When I wake at 5:15 and check again I almost bolt out of bed with the rush of adrenaline it gives me.
“Ms. Goodman, you rock!” I whisper, staring at the wordsFredricksCentral School District:Closed.
I screenshot it and send it to Eli, with a bunch of snow emojis. I could try to sleep longer . . . but I normally wake up around this time, and there’s too much energy arching through me to fall asleep again.
I almost dive under the covers anyway when I stand and my bare feet hit the floor. I rush to the bathroom and come back and change into comfy sweatpants, a long-sleeve shirt, and socks, and nod to myself in the mirror. Ready for the day.
Eli hasn’t responded to my message yet. I want to call him, but if I wait, I can lord this over him when he wakes up. So I turn on my sound, slip my phone into my pocket, and head to the kitchen to grab some food. Mom’s at the table, drinking coffee.
“Happy snow day,” she says with a knowing smile. She’s still in pajamas.
“Are you off today too?”
She sets down her mug. “Steve messaged me. He’s opening midmorning to let the plows go through.”
I grab the orange juice from the fridge. “So you decided not to sleep in, on your surprise morning off?”
“I dozed an extra twenty minutes, for your information. And I could say the same to you!”
I sip my juice. “Point made.”
I sit in the chair across from her. “I was talking to Eli last night and he said his parents invited him to spend Christmas with them. He said he wants to stay here, but I thought you’d want to know.”
Hechoseus, my heart crows.
Guilt follows the thought, but can’t overtake it. I want him here. I want him to have the full family Christmas he still couldn’t get if he went with them—and he knows he would be sidelined if he went with them. He admitted it.
I take another drink and tell myself not to over-analyze.
“Well,” Mom says, at least a solid minute later. I can’t quite read her tone. “Maybe they’re starting to get better.”
“That’s what I said!”
She hums and is quiet for a few minutes, reading a few more pages of her book. “He still has no idea about his present, right?”
I rinse my juice cup in the sink and put it in the dishwasher. “None. You still want to give it to him Christmas night?”
“I think that’s best. Uncle Henry and his family will have gone to the hotel by then. Eli won’t want an audience.” She smiles. “I’ll have a stocking to give him in the morning, so he has something to open then, too.”
I walk over and kiss her cheek. “Love you.”
Three heavy raps on the door make me jump. “Go let him in,” Mom says, pushing me away.
“How do you know it’s Eli? I don’t even know that.”
“Who else would it be, this early?”
I mutter that that’s another good point as I head to the front door. A wave of cold gusts in after I unlock the deadbolt and draw the door open. The light hanging near the door illuminates Eli standing there, completely bundled up: snowpants, boots, a thick winter coat, a scarf wrapped around his neck and half covering his face, a hat pulled down over his ears. He has an old-fashioned lantern in one gloved hand.
I yank him in and shut the door, taking the lantern from him.
“What are you doing, walking over right now?”
He unwraps the scarf from around his jaw. “We have a snow day,” he says, slightly out of breath.
We stare at each other. He really walked over to say it in person?
“You saw my text.”
