This Time

After the whole kitchen incident, the dinner went by relatively smoothly. I devoured almost all of the deviled eggs and shrimp cocktail. Mrs. Smith made the best deviled eggs and shrimp cocktail. It was really an enjoyable dinner.

We retreated to the living room to watch a movie to kill time before the countdown. I caught Adam's eye and pointed upstairs to his room. He nodded and slipped away quietly. I did the same a couple of minutes later. I snuck up the stairs and went into his room.

"What's up?" he asked me.

"Your mom thinks we're dating," I told him, bluntly.

I didn't want to sugarcoat this situation. I was quite frankly tired of all of the drama. I feel like it's slowly killing me on the inside. It was depressing to think about, yet deal with my drama and everyone else's drama.

"Oh, that," he said, shrugging.

I started to get angry. How could he just shake it off as if it was nothing? How long has she been thinking that we've been dating? Why does she think this?

Honestly, I've never had feelings for Adam. Never in all the years that I've known him. He's a nice guy, but I really don't see myself with him. I know everything about him- all of his deepest darkest secrets and his fears. I really find it ridiculous that people can't comprehend that guys and girls can be just friends.

"Oh, that?" I asked, angrily. "Yes, that!"

He sighed. He knew that I was going to explode on him. He knows me just as well as I know him.

"My mom is crazy," he said. "You know that."

"Yeah, but-" I started to say.

"No buts," he said. "She's been assuming that we've been dating since we were freshmen."

"And you did nothing to convince her otherwise?" I asked him, shocked.

"Believe me, I've tried," he said, smirking. "Who wants to date you?" I playfully pushed him.

"Shut up," I said, smiling. "You'd love to date me." He made a face at me.

"Right," he said, laughing.

Here Comes The New Year

New Years Day came and there was good news. Uncle Mark was becoming more and more responsive. He still couldn't speak to us, but he could mouth words to us. He could move his hands and fingers more fluently than before. With each day the color in his face came back, he was no longer a sickly pale color. Even though he still couldn't eat and drink, I was extremely relieved that he was recovering so well. The big problem is: he couldn't move his legs. He was doing well for a person who's been in the hospital for over 2 weeks and hopefully they will transfer him to a closer hospital.

My mom felt that he was healthy enough that we could leave the hospital and celebrate New Years. Our New Year's tradition was to go over and have dinner at Adam's house and watch the countdown in New York. It was a big tradition of ours since we were little kids.

After the long drive back, I immediately went to charge my phone. I hadn't brought my charger and I had conserved as much battery as I could. Sadly, my phone had eventually died. I realized that I had numerous text messages and missed calls. They were from Haylie, Logan, Justin, Sarah, and Henry asking if I was ok, telling me how worried they were about me, and sending good thoughts to Uncle Mark. I texted Logan back to make plans for our two month anniversary.

I smiled. I didn't know that they cared this much about me. I guess when bad times come to one of us, we all band together. That sounded really cheesy, I know. It's true. Taylor even came up to the hospital to visit Uncle Mark. I don't even think Uncle Mark has met Taylor, but it was a really kind gesture. I think this friends thing is going to work.

I quickly took a shower. I changed into a red dress and slipped on my favorite pair of black pumps. New Years was one of my favorite times of the year. I loved saying "out with the old and in with the new". I finished curling my hair and went downstairs to wait for the rest of my family.

20 minutes later, we were on our way to Adam's house. We were each dressed up for the dinner party. My dad was in his suit, my mom in her cocktail dress, and my sister in a strapless dress. When we arrived, Adam was outside waiting for us.

"Come in," he said, ushering us through the door. He pulled me off to the side. "I'm glad you came, Court." I smiled.

"Why wouldn't I?" I asked, laughing. "It's a tradition!"

"Well, I thought, with everything going on-" he started to say.

"He's doing a lot better now," I said, cutting him off. I didn't want to be reminded of something I didn't want to be reminded of. "Let's go before they wonder where we went." He nodded.

We went into the dining room and everyone was already seated. Adam took a seat next to Brittany. Mrs. Smith told us that the food will take us a minute.

"I'm going to go help her," I said. I went into the kitchen. "Is there anything that I can do to help?" Mrs. Smith looked up and smiled.

"You're such a sweetheart," she said. "I'm glad Adam's found a nice girl like you to be with. Can you help bring out the food?"

I didn't know what to say. I was completely shocked. Adam's mom thinks we're dating.

"Uh, Mrs. Smith, we're just friends," I managed to say.

"Right," she said, winking at me.

Oh, boy.