My Christmas Angel

"I don't know..." I didn't know how to respond. Would I like to stay with Miss Crest? Hell yes. Did I want to freeload off her? Hell no.

"You don't have to. You can go back to the shelter at any time. I just feel safer when you're here."

I hesitated. She had a point. She didn't live in a bad neighborhood, but it also wasn't the best neighborhood either and the security on her building was pretty much non-existent.

"So why not get a house mate?"

"You would be like a house mate."

"But I can't pay rent. I have to save for college. I can barely afford to eat."

"That's not a big deal. So long as you don't run up the phone bill or anything I don't really care."

"I don't know, it doesn't seem right to me."

"Think about it, you can sleep at the shelter and I can sleep here and neither of us will really be safe, or we can both sleep here and both be safe." She shrugged her shoulders. "It's a win-win situation."

I agreed, on a trial basis. We would try it for the next week, until Christmas, and then decide.

After we finished doing the dishes Miss Crest put some Christmas music on and got out a bunch of boxes full of decorations for the tree. Some of them were hand-made and had her name written on them.

"Amelia," I read off one of them

"Yep, that's me, but you can call me Amy outside of school."

We must have spent hours decorating the tree, but I didn't notice it. I spent the entire time anticipating the next time I would brush up against Amy as we passed each other, or the next time she would put her hand on my arm while she showed me where she wanted me to hang something.

When we were almost done we stood back and she plugged in the lights. It was beautiful. The tree itself was pretty and the handmade decorations made it feel so cozy and warm.

"Star or angel?" She asked, holding the different tree toppers in her hands.

It was an easy choice. The angel had brown hair, white skin and pink lips, just like my Christmas angel did. "Angel," I said looking straight into her eyes.

Amy smiled and I found myself smiling back at her, a real smile, one that I didn't have to force myself to do and one that I couldn't have stopped doing even if I'd wanted to.

"Merry Christmas," she said as she handed me the Angel. She was looking up at me and smiling in a contented way. Her big, doe-like eyes blinked slowly but never left mine.

"Merry Christmas," I tried to say back but my voice cracked. Suddenly I wasn't smiling anymore and there were tears in my eyes.

Amy took a step towards me and put her arms around me. She hugged me close and rubbed my back and I felt her warmth flowing into my cold body. "Welcome home Casey," she said softly.