Once Thanksgiving had come and gone, the last couple of weeks before winter break seemed to speed by in the span of only a few days. Exhale was looking forward to the month off of school, anticipating the relaxation that she would be able to partake in after a difficult semester. But she wasn’t looking forward to reliving the boredom she had experienced all summer since Raine had already decided she would go back to working at Limited Too in the mall and Taylor would undoubtedly remain busy with his brothers.

It was times like this that Exhale wished she hadn’t been so content with only having one friend growing up. Since meeting Raine in Kindergarten, Exhale had always though she’d never need anyone else. They knew each other inside and out, enjoyed the same activities, and had tons of fun together, and growing up, that had been enough. But when Raine wasn’t around, something Exhale hadn’t really gotten used to until over the past summer, she wished she had worked harder to make other friends. There was always her brother, who she’d been close with her entire life, but since he had started making a new life for himself over an hour away, spending time with him was sporadic at best. And then there was Reese; since finding out several years ago that there wasn’t anything between Reese and Taylor, Reese had been a source of companionship. But hanging around with her as part of a group that included Taylor and Zac, and calling her up randomly to do something was completely different.

It surprised Exhale how much she enjoyed Brady’s company during class because her first impression of him hadn’t been a great one. It was nice having a friend other than Raine to talk to, even if they didn’t hang out very often outside of class. Exhale thought that would be fun, but since Taylor’s negative reaction the last time her and Brady had been together without him, she had settled for only seeing him in class. It was refreshing to meet someone who didn’t know most of the details of her life and seemed interested in finding out. It was nice to be able to talk to him and know that every conversation would be new. But she felt guilty for enjoying Brady’s company so much, because she knew how much she would resent Taylor suddenly showing interest in a new female friend. However, her last Chemistry lab had come and gone, and though she and Brady had each other’s numbers, she doubted she’d ever see him again, and it surprised her that she was saddened by that. It wasn’t often that she came across people whose company she enjoyed so much.

“Okay,” Raine said suddenly, interrupting her thoughts. Exhale looked up to see that Raine had moved into the kitchen and was snatching up cookies from the pantry while holding her notebook in one hand. “Explain congestive heart failure to me.”

Eight sighed and set her notes to the side to avoid looking at them while responding. “Okay, right sided failure, blood backs up into the body, and they’ll have severe edema and jugular vein distention, and all of this puts pressure on the organs. Left sided failure, blood stays in the pulmonary circulation because it’s not getting pumped to the body, so they’ll have pulmonary edema, not peripheral, and lung congestion. Was that right?”

“Perfect!” Raine exclaimed, coming back into the living room with a handful of cookies and a smile. She handed some of the cookies to Exhale and sighed. “You know this final is going to suck right?”

“I know,” Exhale agreed, flopping onto her back on the floor. “It doesn’t matter how much we study, it’s not going to matter on the test. Half the time, he only asks us about three of the ten topics we’ve covered, and the rest of the test is stuff we’ve never even heard of. I could memorize this notebook and it wouldn’t do a damn thing to help me.”

“Why does college suck so much in that way?” Raine pondered aloud. “Anyway, ask me something.”

“Okay…” Exhale said, dragging the word out as her eyes scanned through her worn pages. “Difference between Addison’s and Cushing’s.”

They continued studying in that fashion late into the night, going over everything for Pathophysiology and getting through quite a bit of Microbiology material before they finally succumbed to the yawns that had been permeating their words for the last hour. Raine went home, and Exhale took a quick shower before slipping into her comfortable pajamas and getting into bed. As exhausted as she felt, she couldn’t stop running information through her mind. Everything from characteristics of Type II diabetes to the Krebs’ Cycle was seeping through her brain, which seemed determined not to shut off. Bella had curled up beside her chest, and even the comforting closeness of the kitten couldn’t ease her off to sleep. Eventually she heard the front door open and close, signaling Taylor’s arrival home. After hearing him activate the alarm system, she listened to his heavy footsteps on the hardwood floor of the hall. She surprised him when he entered the room, trying as hard as he could to be quiet, by sitting up in the bed and stretching her arms over her head. “Baby, what are you still doing up?” he whispered, pulling his shoes off and letting them fall soundlessly to the carpet in the corner of the room.

“I can’t sleep,” she huffed as he sat beside her on the bed and pulled her in for a hug. “I’m too worried about my finals.”

After pressing his lips to hers in greeting, Taylor rested his cheek on top of her head and massaged his hands over her back. “Baby, you’ll do fine. I bet if I asked you anything you’d be able to tell me about it for ten minutes. Of course, I wouldn’t know if you were telling me the right thing because I have absolutely no clue about that stuff, but I trust you.”

Exhale laughed softly at his joke, appreciating the fact that he knew just what to say, yet again. “I know, but you know how I worry.”

“Yes, I do,” he laughed, kissing her forehead and tightening his arms around her. “Do you want me to get you one of those sleeping pills?”

Exhale turned over his suggestion before shaking her head. “Nah, it’s kind of late, and I don’t want it to make me oversleep. Now that you’re here to spoon me, I might be able to shut off and go to sleep.

