Christmas Eve was the worst day of the year. It fills me with bad memories. A few years ago my mother passed away on Christmas Eve, since then it's been a day filled with nothing but despair. 

That day, I couldn't find the strength to get out of bed. Don't get me wrong I tried to but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't find the strength to. By the time I finally got up it was already late in the evening. 

I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed and into the bathroom. I stood in the shower for almost an hour, before getting out and changing into another sweat set. After I finished freshening up, I felt more awake and was beginning to feel somewhat better but that didn't last for long. I opened the door and was face to face with the one person I didn't wanna see today, my stepmother. 

“Hazel you're finally out of your room, glad you finally stopped moping around. It's Christmas Eve, you should be with your family!”

“Moping? My mother is dead and you think that I'm moping?! And for the record, the only family I have is my father!” I yell before running into my room and slamming the door behind me. I throw on my sneakers and leave. I walk past her, ignoring whatever bullshit she's spurring as I do. 

“Hazel stop this nonsense!” My father yells behind me.

 I turn to him and scoff. “Of course, you’d take her side.” I leave the house before he gets the chance to scold me further. I get in the car and keep driving and driving to nowhere in particular. After twenty minutes or so I finally realized that I had no idea where I was anymore. I pulled over on the side of the road and turned on my phone. Messages from Jason pop up on my screen. Knowing my friends would probably be busy, I decided to call Jason, who picked up almost instantly.

“Hazel? Where have you been?”

“I’m sorry, I haven't been on my phone all day..” I sniffle.

“Are you crying? What’s going on?” He asks, and only then do I realize that I had been crying since leaving the house.

“Can I see you?”

“Yeah, of course. I’ll have to see if I can borrow my grandfather's truck though, where are you?”

“I'm already driving, I'll pick you up.”

“Ok, I’ll send you my location.”

“ I'll call you when I'm there,” I say before hanging up. I open his message and put his location into maps, he's only fifteen minutes away. I pull out and start driving over to his house.

…

“Hey, I'm outside.”

“Be there in a minute!” He yells, clearly rushing around his room, before hanging up the phone.

A few minutes later he comes running out of the house. I unlock the door, and he steps inside. “Hazel I-” I cut him off by unexpectedly pulling him into an embrace. He's startled at first but then wraps his arms around me and pulls me closer. I'm not sure how long we stayed like that for but I've never felt safer than I did in his arms. And for the first time, I didn't feel judged for my grief. I pull away and wipe away my tears. “What happened?” He asks, concerned.

“Today’s the anniversary of my mother's death…”

“Hazel I'm so sorry I had no idea, if I did I wouldn't have pestered you so much.”

“You didn't, I'm sorry for not responding, I had my phone off all day before I left.”

“Why'd you leave?”

“My family just doesn't understand, and my stepmother constantly picking fights with me doesn't help.”

“I'm sorry you don't deserve that.”
“Thank you. You don't know how much that means to me…” I sniffled, “Can we just drive around for a while?”

“Yes of course.”

“I'm sorry if I ruined the mood..”

“You didn't. I'm just glad to finally see you again. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you.” He says, making me blush.

We drove around talking for a few hours, getting to know each other better, he took my mind off everything and I soon found myself getting lost in the moment with him. 

It starts to flurry, but that flurry starts to get heavier and heavier till it is a full-blown blizzard.

“The snow is getting too heavy. I'm going to have to pull over.” I pull over and look at my maps. “We're not too far from my family's cabin, we could wait out the storm there.”

“Yeah that's a good idea, it shouldn't last too long.”

…

We drove a few miles down to the cabin. 

“It's this one, come on let's get inside before it gets worse!” We get out of the car and run over to the cabin. I grab the spare key from under a loose rock and we go inside. “You can leave your shoes here, I'll go start a fire.” I take off my shoes and coat before going and grabbing some firewood from the storage room. I throw a few logs in and crumble up some paper to light on fire as Jason enters the room. “One second.” 

“Take your time,” he says, sitting down on the couch behind me. 

I finish up the fire and go sit down next to him. “That should be enough wood for a few hours,” I say.

“Yeah the fire is  helping but it's still kinda cold in here.” He says rubbing his shoulders.

I grab a blanket from behind the couch. “There's only one blanket down here, but it's pretty thick.”

“It's ok we can both use it.” He pulls me in closer before I can protest, and wraps the knitted blanket around us. I snuggle into him, stealing his body warmth. He looks down at me, his gaze piercing. I nervously look away. “Can I kiss you?” He asks, grabbing the bottom of my chin, and making me look up at him. I hesitate for a moment before I make my decision 

“Yes..you may.”