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It was a cold Christmas Day in Brighton, but the sun was shining bright, and outside the McGee family home, Molly was celebrating the holiday with some of her best friends. Ollie and Andrea had come over soon after their own families’ Christmas celebrations had ended, while Libby had come just before noon, as she and her mother didn’t celebrate Christmas. The friends had enjoyed a lovely afternoon of exchanging small gifts and discussing what they’d done over the holiday, and Ollie’s little sister June had even come over to keep Darryl company, with the two playing their new video games inside before joining the others out front.
The day had been fun and festive, and now the holiday gathering was just about over, with the sun already starting to set in the sky.
“Merry Christmas, Ollie,” said Molly, before blushing and leaning in to give her new boyfriend a kiss under the mistletoe that was hanging up over the front porch.
“Bleggh,” groaned Darryl, putting his finger to his mouth to act as if he was throwing up, while June looked on, somewhat perplexed at the ritual. “Yeah, June, I hear ya.”
“Hmm? I didn’t say anything,” June replied, blinking at her friend.
“Oh, no, I’m just… your brother and my sister were kissing, and it was-“
“The sweetest thing ever!” Andrea squealed, interrupting Darryl and clapping her hands together as she watched the two smooch. “Isn’t Mollie just the greatest?”
“I’m just happy to see them happy,” said Libby, smiling warmly as Molly and Ollie parted. “And it’s nice to see Molly overcoming her shyness around him…”
“Well, there’s something about mistletoe on Christmas that’s absolutely magical!” Andrea continued, clasping her hands together. “Two sweethearts can’t help but kiss under it, no matter how shy they are!”
“Yeah, but it’s still gross,” Darryl replied, slapping his hand to his forehead. “Just because some dumb plant’s hanging up doesn’t mean you gotta kiss, ya know?”
Andrea turned to Darryl and scowled slightly, and Darryl just shrugged… but there was something about the way Andrea was looking at him that made him feel warm in the cheeks, a warmth that completely overcame the chill in the air. He and Andrea had been spending a lot of time together in recent months, mostly doing computer-related activities together, or occasionally watching movies with Molly and Libby during his big sister’s sleepovers, and during that time, he’d come to see Andrea as more than just that annoying popular girl who used to be mean to Molly.
But still, kissing under the mistletoe?
“It’s a strange ritual, but anything that helps make Christmas more fun for people can’t be too harmful,” said June, smiling and holding up her phone. “Darryl, I can tell you the history of mistletoe at Christmas… or I can share with you some of the plant’s fascinating toxic properties!”
“The only thing toxic about mistletoe is how gross it makes people act,” Darryl replied with a laugh.
“You’ll understand when you’re older,” Andrea told him with a smile, before turning and walking away.
“You’re like 19 months older than me!” Darryl shouted, prompting Andrea to giggle slightly as she walked over to say goodbye to Molly. As she did, the boy let out a sigh, sitting down on a tree stump and looking over at June. “Hey June, can I ask you a question?”
“About mistletoe?”
“About kissing, is it weird if I think kissing is gross but I still kinda wanna kiss a girl?”
June looked at Darryl, then blinked and gasped slightly, blushing and putting a hand up to her mouth for a moment.
“Oh,” she said, looking slightly uncomfortable.
“…oh! No, not… not you, June.”
“Oh,” she said again, prompting Darryl’s eyes to widen.
“N-no, that’s not what I meant, you’re cool and stuff, but-“
“That’s a relief,” June finally said, smiling. “I don’t think I’m interested in kissing. …I hope that’s not too harsh, I’m not interested in kissing anyone, not just you.”
“…I meant Andrea.”
“Huh?” said Molly, raising her eyebrow and walking over to Darryl with a sly smile. “Did I just hear you say you wanted to kiss Andrea?”
Darryl gasped and stood up, waving his arms frantically and looking like he was about to panic as he watched Andrea leave over Molly’s shoulder.
“No! I mean… I dunno, maybe?”
Darryl’s eyes were darting back and forth between Molly and Andrea, and he could feel his entire face warming, while he could also feel his heart beating rapidly in his chest. He hadn’t told anyone that he had feelings for Andrea, and now Molly and June both knew? June seemed to be taking the news rather well, staying calm as she sat there and looked up mistletoe information on her phone, while Molly’s face was still wearing an excited, smiling expression.
“Don’t you dare tell her!” Darryl shouted.
“It’s okay, I won’t, but you should definitely tell her! I told Ollie, and look how happy I am!”
“Yeah, because Ollie likes you! But Andrea’s like… super cute, and super rich, and nineteen whole months older than me! There’s no way she likes me back!”
“You gotta try, right?” said Molly, placing her hand on Darryl’s shoulder. “Look, if you really like her, you can’t hold something like that in forever… trust me, I tried holding it in with Ollie, and it almost drove me nuts!”
