by Ashley Royer
Caleb starts laughing first, which causes me to laugh too. I hold on to my stomach after laughing for so long and quickly wipe under my eyes. Aiden laughs the most, like he usually does.
“I hate you,” I tell Caleb once we’ve settled down
“You won’t be hating me if you actually listen to me.”
“I know what I’m doing,” I tell them. Even though I’m not sure if I do.
Delilah gets to my house around five, right before the sun starts to set. Lucy came too, to bring me a cupcake she made especially for me. It has a giant blob of colorful frosting on top and a lot of sprinkles.
“I hope you like it!” Lucy says, hugging my leg.
“I’ll have it later! It looks delicious!” I say, kneeling down to her height so I can actually hug her.
She gives me a huge smile. “My mommy said that today is New Year’s Eve, and a giant ball is gonna drop from the sky. I’m gonna look out the window to see it!”
I laugh. “I hope you see it!” It’s funny that she thinks it’s going to fall from the actual sky. Delilah told me about New Year’s Eve in New York, so I know what to expect.
Delilah’s mom is standing in my driveway and calls Lucy so they can go back home.
“Bye, Levi!” Lucy yells, hugging me one more time.
“Bye!”
I shut the door and smile widely at Delilah. “Come see what we did!” I tell her excitedly. I grab her hand and run through the house. I stop in front of the back door and turn to Delilah. “Wait, close your eyes!”
“Why?” she pouts. She shuts her eyes tightly, though.
“Don’t open them.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise?”
“Promise,” she says, laughing.
I slowly walk outside, still holding Delilah’s hand. I stand her in front of what we’ve set up.
“Okay, open!” I tell her.
She quickly opens her eyes and smiles. “This is so cool!” she says, looking at the projector and screen. “How’d you think of this?”
“Actually, my dad did. It’s pretty cool, though, right?”
She nods quickly and smiles even wider. “Isn’t it too cold to be out here the whole time?”
“Yeah. We’ll just stay out for a little.”
“Oh, that sounds good.”
She squeezes my hand lightly and walks over to Caleb and Aiden, who are inside.
“Hey, guys,” she says, sitting next to them on the floor. She’s still holding my hand, so I have to sit down too.
“Oh, hi!” Caleb says, as if he wasn’t just whispering about us with Aiden. He thinks I don’t know what he’s doing, but I could hear him saying our names as we came in. Hopefully Delilah didn’t hear anything.
I wrap my arms around Delilah’s waist and rest my chin on her shoulder. She turns slightly to look at me and smiles.
Caleb smirks and raises his eyebrows.
“So what are you guys doing?” Delilah asks.
“Oh, uh, just setting up some stuff for later tonight,” Aiden answers quickly.
“Oh, cool! I’m so excited. Are those fireworks?” Delilah asks, pointing to the the bag.
Aiden nods. “I convinced Levi we should buy them.”
“As long as I’m not the one lighting them, it’ll be fun.”
“Isn’t the snow going to stop them from lighting?” I ask.
“There’s not too much snow, so we’ll just clear a spot,” Aiden says, shrugging.
I look out the window and see the sun is setting, which is painting the sky different tones of orange and pink.
I’ve seen plenty of sunsets before, but never one this bright.
“You’re prettier than the sunset,” I whisper in Delilah’s ear, pointing outside.
“That was so cheesy,” she mumbles, laughing.
“I know. That was the point.”
“It was very sweet, though.”
Caleb starts coughing hysterically, which I know is fake.
“Don’t die,” Aiden says, looking at Caleb weirdly.
“Sorry. Swallowed wrong or something. Jeez, I don’t know what that could have been!” Caleb says. He punches his chest a few times.
I roll my eyes. “You’re unbelievable,” I mumble. I stand up and take Delilah’s hand.
“I choked, and you don’t even care!” Caleb says.
“We’re gonna go get food,” I say, pulling Delilah upstairs.
“Is Caleb okay?” she whispers.
I shrug. “That’s just him.”
I grab a bag of chips and bring it down to everyone. Mitchell texted me saying he’s here, and he’s already downstairs when I get there.
“Hey, Mitchell!” Delilah and I say in unison.