“Deal,” Taylor laughed. “Just let me hop in the shower real quick first.”

True to his word, Taylor showered in record time and, once he had slipped into a pair of boxers and flannel pajama pants, he slid under the sheets and snuggled behind Exhale, conforming his chest against her back and cinching an arm around her waist. Her slow and even breathing let him know that she had already fallen asleep on her own, and he smiled to think that maybe his words had made that possible. He kissed her temple as softly as he could so that he wouldn’t wake her, and quickly drifted off into his own peaceful and dreamless slumber.

____________________

Once finals week had come and gone, Taylor noticed a significant increase in the frequency of Exhale’s good moods. She kept in touch with her brother more often to keep herself updated on the status of Skylar’s pregnancy, and that alone seemed to have her in better spirits. In addition, instead of sitting around with nothing to do all during her break, she had taken on the task of babysitting occasionally for some friends of Diana’s who had been in a bind recently. Although it didn’t take up all of her time, it took up enough that she wasn’t miserably bored all day every day.

So, as he carried the moderate sized Christmas tree he had bought that afternoon into the house, he was sure she’d be excited to see it. Just as he had expected, the second he pushed the greenery through the door ahead of him, he heard a shriek of excitement even before he could see her. “Taylor, you got a tree!” she exclaimed, hurrying over to help him drag it into the living room.

“Thanks for letting me know. I was wondering what this big monstrosity in my arms was,” he teased, leaning it against the wall in the corner. “Seriously though, the tree stand and skirt is in the car, if you want to go get it.”

Practically leaping in excitement, Exhale hurried outside to get the rest of the purchases from the car. “You even got ornaments! Taylor, I have to say I’m very shocked you undertook this all by yourself.”

“Yeah, well…I wanted to surprise you…” he said, taking the tree stand from her and opening it. Bella curiously sniffed at the pungent pine needles that had fallen to the carpet and pawed at the lowest branches. “And I can see Bella likes it too, so I guess I did good,” he laughed, scratching her behind the ears. “If we let it sit out tonight, it should open up and we can decorate it tomorrow. Are you going to be home or will you be babysitting?”

“I’ll be home,” she said, pouting. “I wanna do it tonight.”

“I know, but I bet if we accept my mom’s dinner invitation, she’ll give us plenty more stuff to decorate with once we tell her about our pathetic number of ornaments,” he said, his eyes twinkling.

Exhale didn’t realize how true that was until later than night when they stumbled through the front door with a box of lights, two boxes of ornaments, and a box of bows. “I can’t believe this is all the stuff your mom had leftover after decorating that gigantic tree she got,” Exhale huffed as she set the boxes on the sofa and blew the hair that had escaped her messy ponytail out of her eyes.

The tree Taylor had picked out paled in comparison to the gigantic one sitting in his parent’s living room. Its branches were full and thick and the perfect shade of evergreen, and each one was covered with ornaments from the very top to the bottom. Most of them were homemade, ranging back from when Isaac was old enough to begin arts and crafts up until the one Zoë had made the week before. Others were store-bought but personalized, with the names of the Hanson children on them, and a Baby’s First Christmas for each of them as well. The rest were assorted ones they had collected over the years. Amidst all of the ornaments were white lights, which glowed brightly and illuminated the decorations. The tip of the angel that adorned the very top of the tree just barely brushed against the ceiling, and Exhale was sure she had never seen a bigger tree in her life. But, the tree that sat in Taylor’s living room was theirs, and it didn’t matter how small it was or how insignificant it seemed compared to Walker and Diana’s.

By the next morning, Exhale was nearly jumping out of her skin in anticipation of decorating the tree with Taylor. Besides just being one of her favorite parts of the holiday, she was excited that he had taken an entire day away from music in order to spend it with her, something that she felt hadn’t happened in ages. So as soon as her eyes popped open, she rolled over and pushed on Taylor’s bare chest to wake him. “Get up, lazy, it’s time to make our tree pretty!”

“Ugh, go back to sleep,” Taylor groaned, shoving her prodding hands away and draping an arm over his eyes. “It’s too early.”

“It’s nine o’clock, that’s not early!” Exhale exclaimed, continuing to push on him. “Come on, baby…”

Sighing heavily, Taylor sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Okay, okay. I guess since it’s your day and all…”

“Thank you!” she said, throwing her arms around his neck from behind and planting a wet kiss on his cheeks before bouncing out of bed and into the bathroom to brush her teeth. Taylor followed at a much slower pace, and after brushing his own teeth, pulled on a white T-shirt without exchanging his pajama pants for jeans. He figured if he was taking a day off, he’d make the most of it and stay comfortable all day. By the time he shuffled out to the living room, Exhale had already arranged the tree skirt around the base of the tree and was halfway through untangling the string of colored lights while Christmas music played softly over the stereo.