“She’s right, it did, and I had to put up with it,” said Scratch, hovering near Molly. “And wait, you like Andrea? Oh man, there’s no way she’d ever-“
“Shut it, Scratch!” snapped Molly, glaring fiercely at the ghost before turning back to Darryl. “Darryl, I think you should go for it but it’s up to you… but if she does say no, I’ll be here for you.”
“I know, it’s just… I like Andrea a lot, what if she freaks out and doesn’t wanna spend time together?”
Molly smiled warmly, sitting down on the stump and gesturing toward Andrea.
“Just be honest with her and it’ll be fine,” Molly said, trying her best to reassure him. “She’ll still like you as a friend, trust me. She loves doing computer stuff with you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, she won’t stop talking about how smart you are and how talented you are with computers. She’s even talked about wanting to work on an e-commerce project with you, she’s just worried you might try to rip people off.”
“Fair,” Darryl said with a smirk, putting his hands in his pockets. “She… really said all that?”
“Maybe you should talk to her yourself, you two have never really had a heart to heart, have you?”
Darryl looked back over at Andrea, who was now talking with Libby. The two were laughing about something together, and as they talked, Andrea looked back at Darryl and gave him a smile, then resumed her conversation.
“…if you’re gonna say something to her, you’d better hurry, she’s gonna go once she’s done talking to Libby.”
Darryl took a deep breath, trying to gather up his courage.
“You’re really funny, Darryl,” June told him, smiling. “I’m sure Andrea thinks so too.”
“Trust me, Andrea’s pretty awesome once you get to know her,” Molly said, reaching up and giving Darryl’s hand a squeeze to calm him down. “The worst she can do is say no.”
Darryl looked to see Andrea giving Libby a hug, then parting from her and starting to walk down toward the street. As she did, he thought about letting her go… whatever he wanted to say, it could wait for another time… a time when he had a little more confidence, a time when he knew just what to say.
“Hey, Andrea!”
Darryl didn’t know why he called out, but found his mouth moving faster than the rest of his body… at least until she turned to face him. When she did, he started walking toward her, and she walked back onto the front lawn, continuing toward him with a curious expression.
“Darryl?”
“I, um… I’m glad you came over today,” he told her, blushing as he began pushing one of his boots into the snow. Andrea giggled slightly, then smiled again.
“It was good to see you again,” she replied.
“Really?”
“Of course,” Andrea said, taking another step toward him. “I love hanging out with you and Molly, why are you so surprised?”
“Well, I mean… because I’m Molly’s little brother and I’m not a big time web star like you… or popular or anything like that.”
“You seem popular enough to me, everyone at school says you’re awesome.”
“Yeah, but that’s like… because I do funny pranks and stuff, that’s not real popularity like you have!”
Andrea blinked, slightly surprised by the fact that Darryl was being so down on himself. She honestly thought he didn’t care… she’d figured as much from the first moment they’d met, when he didn’t seem intimidated or starstruck by her at all. He’d never been careful to pronounce her name properly, he never seemed to gush over her internet fame, and even when the two of them had started working on tech projects together, he’d usually be cracking jokes and never taking things seriously. She never knew he felt this way, and from the blush on his face, she was starting to realize there were other feelings she never knew he had toward her either…
“You mean my Fandreas? I love my Fandreas to bits, but they’re mostly online, you’ve got IRL popularity that even I can’t achieve… in fact, before I met Molly, I mostly just scared people.”
“I remember that,” said Darryl, his somewhat sullen expression starting to lighten. “I used to hate you for what you said to Molly.”
“And I get it, I was a total jerk to her… and you’re her little brother, so of course you’d stand up for her. Sometimes I wish I had a little brother or sister who looked up to me, I just have my Fandreas and yeah, sure, they stan for me and they’ll fight for me, but it’s not like what you do for Molly. I’m just glad I was able to work things out with her and with you. ...I mean, we are cool now, right? We’ve been working on tech stuff for four months now, so I just wanted to make sure.”
“Of course we’re cool, are you kidding? I love working with you, you’re smart, and funny, and pretty-“
Darryl stopped himself, but from the sound of Andrea’s giggle, it was too late. The cat was out of the bag.
“Darryl, I know you’ve been crushing on me, you were crushing on me ever since we started working together.”
Darryl’s face dropped. Andrea already knew.
“And you weren’t… creeped out?” he finally stammered, now barely able to look at Andrea as he scraped his boot on the ground in embarrassment. “Aw man, I must’ve been acting so cringe!”
“You weren’t acting cringe at all… you were super funny! I mean, yeah, you sort of stammered some of your words, and whenever our hands would touch you’d either start shaking or jerk your hand back, and you spent half the time blushing, but you were super sweet and you never said anything that made me uncomfortable. …I mean, maybe a few things, but not that kind of uncomfortable.”
As Andrea spoke, she tried her best to reassure Darryl, smiling kindly and even standing close to him so that he knew he didn’t make her uneasy. Still, it was difficult for him to look her way, but as he continued to twiddle his foot and avoid meeting her eyes with his, she reached down and gently placed her hand on his shoulder.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he finally replied, and started to turn his head to look at her. As he did, Andrea reached up and touched his cheek, gently turning him the rest of the way.
