#AllIWantForChristmas Read online

  #AllIWant ForChristmas

  A #BestFriendsForever Novella

  Yesenia Vargas

  Copyright © 2018 by Yesenia Vargas

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  For my sister-in-law, Claudia. Means so much that you love my books.

  Contents

  Book Description

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  1. Harper

  2. Lena

  3. Rey

  4. Harper

  5. Ella

  6. Tori

  7. Rey

  8. Ella

  9. Tori

  10. Lena

  11. Harper

  12. Lena

  13. Ella

  14. Harper

  15. Tori

  16. Ella

  17. Rey

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Also by Yesenia Vargas

  Book Description

  Five friends. Five Christmas wishes. Five chances for things to go horribly wrong.

  * * *

  With Christmas Eve just around the corner, the perfect Christmas is looking more impossible than ever.

  * * *

  Ella’s prince charming is caught in a snowstorm. Lena is SO over the holidays, she should change her name to Scrooge. Harper’s a hundred dollars short of making ends meet for a family in need. Rey’s forever alone while Tori’s more wrapped up in balloon colors than her own boyfriend.

  * * *

  Will their first Christmas as friends end up being a giant flop, or will Harper prove to her friends that Christmas miracles happen in more than just Hallmark movies?

  * * *

  Buy this light-hearted YA Christmas story today for a heartwarming read that will make you start dreaming of your own Christmas wishes.

  Note: Best read after book 4, #TheBoyfriendDare.

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  One

  Harper

  My friends grimaced at the chill in the air, but not me.

  I twirled around, my light pink gloves and matching hat keeping me warm and in style along with a gray puffer vest and white thermal long-sleeve. Nothing like the perfect winter outfit. “Oh, I love this time of year,” I exclaimed. I faced Ella, Rey, Tori, and Lena. “Don’t you just adore the cold? It makes me want some hot soup, a warm blanket, hot cocoa—”

  “Wish that summer was back,” Lena grumbled. She hugged herself and shivered. “I am so over this non-stop cold weather. If we at least got some snow, it’d be worth it. But instead, all we get is freezing rain. What fun is that?” She kicked at a pebble in our path.

  We made our way down Main Street, taking in the shops and stores covered in multi-colored lights and fir garlands.

  Rey walked beside Lena. “At least school is out. Sleeping in every day is the best.”

  Ella nodded. “Especially with this weather.”

  Tori winked at us. “I just love this season because I get to wear all my cute boots and winter outfits.”

  We laughed, but I completely agreed. “That is so true, but you know what I love best about the holidays? The magic that’s in the air—”

  “The crazy holiday shopping at the mall—” Lena interjected.

  I went on. “People in the holiday spirit—”

  “People running each other over to get the latest iPhone at a discount—” Lena muttered.

  I shook my head, determined to remind Lena and everyone else why Christmas was so great. “Christmas isn’t just about gifts and holiday shopping,” I said, playfully nudging Lena. “It’s about giving.”

  “Receiving,” she said with a laugh. “Counting how many Christmas presents you got this year versus last year.”

  But at least now she was laughing.

  Tori came up beside me. “I just like the peppermint mocha at Starbucks right now. Definitely the best thing about the holiday season, if you ask me.”

  Ella shook her head. “I’m with Harper. There’s something special about December.”

  Rey nodded. “I like rewatching all the Christmas movies. Plus Harry Potter. It’s not Christmas without a Harry Potter marathon,” she said matter of factly.

  “Seriously, though,” Lena said. “I don’t like the holidays.”

  “Why?” I asked. “There has to be something you like about it.”

  Lena shrugged. “Ian’s not even here to make things better. The holidays have stolen him from me, Harp.” It was another joke, but I also knew she really missed her new boyfriend. “ Plus life always gets crazy this time of year. All my relatives come and visit, which means my mom has my sisters and me cleaning and preparing and shopping like every minute of the day. On Christmas Eve, we’re going to be literally cooking from sun up until sundown. Oh, and then the best part. More cleaning after everyone leaves.” She rolled her eyes.

  I gave her a side hug. “Surely all the family time is worth it, though?”

  “Eh,” she said, looking seriously unsure about my question.

  We walked another minute or so, all of us empathizing with Lena.

  Tori said, “I would be pretty grumpy, too, if that was my Christmas every year.”

  Lena leaned her head on Tori’s shoulder. “And we do it again at New Year’s.” She pretended to sob, and I smiled. You could always count on Lena to be dramatic, even if it was really fake.

  “But at least that will be at my uncle’s house this year,” Lena said.