He waves excitedly. I also notice he brought Ally, the girl he went to the dance with. He was talking about maybe bringing her, but he wasn’t sure. I’m happy he did.
We all sit around in my basement and eat the pizza Caleb wanted, or should I say, demanded.
“What are everyone’s resolutions?” Caleb asks with his mouth full.
“D-Don’t st-stutter,” Mitchell says quietly. Ally smiles at Mitchell and reaches over to hold his hand.
“Get accepted to a college,” Aiden says. “What about you, Caleb?”
“I’m pretty content with everything as it is,” he says, shrugging his shoulders. “What about you guys?” he says to Delilah and me.
I shrug.
Delilah looks at me and smiles. “I’ll just take whatever this year brings.”
“Me too,” I say, entwining my fingers with Delilah’s. I play with her fingers nervously. There’s so much more I want to say, but I’d rather keep it to myself. I’m afraid if I say it, it won’t come true. I don’t want to jinx myself.
For the upcoming year, I want to be truly, completely happy. I feel like it can happen—hopefully. Things have already improved so much in the past few months.
“So, who wants to play a game?” Caleb asks.
“No one,” Delilah says.
“Well, okay then.”
“I wanna watch a movie,” Aiden says. Aiden goes over to the TV and starts searching for a movie.
We all set up pillows and blankets to lie on while we watch a movie. Everyone is sprawled out on the blankets, just talking about stuff. I’m sitting with Delilah, both of us huddled underneath some blankets. She’s talking about her plans for the year, and she seems so hopeful and content. She smiles widely while she talks and moves her hands quickly because she’s so excited.
She’s telling me all about the colleges she’s applying to and how excited she is for the summer. I could listen to her talk about anything. It’s cute to see her so happy about everything.
She props herself up on her elbow and looks at me. “I was thinking, maybe, this summer we could go somewhere. Like a little vacation. I know summer is kinda far away and all,
but I don’t know. It’s just a thought. So both of us can go somewhere.” Even in the dark, I can see that her cheeks are slightly pink.
“Actually, about that. For Christmas, I got two tickets to Australia for the summer. And I was kinda hoping you’d wanna go.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, if you want to go, of course.”
“I’d love to go! That’d be so fun!”
“It’s a plan, then. You and me take on Straya this summer.”
“Please don’t ever say that again,” she says, laughing. She moves closer to me, and I wrap my arms around her.
“I’ll just cuddle over here with myself,” Aiden says, hugging himself.
“You’re weird,” Caleb tells him as he tries to figure out how to work the television. He’s trying to get the TV to connect to the DVD player, but all that’s showing up is static. He mumbles a bunch of stuff while he’s figuring it out, and after a few minutes, it finally works.
Aiden picked out Elf, since apparently he hasn’t watched it all year, so that’s what we’re watching.
The movie starts up, and I quietly hum the beginning song. I’ve seen the movie so many times.
Half the time the movie is playing, Delilah and I whisper the lines to each other.
“I’m here, with my dad, and we’ve never met,” I sing along. Delilah laughs.
“And he wants me to sing him a song. And I was adopted, but you didn’t know I was born,” Delilah responds.
“So I’m here now, I found you, Daddy,” we say in unison.
“Whoa, calm down over there!” Caleb says.
Delilah and I both erupt in laughter. I hide my face under the blanket because I can’t stop laughing.
“We’re so embarrassing,” I mumble.
The movie ends a little after nine, so we have a few more hours to go. We decide to watch the New Year’s Eve show in New York. I get bored with it after a while, as it’s not as great as I thought it would be. I don’t get why anyone would want to stand outside with thousands of strangers packed together. It does not seem enjoyable.
“Wanna go for a walk?” I ask Delilah.
“Where?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Anywhere.”
“Um, okay. Sure. As long as we’re back before midnight.”
“We will be.”
We tell everyone we’ll be back soon, and we walk through the neighborhood with only the streetlights illuminating the street. It’s nice and peaceful. Everyone’s probably at a party or something right now. It feels like Delilah and I are the only ones in the world. Just her and me.
“Can we walk to the beach?” I ask. “The beach. It won’t take too long.”
She nods, and I smile.
“Should we see if everyone else wants to come?” she asks after a few minutes.