Once they had the lights untangled and stretched across the carpet, they began winding them around the tree, laughing and singing along loudly to the music as they did. Exhale couldn’t remember the last time she and Taylor had kicked back and had this much fun with each other. Usually their time spent together consisted of unwinding at the end of the day by watching a movie or laying curled up on the couch, a stark contrast from how they were spending it decorating. While Exhale crawled under the tree to plug the lights into the outlet, Taylor went to the garage and retrieved the small step ladder to assist Exhale in putting the angel on top. By the time he returned, the lights were twinkling red, blue, green and orange on the tree, and Exhale was looking at it proudly with a smile on her face and her hands on her hips. She grinned over at him as he opened the step ladder and set it by the tree. “Pretty good so far, huh?” she asked.

“It’s gorgeous,” Taylor replied, kissing her softly.

The angel tree-topper was the most beautiful one Exhale had ever seen. Her dress looked like pure gold, shimmering when it caught the light against its silky fabric. Her blonde yarn curls framed her round face, her cheeks pink and a tiny smirk sewn on. Her hands were clasped in front of her, holding a tiny golden star between them. “This is beautiful. Where’d your mom get it?” she asked, turning it over in her palms to inspect every inch.

“My grandma made it,” Taylor said, looking over it fondly. “She made a bunch, and my mom set aside one for each of us for when we got our own trees. She gave Isaac his last year. She gave it to me last night while you were picking through the extra ornaments. She almost started crying.”

“Well…” Exhale could look in his eyes and see that he was thinking of his grandmother. “Do you want to put it on, then?”

“No, you do it,” he said with a gentle smile. “This is your project, and I’d rather watch you do it.”

“If you’re sure…” she said, giving him an opportunity to change his mind.

“I’m sure, just do it,” he said, laughing and patting her backside to encourage her towards the tree.

After she had climbed the few steps, Exhale reached up on her tiptoes on the step ladder to place the angel on the top of the tree. Just as she was about to set the gorgeous gold decoration on the top branch, the phone began ringing. Taylor ran to answer it. Even from across the room, Exhale could hear the shriek as soon as he punched the Talk button on the cordless phone. Sighing in disgust, he cut the connection and dropped the phone on the sofa. “I can understand if they’d call and talk, but why do they call and screech?” he grumbled.

Seconds later, the phone rang again. Exhale laughed as he sighed in frustration and answered the phone again. “Hello?” he said, the annoyance obvious in his voice.

“Why the hell would you hang up on me, you bitch?” came the unexpected reply.

“Raine?” he asked uncertainly. Exhale looked over curiously at the sound of her best friend’s name, wondering what was going on.

“Yes!”

“Why are you screaming?” he asked, making his way towards Exhale as she climbed down from the step ladder.

“Because!” she shrieked impatiently. “Put Exhale on!”

Taylor rolled his eyes and shrugged at Exhale’s questioning look while handing the phone over to her. He went back to decorating the tree as Exhale brought the phone to her ear and said, “Raine?”

“I GOT IN!” Raine screamed in her ear without any form of greeting. “Did you get your letter yet?!”

“Oh my God!” Exhale yelled excitedly. “You got in?! I’m so happy for you!”

“Well did you?” Raine replied anxiously.

“I-I don’t know!” Exhale stammered. “My mail from school gets sent to my house, not here. I guess I could call my mom and-” No sooner had the words escaped her lips when she heard her cell phone ringing in the bedroom. “Oh my God, my phone’s ringing! Maybe that’s her!”

“Stay on the line, I want to know what she says,” Raine said, her voice sounding considerably calmed.

At the same time, Taylor was loudly complaining about the amount of phone calls for her and grumbling something about how he wasn’t her answering service as he hurried to the bedroom and answered the phone. “It’s your mom,” he said a minute later, handing her the phone.

“Hello?” Exhale said nervously, awaiting the tone of her mother’s reply. If she sounded depressed, it meant she had been rejected.

“Now, I don’t want you to be mad about me opening your mail, but-”

“Mom, I know it’s the nursing school letter, just tell me what it says,” Exhale interrupted abruptly, unable to gauge the tone of her mother’s voice. “Did I get in?”

“You got in!”

“I got in!” Exhale squealed excitedly, literally jumping up and down. Her ears were bombarded with additional squeals as both Raine and Magdalen joined her in her excitement, and Taylor grabbed her up into a tight hug and spun her around, kissing her lips before he set her back on her feet. She struggled to hold the phones in her hands as her fingers began trembling uncontrollably. “I can’t believe it, I got in!”

“I’ll let you go celebrate with Raine and Taylor,” Magdalen said after a few more excited squeals. “I’m so proud of you, honey, and so’s your dad. Congratulations!”

“Thanks, Mom,” Exhale said, her mind still swimming as she tried to absorb the information she had just received. “Love you.”

“Love you too, baby.”

Exhale hung up her cell phone and tossed it on the couch, turning her attention back to the cordless on the other ear. “Oh my God, Raine, we have to celebrate!”

“I know! Drew and I’ll be by there at 8, okay? See you then!”

As she hung up the second phone, Exhale laughed at Raine’s enthusiasm. “Are you up for a night out after this?” she asked, wrapping her arms around Taylor’s neck and pulling him close to kiss him.

“Definitely,” he smiled, returning the kiss eagerly. “I told you you would get in. I’m really proud of you, Haley. We’ll do whatever you want tonight to celebrate. Tonight, it’s all about you.”

INDEX | CHAPTER EIGHTEEN