Chapter Soundtrack- Once Upon a December

“Celeste!” Jackson and her where about halfway through a pizza they got at the food court when a girl called out to her.

Celeste glanced over and saw her best friend, Kayla, waving to her. She was a taller girl that had long hair and a sharp yet beautiful face. Basically she looked like she could beat up a boy while wearing high heels and not even smudge her make up or break a sweat. 

“Hey, Kayla.”Jackson nodded at her and got up. Kayla froze when she noticed him. 

“Oh. Jackson. Hey…” She stop and wrapped her arms around herself. 

“Don’t worry. I was just leaving.” He smiled kindly at her. “There’s still a couple pieces of the pizza left and there’s no way Celeste can finish them herself so eat as many as you’d like.”

“Oh. Thanks.” She mumbled and looked down at the ground.

“See you later, Candy.” He leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. Celeste sent him a grateful look. 

“Later, mater.” She winked at him.

Kayla stood there awkwardly for a moment before slowly sitting in the seat Jackson had left. “I didn’t notice you were with him. I’m sorry.” She worried her bottom lip with her teeth.

“Don’t worry about that. Jackson knows you’re afraid of men. He left because he didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.” Celeste took her hand and gave it a comforting a squeeze. 

“Ugh! That just makes me feel worse you guys were spending time together and I interrupted…” She buried her face in her hands and curled in on herself.

“Hey, don’t think like that. We were going to leave once I had finished my pizza. Jackson was just sticking around so I wouldn’t be eating alone.” She placed a hand on Kayla’s cheek and rubbed it gently. Her friend leaned into it and started to relax. “If Jackson really wanted to stay he would have. Try not to worry so much.”

“I really should try not to worry.” She sighed. “I wish this was easier.”

“Here,” Celeste handed her a slice of pizza. “Have greasy milk tomato bread. It’s good for your heart.”

“Thanks,” Kayla took it and began to eat it.

Two years ago, on the night of a blizzard, Celeste had found Kayla laying on the sidewalk covered in snow. She took the knocked out girl to her house and taken care of her until she woke up. When she did, the girl couldn’t remember anything about herself or why she was out in the storm. Together, they had picked out her name and ever since then Kayla had lived with the Jungs as family. Celeste was her closest friend and helped her understand the world again.

“What are you doing in the mall, Kayla? You normally never try to go out in public without me.” Celeste asked in between bites of pizza.

“Oh! Um…” She looked a bit shy. “I was…Trying… To get use to… Being around… People other than you…”

Celeste perked up and beamed at her. “Really? I’m so proud of you Kayla!” She stood up to give her friend a big hug. “But you know you don’t have to do that by yourself. You can ask me to come with you. We can get someone with come with us so we can talk and hang out. And maybe somewhere with less people.The mall can be overwhelming.”

“Yeah, I figured that out…” She took a sip of Celeste’s soda. “I’m glad you were here.”

“That could have been bad.” She smiled at her. “I’m really proud of you, you know that right? You’re working so hard and you’re making so much progress. You’re so strong, Kayla!”

“Thanks, Celeste. That really means a lot.”

They polished off the rest of the pizza and went home together a little while later.

***

That weekend, Celeste dragged herself out of bed and let out huge yawn. Her sleeping schedule had gotten all messed up over summer break and now she was paying the price. After a week of classes and going off a a few hours of sleep. She had pretty much passed out when she got home. She has slept too long and now she felt like she had been run over by trackers and had all of water out of . 

Still in her pajamas, she dragged herself to the kitchen and chugged a glass of milk. 

Then another.

And another.

“Thirsty?”

Milk dribbled attractively down her chin as Celeste nearly spat out her drink and turned around to face the voice with wide eyes. She gulped and started coughing.

“B-cough-Bambam?”

“You okay?” He walked over and patted her back. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Its’s fine.” She took another sip of milk to coat her raw throat. “Why are you in my house?”

“You’re mom let me in.”

“No, not how. Why?”

“I wanted to hang out with you.”

“Okay…?” She gave him a confused look. “We had a class together yesterday? Is something wrong? Wanna talk about it?”

“No no! I’m fine!” He shook his head. “I just wanted to hang out.”

“Well, alright then.”  She changed the subject. “Well, I don’t know about you but I’m starving.”

“Want me to cook for you?” Bambam offered.

Celeste sighed contently, lean against him, and gave him a hug. “You’re the best Bammy. That sounds amazing right now. You’re cooking is great.”

“Of course it is! I’m so cute the food wouldn’t dare taste bad and disappoint me.”

She giggled and pecked him on the cheek. “What are you going to make me?”

“Omelets with rice and veggies.” He walked over to the fridge and started to pull out ingredients. 

“Mm! Sounds good.” Celeste went and sat down at the table so she could watch him cook. 

“Any requests?” He asked while pulling out the eggs and cheese.

“Can I have mushrooms in mine?”

“Gotcha!” He got them out as well as a few other things to add in.

Bambam pulled out a cutting board and knife and sat down at the table with Celeste while he cut the mushrooms and meat.

“Did you have a good first week back?” He asked her.

“Yeah. It was nice. I’m glad we all have lunch together.” She referred to the other boys. “And I have one class with almost all of you.”

“Jackson was so angry when he found out.” Bambam snickered.

“Haha, yeah. Typical Jackson.” She smiled. “You know, he made me go with him to the mall on Tuesday. He said because He didn’t have a class with me, he need some one on one time with me to compensate.”

“Really?” Bambam glanced over at her but quickly looked back at what he was doing. He tried not to sound too interested as her asked, “What did you guys do?”

“He wanted some help picking out a suit. So we went to that one formal store in the mall-you know the one by the candy shop- and I found one with pinstripes that looked good on him. Then we got some pizza at the food court.”

“Oh…” Bambam’s eyebrows furrowed and he dared for a second before forcing a smile. “Next time, let’s go together!”

“Oh yeah!” Celeste cried, not having heard or noticed anything Bambam just did. “Guess who we ran into while we were there?” 

“Yugyeom?”

“No! Kayla!”

“Kayla?” He looked surprised and set down his knife. “But she never goes anywhere like the mall. You said she got disoriented when she was in places with a lot of people.”

“She does.” Celeste nodded. “But she told me she wants to try to get use to it so she doesn’t have to rely on me anymore!” She beamed brightly as she thought of her friend’s progress. “She’s trying so hard! I’m so proud of her!”

“That’s amazing, Celeste!” He was quiet for a second before shyly asking her a question. “You talk about her so much, I feel like I’m friends with her… Do you think she’ll ever be comfortable enough around guys for me to be her friend?”

“I don’t know.” She spoke frankly. “I hope she’ll be able to one day; It must be terrible to be afraid of every other person she comes across. Until she’s able to though, I’ll stay by her and help her find her ground.”

“You’re a great friend, Celeste.” Bambam smiled softly at her.

“Thanks.” She blushed and looked down at the ground.

Bambam got up and took the cut up ingredients with him. He pulled out a pan and started cooking. Celeste watched his back is he did so. She thought back to when she went to the mall with Jackson.

“The opportunity just never came up…”

If Jackson liked Bambam, then Celeste should support him. It was only right seeing as Jackson had always helped her when she needed him. And the questions Bambam had asked her when she mentioned they went to the mall together… He sounded like he was trying to be casual in his interest. Did he like Jackson back? As Bambam handed her her food, she promised herself that she would do what ever it took to get the two of them together.