“You really do like me?”
“Andrea, I already told you, you’re awesome. …I never thought I’d say that after everything that happened between you and my sister at first, but once you two became friends, I mean… I forgave you, and I’m really glad you gave me a chance.”
“I’m glad you gave me a chance, Darryl.”
Darryl’s expression softened even more, his eyes starting to widen as if he was in shock that Andrea was being so nice to him. She continued to speak, lowering her hand from his face but keeping her eyes on his, wanting him to know that she meant everything she was about to tell him.
“I admit, at first I thought you were weird and annoying, but the moment I got to know you, I realized how stupid I was to think that, just like I was stupid to be such a jerk to Molly.”
“But… I am weird and annoying,” said Darryl, smiling even as he admitted that he wasn’t some perfectly normal kid. “I’m sure Molly’s told you some of the stuff I’ve pulled.”
“Like how you let that magician guy win so he could keep doing what he loved, even if it meant you’d have to give up something you loved?”
Darryl’s eyes went wider… he was shocked that Andrea knew about that, but then again, Molly had been telling her quite a lot, even if she left out all the parts about Scratch and the Ghost World.
“I know you can be a prankster, and a scam artist, and that you have a scary pet tarantula, but that just means you’re smart and sweet, and you’re Molly’s little brother, so most of the awesome stuff I like about her is true about you too,” Andrea told him. “And I’m flattered that you have a crush on me.”
“But…” Darryl began, before Andrea took his hands in hers.
“But I don’t know you well enough quite yet to know how I feel,” Andrea replied, still looking into his eyes with a warm, kind smile. “…but I’m open to finding out, and I’d love to spend more time with you in the future.”
“…doing computer stuff?”
“And other things, maybe,” Andrea replied, lifting her hands up to Darryl’s cheeks. “Thank you for being honest with me… I promise I’ll be just as honest with you about how I feel. Right now, you’re sweet, and funny, and cute, and I like spending time with you… and look up.”
Darryl looked up to see that he and Andrea were standing under the same mistletoe that his sister and Ollie had kissed under just a few minutes ago… and when he looked back down, he could see that Andrea was blushing. Not nearly as much as him, and it may have just been the cold, but her cheeks were red nonetheless, and a moment after he noticed it, he saw Andrea coming forward, her lips puckered.
It was a quick kiss, he barely even registered the sensation of Andrea’s soft lips against his own before she moved back, an affectionate smile still etched on her face.
“Merry Christmas, Darryl!” she told him, keeping her hands pressed against his cheeks for several more seconds, enough time for her to see the dopey smile that had spread quickly across his face.
Molly and Libby had both seen the kiss, and they gasped, with Molly giving a slight, excited squeal. Behind her, she could hear Scratch groan… and nearby, Ollie and June were looking on as well. Ollie was smiling, while June was much more stoic… but still happy for Darryl, even though she harbored her own slight crush.
Andrea then parted from Darryl and turned to leave, while the younger boy just reached up and touched his lips, still unable to believe what had just happened. He’d heard what Andrea had said… she didn’t quite return his feelings, but she wanted to hang out more… she was giving him a chance, or maybe giving herself a chance to feel something for the boy she’d been having more and more fun with these past few months.
He knew the kiss didn’t mean that Andrea liked him liked him… but it was still his first kiss, and what an amazing one it was. He watched her leave, not taking his eyes off Andrea the whole time… and when she turned back toward him, that dopey smile was still on his face as he weakly raised up his hand to wave goodbye to her.
“See you soon!” Andrea called out, waving back at him and then looking over at Molly and Libby and waving goodbye to them too. “Merry Christmas!”
And then, she was gone… and Darryl stumbled away from the porch and over to Molly, unable to wipe the grin from his face.
“…told ya,” Molly said with a smirk, leaning in and starting into a very familiar motion. Scratch, who recognized this immediately, moved to stop Molly, only for Libby to grab him and hold on tight.
“Just let her have this one,” Libby said, smiling as her best friend launched into her ‘told ya’ dance while Darryl continued to bask in the moment he’d just shared with Andrea.
“Mind if I join in?” Ollie asked, walking over to Molly.
“Uh huh, just follow my moves and remember to keep saying ‘toldja’!” Molly said, grabbing Ollie by the hand and guiding him through the dance moves.
And as Molly and Ollie did the ‘told ya’ dance together, and Libby and June went inside to enjoy more Christmas snacks, Darryl took one last look up at the mistletoe, where he’d confessed everything to Andrea and had gotten a response beyond anything he could dream.
His lips were still tingling, and he knew it wasn’t from the cold. He started back toward the house as well, taking one more moment to stand under the mistletoe and think about Andrea.
Thanks for giving me a chance, Andrea… even if you don’t feel the same way, I’ll never forget that kiss.
He then walked into the house, hands in his pockets, smiling all the way.
And I’m gonna do my best to make you wanna kiss me again!