“If you want to. I’ll call Caleb.”
Everyone agrees to meet us at the beach. Aiden says he’ll bring the fireworks, and we can celebrate the new year there.
I’m starting the next year at the place where it all began with the girl who started it all.
“You know what?” I say as we’re walking. I’m swinging Delilah’s hand back and forth as we walk.
“What?”
“I never would have thought that I’d be here with you. It’s weird that I hated you at first since you reminded me of Delia, but now that I’ve gotten to really know you, you’re a lot different. I wish I’d realized that sooner. I loved Delia, and I lo— I thought I could never find someone who would make me happy again. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but I hope with this new year we can make more memories. Oh, and I promise not to throw any more of your coffees on the ground.”
Delilah stops walking and hugs me tightly. “I’m so happy I met you this year,” she says, her voice muffled as she hugs me. “You’ve changed me too, and I wouldn’t want to be with anyone else right now but you.”
I open my mouth to say something, but shut it. I don’t want to ruin the moment.
We continue walking in a happy silence, still swinging our arms as we walk. We finally make it to the beach, and we have a few minutes to ourselves while we wait for everyone else. They’re driving, but I told Caleb to wait a little. I wanted some alone time with Delilah.
“It’s colder than it was last time,” Delilah says, wrapping her arms around herself as we walk along the sand.
I hug her tightly from behind and sway side to side. “Warm now?”
She laughs. “Just a little squished.”
“We should have brought Skittles,” I say.
“For once, I don’t have any.”
“What a shame!”
I hear a car pull up, and soon after, everyone is walking down the beach.
“Hey, guys!” Caleb yells, running over to us. They brought blankets, food, and the fireworks. Aiden is even wearing the sunglasses.
We sit down on the blankets, away from the water so we don’t get wet. Thankfully, the snow has mostly melted on the beach or gotten washed away by the waves. Aiden starts to line up the fireworks because it’s almost midnight.
“H-Have you lit f-fireworks before?” Mitchell asks.
Aiden shakes his head. “There’s always a first time for everything. I have ten more minutes!”
Caleb helps Aiden figure out how to use the fireworks. He reads the instructions, but both of them struggle to understand the correct way to light them.
“What about the projector your parents set up?” Caleb asks me while they’re figuring out the fireworks.
“Oh, right. I guess we can just go back after midnight and watch it, right? Pretend it’s the real thing.”
Caleb laughs. “Sure, sounds good.”
“Follow me,” I tell Delilah once I realize it’s almost midnight. I stand up, and Delilah follows behind me.
I walk away from everyone, but not too far. I dig my heel into the sand and write out something.
“Taste the rainbow,” Delilah reads after I’m done.
She puts one arm around me and checks the time on her phone. “One minute,” she whispers. She smiles and draws a heart in the sand.
I feel my heart start to race as I realize it’s almost midnight. I take a deep breath and try to calm down.
“Twenty seconds!” I hear Aiden yell. I see him start to light the fireworks.
“Hey, what’s that?” I ask, quickly pulling something out of my pocket and throwing it onto the sand.
“Is that mistletoe? Even though it’s past Christmas?” Delilah says, giggling quietly.
“Ten seconds!” Aiden screams.
I shrug. “I don’t know, but I definitely didn’t put that there,” I say, feeling my cheeks blush.
“It’s supposed to be above us,” she whispers, leaning closer to me.
“I had to improvise.”
“Five!” Aiden says.
I wrap my arms around her and pull her closer to me.
“Four!”
I look from her eyes to her lips quickly.
“Three!” they all yell in unison.
Some of the fireworks shoot up and burst, causing Delilah to flinch slightly. I feel her smile against our almost-touching lips.
“Two!”
“Is this okay?” I whisper.
“One!”
She doesn’t respond with words. She places her lips on mine and wraps her arms around my neck gently. Every single part of me that was nervous turns into happiness in the few seconds that we’re kissing. After more fireworks erupt along with the butterf lies in my stomach, we pull away from each other for a quick second.
“Happy New Year, Levi,” Delilah whispers before pulling me closer and kissing me again.
For the first time in a long time, I’m focused on nothing but right now, and yes, it is a happy New Year.