  I stared off into the gray sky. “I just hope we have a white Christmas this year. That’s probably what I miss most about Wisconsin. I love snow. Really makes the magic of Christmas real, you know?”

  Tori grinned. “You do know that you moved to Georgia, right? Snow isn’t really a thing here.”

  Lena nodded. “More like a rare unicorn. We’re lucky if we get it. But definitely don’t count on it.”

  Rey frowned. “I can hardly remember the last time we got snow here. Wasn’t it in fifth grade?”

  “Maybe sixth?” Ella said. “I do know that we’re definitely not getting snow this year, though. Just saw it on the news last night. Forecast says there’s zero chance of it getting cold enough.”

  “Aw,” I said. “That’s a bummer. But you never know, right? Forecasts are wrong sometimes.”

  “I doubt it,” Tori said.

  Ella linked her arm in mine. “Sorry, Harp.”

  Christmas wouldn’t be quite as magical without snow. I held out hope that my first Christmas in Georgia would be a white one.

  Two

  Lena

  My mom turned off the vacuum and faced me, hands on her hips. I closed the front door behind me.

  When I faced her, she said, “Que bueno que ya llegaste.” Obviously, she was g
lad I was home. Probably because there was now an extra body present to help with the million things on her to do list before Christmas Eve. “I need you to clean that room of yours,” she went on in Spanish. “It’s a pigsty in there, and everyone will be here before we know it. I want all the dirty laundry…”

  That’s about when I tuned her out and headed to the kitchen for a snack. Couldn’t I just make it to the couch and watch Christmas movies all day like Rey? I was sure her parents didn’t have her cooking and cleaning all day like me.

  My mom followed me into the kitchen. “Lena, go do it now. No TV until you’re finished.”

  “But mommm,” I whined, drawing out the word and closing the fridge behind me. “Why do I need to clean my room? It’s not like the party is going to be in there.”

  “Selena Martinez,” she said, using my full name.

  I knew she was serious now, so I closed my mouth and listened.

  “Go clean that room before I take your phone. It’s a huge mess in there. I could hardly walk in. You know that we’ll need it as a guest room. You and your sister will share her room again.” She turned to leave, and I sighed. “Oh, and when you’re done, come back in here to help me start dinner.”

  I groaned again, even louder, but she ignored me and went back to vacuuming every nook and cranny in the house.

  Dragging my feet all the way to my room, I wished I could switch places with any of my friends. Why was I the one who had to spend the entire winter holidays doing twice as many chores?

  I hated cooking and cleaning. I liked my room the way it was, and when my mom had me help her with dinner, it was always the same. Chopping up peppers, lettuce, and tomatoes into a million tiny little pieces or it wasn’t right.

  I landed on my bed, face down, and groaned into my pillow for good measure.

  Then I closed my eyes and pulled the comforter as best I could over my body. “Why can’t I just nap?” I said out loud. “Isn’t that the true meaning of Christmas? No school and getting to do nothing all day?”

  “No,” I heard my sister say. “Definitely not.”

  I tried to roll and turn toward Maria, but somehow, I reached the edge of the bed and fell on the floor with a shriek.

  Brushing my hair out of my face and wrestling the comforter away, I finally managed to sit up. “Hey,” I told Maria. “Is mom making you clean your room too?”

  She smiled that smug grin of hers and crossed her arms as she looked down at me. “Nope. My room is already clean. You know, it’s a lot easier to keep your room clean if you just maintain it that way.” She reached over and picked up an ancient banana peel. “Like if you just threw all this stuff away instead of letting it pile up. What is this? A compost pile?” she said, putting the withered and black banana peel back where it was among the empty yogurt containers and bags of chips near my TV.

  I stood up, picked up my trash can, and tossed everything in. “No,” I said. “Compost can’t have man-made things in it. Duh.”

  She stared at me, surprised.

  Now I gave her a smug grin, even though I’d only heard Ella say that one time.

  “Don’t plan on making this kind of mess when you stay in my room,” she said, walking away.

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever,” I said after her.

  Maria was only around so much lately because she was off for winter break too. I couldn’t wait until this holiday nightmare was over.

  Then she could go back to being in college all day or studying all night, and I’d go back to my favorite thing to do: soccer practice and varsity soccer games. Best of all, the endless cooking and cleaning and talking to a million stranger relatives would be over for another twelve months.

  I didn’t know why everyone, including my friends and mom, thought Christmas was such a big deal.

