Title: Christmas Wish
Part: 4/12
Author: Wendy
Category: 98º
Rating: PG-13
Copyright: 1999
The group arrived at downtown Burlington in a while after getting through some traffic on the parkway. They found an underground parking lot and decided that it was the best place to leave their cars for the evening when they go around the city.
"Where to?" Charlene asked the group giddily as everyone met up in the streets.
Everyone was looking around to see if there was anywhere interesting to go to first.
Becki pointed over to a mall. "Let’s go shopping, you guys."
"Oh, no," Drew groaned.
"Yeah, I’d say we’d go over there and at least just check things out," Ashley said.
The guys reluctantly gave into shopping. They knew that there was no way to win against the girls, just like the way they lost the snowball fight earlier that day.
"This should be interesting," Nick muttered to no one in particular.
"Oh, Nick, just stop it, it’ll be fine," Sara told him, grabbing his arm as they walked down the block.
The visit to the mall was actually a lot shorter than the guys had anticipated. When they would go shopping with the girls, they would usually split up and meet up later. Instead, they all walked together this time because they weren’t familiar with the grounds. They bought some stuff, but it wasn’t really a big shopping day. Most of them had done their Christmas shopping already.
Upon exiting the mall, they slowly headed over to the restaurant where Nick and Jeff had made reservations earlier that day. It wasn’t an especially elegant restaurant, no special attires required, but it was a nice setting nonetheless.
Everyone ordered their food after settling down at a large round table. It actually barely fit all ten of them, but they somehow managed it.
They all reminisced on their past holidays with friends and family.
"Nick, remember that year at college?" Justin asked.
"Oh, no, J, you’re not going to tell everyone about that," Nick got a little red, remembering back to his college years.
"Which time are you talking about?" Sara asked.
"I actually never told you about this, Sara. And frankly, I know you won’t want to know," Nick said.
"You’re making us want to hear about this more and more, Nick. Tell away, Justin," Jeff added.
Nick put his head on the table to lighten the embarrassment.
Justin started telling everyone about the story and everyone listened intently around the table. "I think it was our sophomore year in college. We did some pretty stupid stuff that year, but this is probably on the top of the stupid list. Well, anyway, Nick really liked this hot cheerleader chick and he really wanted to get her to go to this Christmas holiday with him. So he asked her out and she said yes. That night, he picked her up and they went to the party. I was there waiting for them. Well, stupid Nick first got lost on the way to the party. When they finally showed up, it was already like a couple of hours late. That’s probably not the worse part. He had some beer or whatever and got pretty drunk. He just kind of threw up on the girl…while they were making out."
Everyone around the table gasped and started to laugh.
"What happened then?" Jessica asked.
Justin looked over at Nick, who was red with embarrassment. "Needless to say, she didn’t want to see him ever again."
"Alright, alright, you guys, you’ve had your laugh at my expense for the night. Can we just move on now?" Nick complained.
Everyone laughed a little more and then moved to another subject. By then, the waiter had served them their food.
"I want to propose a toast," Justin announced, raising his glass of soda. "May we have the best time here this week and remember it forever."
"And to our friendship," Ashley added, smiling at Justin.
"And to the new millennium, may all of us be successful in all we do," Nick smiled.
"Anything else?" Justin asked.
No one said anything, so everyone raised their glasses and said, "Cheers!"
They all took a sip of their drinks and began their meals.
After everyone had finished their meals and left the restaurant, the group decided that they wouldn’t go home just yet. Since it was only a couple days until Christmas, they all went to a shop to get a large Christmas tree and decorations. They all decided to split up and meet up an hour later. Nick, Drew, Sara, Becki and Megan went to get the tree, while the rest of the group left to get decorations for the tree and the cabin.
After going through a few stores, Nick and Drew finally selected a six-foot tree. It didn’t look too great, but it was the prettiest one they were able to find that late into the Christmas season.
"This is really great, I love being able to feel like I’m at home when I’m really that far away from it," Sara sighed.
"I know what you mean," Megan replied. "Everything is coming out so great and I just love the spirit of the holidays."
"Okay, it’s paid for. Now let’s try to drag this baby back to meet the rest of the guys," Drew said.
"Actually, you know what?" Nick asked brightly. "Why don’t you and Becki just wait here and we’ll go back to meet the rest of them? Then we can just drive the car around to here so we don’t have to drag this thing around town?"
"That actually is better," Becki said. "I guess we’ll see you guys in a little while."
Megan, Sara and Nick left the store and back to meet the rest of the group.
Justin, Jeff, Charlene, Jessica and Ashley were waiting outside the mall with bags hand in hand. They had pretty much rampaged through the mall buying almost anything and everything they could find. It was probably going to be more than they needed, but everything looked good. Some of the decorations were actually going on sale already because Christmas Day was so near.
After a couple of minutes, they saw Nick, Megan and Sara approaching.
"Where are Drew and Becki?" Ashley asked.
"We bought a tree and instead of dragging it here, they’re waiting there for us to bring the car around," Nick replied.
"Well, are we ready to go back?" Jeff asked everyone.
"Yeah, I just want to decorate the place," Jessica replied.
Everyone split up into three groups, with Nick and Sara only in one of the cars to pick up Drew and Becki. They would meet back up at the cabin in a little while.
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