks and nudges my arm, referring to a girl that has a crush on me.

She then takes my hand sending chills up my arm, and leads me up to the top of the staircase. She leans against the dark, wooden railing waiting for me to answer. While thinking carefully about my answer, I notice the smooth, sheen of the railing. The mahagonny is inlaid with golden patterns, leading all the way down to the bottom of the massive winding staircase.

“Everythings good…” I trail of vaguely.

“Oh come on! I mean it. How about a real answer this time?” She demands as she playfully swats my arm, smiling, her eyes intent on my answer.

“Fine, school is going well I have a B in math though but thats not really a big deal. In soccer we are all bleaching our hair for our rival game and we made it to playoffs! My parents are great, the usual. And for Rebecca, don’t ask.” I respond with an exasperated sigh.
“That bad?”
“She thought soccer was where you tried to get the ball in the big hoop things.”
Olives sweet, infectious laughter filled the space around us. “Wow.”

“Yeah.” I sighed again, looking away.

“You’ll find someone.”

I wanted to tell her that I had found someone and that she was sitting right next to me. That, that someone had a boyfriend, and thought of me as her brother or one of her best friends. I didn’t mind being her best friend, I gave her advice on relationships and friends. I knew everything about her, things her boyfriend probably didn’t even know. We have been best friends since we were little kids; at the beginning of the year though she moved, and ever since then we aren’t as close in our friendship, and the distance is unbearable. I find myself yearning for something more from our relationship.

We sit on the stairs for quite awhile enjoying ourselves, off in our own little world. Talking about everything she has missed at my school and I learned all about her new school.

“Chop, chop! Lets go, only two hours tell the party!” I hear my moms shrill, distinct voice coming towards us through the buzzing of the crowd.

“Oh, hi mom.” I mumble.

“Oh my, why are you two kids just sitting here! You look so glum, its Christmas Eve, c’mon! Anyway Landon come with me I need your help setting a display up and you need to get dressed more appropriately for the occasion. Olive dear you should probably get your dress on, its hanging up in the spare bedroom upstairs.”
“Yes mom.”
“Okay, Terese.”
“Hurry now. You guys are just too cute though, it’s nice to see you two getting along so well.” Says my mom innocently, completely oblivious to the embarrassment she caused me. Not missing a beat she takes off, not waiting for me to catch up.

“See you later Olive!” I quickly say as I dodge through the people to catch up to my determined mother.

“God, Mom really?! That was so embarrassing!” I half whisper half shout as I get to her.

“Why it’s just Olive?”

“Are you kidding?! You know why!”

“Does she not know you have a crush on her? Oh...I get it, that is just too cute my little boy has a crush.” She says and pinches my cheeks, causing me to roll my eyes.

After the display has been set up and I have my attire on, I go to the hall, that is being filled with people and make my way down stairs cramming through the crowd to try and find Olive. There is an excited buzz all throughout the room and music is flowing through the speakers. I walk around and get some food trying to find Olive as I go. I really want to ask her to dance but I don’t want her to say no. She probably wouldn’t reject me rudely or anything but she does have a boyfriend. Eventually I come to my conclusion, that for now, I better not, I may get rejected or she could take it the wrong way. There is just too many possibilities for failure or rejection to occur. I also can’t even find her, which I use as another excuse to not ask her to dance.

Finally after almost twenty minutes I find Olive, sitting on the stairs where we were earlier today. I stop to look twice because she changed out of her jeans and sweatshirt and is now wearing a beautiful, royal blue, floor length dress that make her eyes look even more dazzling. Seeing her immediately changes my mind. I decide to ask her to dance.

“Hey Olive, care to take this dance?” I say with a wink, but feel awkward. Was it too much?

“Uh, I-o-of course.” She stutters and looks up.

We walked a bit awkwardly towards the dance floor, Olive’s heels clicking loudly on the wooden floor.

“Oh my god!” Olive yelps. I quickly look over and catch her waist as she almost hits the ground.

“Thanks. I’m sorry, I’m so clumsy.” She mumbles while still in my arms. I didn’t want to let go.

“Its okay, I won’t feel as bad for being a terrible dancer. I think we are kind of even now.” I chuckle softly. We finally make it safely to the dance floor. We dance to a bunch of songs I have never heard before, probably because my mom helped pick them out. We are eventually tired out, and take a break to go snack, and get something to drink. First we head towards the drinks, I pick up a glass and take a huge swig.

“Ew! What is this?!” I cough and spit it out everywhere, including Olive who is right in front of me cracking up.

“No, not my dress! Oh my god, Landon that is gross!” She squeals still giggling.

“Well Merry Christmas Eve!” I laugh.

“Merry Christmas Eve to you too. But I hope get a better present than your spit out wine for Christmas.”