  It definitely wasn’t. I’d be looking forward to it being over so I could get back into my normal routine, even if it did include school. Barf. Soccer would make getting up early worth it.

  And, after winter break, Ian would be back from the remote small town in Oklahoma he was currently in, visiting relatives. Without cell service.

  For now, I was just counting down the days until December 26th.

  Bah, humbug!

  Three

  Rey

  I sketched his face, his arms, and his shoulders in broad, light strokes in my journal, being extra careful to make sure he never caught me staring and memorizing his shape.

  My brother, Hugo, and his best friend, Wesley, sat on the living room couch playing video games just a few feet away while I was in my usual spot, the big comfy chair with the ottoman.

  Hugo and Wesley had been inseparable since the fifth grade when they’d ended up in the same class. And I had crushed on Wes for that long too.

  Just for the record, it was Wes I was secretly sketching. It was hard to get his dimpled chin and smile just right, but I tried to do it justice.

  I filled in his shoulders, making sure I showed just how strong they were in real life. Then I did his tousled chocolate brown hair before going back to his thick brows and full lips.

  Perfectly kissable lips.

  My mouth turned up into a smile just thinking about what it would be like to get kissed by those lips.

  I shut my journal and exhaled, pushing those thoughts away.

  As much as I’d tried to over the years, I’d never been able to give up my crush on Wes.

  He was my brother’s best friend, and if something ever came between them and messed up their friendship—like me—I’d never be able to forgive myself for causing that.

  Besides, to Wes, I was just his best friend’s weird little sister. He’d never behaved otherwise, hardly saying more than hi to me before running up to my brother’s room or asking if he was home.

  So I knew it would never happen.

  The boys whooped over some kind of explosion on the TV, putting their video game controls down on the coffee table. My eyes lingered on Wes again, and I wondered what it would be like to have a boyfriend like him.

  Or any boyfriend, really.

  That was foreign territory to me. I’d ever even had my first real kiss, so I was eons behind the rest of my friends. All of them had a boyfriend at the moment, except me.

  All I had were my journals, full of my every thought and notion. But sometimes I wished I had more. Someone special like Ella had with Jesse or Tori had with Noah. Even crazy and wild Lena had found someone. And Harper and Emerson were just about the most adorable couple I had ever seen.

  I was crazy happy for them, but I couldn’t help longing for hand-holding, stolen kisses, and sappy texts. Someone to watch Harry Potter re-runs with, not that Wes was into Harry Potter.

  Yeah, that was a deal breaker for me, unfortunately. I was the only Potterhead in the #BFFs. I needed someone else in my life who was as crazy about Harry Potter as I was, preferably a Ravenclaw or maybe a Hufflepuff.

  It was a known fact that Hufflepuffs were underrated, although at this point, I’d seriously consider a Gryfindor or a Slytherin.

  Now I was in the mood to watch the movies.

  Instead, I settled for opening up my journal to a new page.

  What I loved about the blank page was the possibilities. A blank page could turn into anything. A sketch, a poem, a diary entry, a bunch of doodles. Anything I wanted.

  With Christmas just around the corner, that had me thinking of the song, “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” So of course I couldn’t get it out of my head.

  I took my pencil and slowly drew the letters in a flowy romantic script, diagonally across the page. Quietly humming the song to myself, I grabbed my colored pencils and found the perfect shade of red.

  In no time, I was lost in the creation of something new—inspired by my forbidden crush.

  All I wanted for Christmas was Wesley. I knew it’d never happen, but it was fun daydreaming about it anyway.

  Four

  Harper

  I pulled out a second tray
of sugar cookies from the oven.

  My mom walked into the kitchen, already in her scrubs so she could head off to work. “You think you made enough of those?” she teased.

  I bit my lip. “You’re right. I think I made too many.”

  Then I looked at the kitchen counter behind me, where a full cookie jar sat next to another plate of cookies.

  Yeah, maybe I’d overdone it. Again.

  I smiled. But the good thing about accidentally making too much? Sharing!

  After I set aside cookies for my mom to take to work and to share with Emerson and his family, I still had a couple dozen left.

  If these cookies stayed in the house, I knew the dress I’d picked out for Tori’s Christmas party in a couple days would not fit.

  Then I thought of the new neighbors next door. The girl named Melissa was only a year younger than me, and she seemed really nice. Surely, she and the rest of her family liked cookies.

  Within minutes, I had packed some up in a large Ziploc bag and was on my way over. Unlike most teenagers, I loved baking treats for my neighbors.

  My boyfriend Emerson called it weird but cute. I called it a nice thing to do.