This is part one of the bonus chapter you guys earned from Inksgiving. This will be from Mal's point of view and is information leading up to the date. The second part will also be from Mal's point of view. There is some Spanish in the beginning parts of this bonus chapter, it's not super important to the plot, but translations will be in the description below. If you don't want to read the translations the jest of the conversation is that Mal's mom won't be home for Chirstmas because she will be with a friend. Also, I'd like to add that I still need questions for the Q&A special. You can ask anything. You can ask about this story as well as my others. You can ask questions for me to answer or for my characters answer.

“¿Cómo que no vienes a casa por Navidad?” I whined over the phone.

Flynn was asleep as I talked to my mother on the phone. I was trying to plan for the Christmas break, but it would appear that my mother had plans to spend Christmas without me. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that, but I definitely wasn’t happy. I didn’t want to spend Christmas alone in the dorm. I could feel the temple in my head popping at the thought of it.

“Es que voy a pasar las fiestas con una amiga, pregúntale a Flynn si puedes ir a casa con él, y ya nos vemos en año nuevo.”

“¡Se supone que la navidad es para estar con la familia! ¡No quiero ir con Flynn! Quiero estar contigo.” I practically shouted this through the phone as my heart broke.

The sound of me arguing with my mother eventually woke up Flynn who looked at me and asked, “are you okay?” as my mother demanded, “Que te vayas a casa con Flynn.”

“Sí, estoy bien.” I paused before realizing that I answered in Spanish when Flynn didn’t understand it, “Sorry, I mean yes, I’m fine.” After answering Flynn, I went back to my mother. “No quiero.”

“Si no te vas a casa con Flynn, olvídate de quedar en año nuevo.” She threatened me.

“¿Pero por qué?” I whined again.

“Porque así no estarás solo. Además, Linda estará encantada de tenerte en casa.”

Linda was Flynn 's mother, and I had never met her. She was also one of my mother’s best friends, but I didn’t know her or Flynn well enough to go home with him.

“Pero quiero estar contigo.” I stood my ground.

“Vale, lo que sea, cancelaré mis planes con mi pobre amiga a la que no he visto en años y que está sola en navidad para estar contigo. Aunque se le romperá su corazón cuando le diga que tengo que cancelar nuestras planes porque mi hijo es un egoísta.” She tried to guilt trip me. 

I groaned at her. She knew I wasn’t happy, but I also knew I had no choice. I had to do what she wanted or else I’d get an earful about how I disappointed her as her son. “Vale, se lo pediré a Flynn, pero me puedes pasar el número de Linda?”

“¡Ahora te lo mando! Te quiero y se un buen chico y pórtate bien en casa de Flynn.” With that, she hung up.

I growled as I set my phone down on my bedside table. Flynn was still cuddled under his covers watching me intensely. We’d been sharing this room for a while now, but there was still quite a bit of tension between the two of us especially after I made a move on him a few weeks ago.

“Were you having a fight with your mom?” He questioned me as I grabbed my running shorts.

“Something like that.”

“What was it about?”

“She’s not going to be home for Christmas.”

He gave me a surprised look, “really! Not at all?”

“Not at all. She said she was going to visit a friend.” I shared with him. I knew I needed to ask if I could go home with him, but I was stalling.

“That’s funny. My mom said she would be visiting with a friend until the day before christmas, so I’ll be staying here until Christmas eve. We could hang out together.” He blushed at me.

“I guess.” I came off colder than I meant to be, but his suggestion took me by surprise and I didn’t have time to prepare an appropriate response.

I didn’t allow him time to say anything else as I left the room for my morning jog. Normally, I would have already gone out on a jog, but my mother had texted that she wouldn't be home over christmas, so I called her to talk about it.

Flynn would probably go back to sleep until I got back to the dorm. He wasn’t normally awake this early in the morning, but it was my fault that he was that morning.

While on my jog, I thought about what Flynn and I would do until Christmas eve. I also had to figure out how I was going to ask him if I could go home with him. By the end of my jog, I had come up with a risky plan. I wasn’t sure if he would agree to it considering he had already rejected my previous date attempt. However before asking Flynn anything, I needed to call his mom.

I took a break from jogging and took a moment to call her.

“Hello? Who is this?” A bright voice filled the speaker.

“Hello Ms. Soto, this is Maelstrom.”

“How are you my dear child?” She shrilled over the phone.

“I was talking with my mother this morning, and she wants me to go home with Flynn for Christmas. He said you’d be away until Crhistmas eve, but would it be alright if I joined you two for the holiday?”

“Of course! It would be great for Flynn to have a friend over.”

We said our goodbyes and I finished my jog. When I walked into the dorm room, Flynn was drawing at his desk. I walked up to him and put my head on his shoulder to look at what he was doing. He had gotten into a habit of drawing me, and each image he created of me made me happier. I guess it could be referred to as an alphas ego, but I hated the sound of that. 

his particular image depicted my phone call with my mother and the snarl on my lips as I talked to her. I cringed at the fact he would choose that to draw, but he liked to draw things that stood out to him.

“Why would you draw that?” I playfully snarled at him.

“Why do you keep putting your head on my shoulder when I’ve told you many times not to?”

“Why are you answering my question with a question?” I knew the answer, but I wanted to annoy him just a little.

“Why do you answer my questions with questions?”

“Because you don’t like it when I do that to you.” I lifted my head off his shoulder before advancing the conversation where I wanted it to go. “Anyways, do you really want to stay in the dorm until Christmas break, or would you be interested in maybe traveling a little bit?”

He turned to face me, “what do you mean?”

I could feel the heat rising in my face as I was forced to explain further. “I was thinking that you and I could go on a road date and end up at your house on Christmas eve.”

He returned my blush, “Mal, I already told you that I’m not ready to date.”

“How about a wager? I’ll flip a coin: heads, you go on a road trip date with me; tails, we stay here and live our boring lives.”

I could see the hesitation in his eyes, and I could smell the slight scent of his pheromones telling me he was on the verge of a panic attack. To combat this, I released pheromones that would calm him down. He wasn’t happy with me when I used my pheromones on him, but he didn’t mind if it was to prevent or control one of his panic attacks.

He looked away from me as he agreed, “okay. Heads and we go on a date; tails and we stay here.”

I practically bounced to my side table to grab change so that I could flip a coin. I quickly picked up a quarter and flipped it into the air. When I grabbed it out of the air, I hoped that it would land on heads.. I slapped the coin on my wrist and eagerly looked at the result.

I was disappointed, but I didn’t want to show it. The coin said tails, but I was going to lie to Flynn. I had already planned to do that if it landed on tails, but he didn’t need to know that bit of information.

“It’s heads!” I wagged my tail as I beamed at him.

He fidgeted with his hands before turning around and eventually asking, “what are we going to do on this date? And how much is it going to cost?”

“I have it all planned out, and I’m not telling you! And don’t worry about the cost; it’s all on me.”

Although a college student without a job, I had been saving money for years. I wasn’t saving for any particular purpose as my scholarships fully paid for my education. It was just sitting there for me to use on whatever I wanted.