The Cozy Christmas Cabin

"Oh please," Doralee said as she rolled her eyes, "He loved you since our sophomore year. I can just tell, hun. Nothing had to be explicitly said from that boy."

"Then what else could it be? I am just running all these terrible scenarios in my mind," Elise said, as Doralee could see she was spiraling into the depths of the darkest thoughts that could be possible.

"I really have no idea, I'm sorry," Doralee said as her jade green eyes softened, "All I know is that Asher always has the best intentions with you. The last thing he would do is hurt you in any way."

"So, should I just wait and see if he'll come around?"

"I would probably do that if I were in your shoes, but I would also talk about it again in the near future with him if he doesn't bring it up."

*

It was late morning when Clarence called out to the others to ask if they wished to join him to go snowshoeing.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea. I look forward to taking in the fresh mountain air," Xandre said. He turned to Beatrice, who was sipping tea from the porcelain cup with the matching saucer, "What do you think Beatrice? Do you wish to join as well?"

Beatrice quietly took a sip of tea and then said, "Yes."

"It's a no for me," Tyra said as she was leaning on the armchair that Brandon was sitting on. They were both watching something on Brandon's tablet.

"Yeah I'm gonna sit this one out too," said Silas, "Maybe the ones left behind can play a board game with me or something." Doralee and Elise agreed to go, and then Asher came down the stairs. He heard unique remixed music that sounded familiar to him, playing from the tablet. He wondered why he somewhat recognized the music, until Clarence approached him.

"Snowshoeing Asher?" Clarence asked, "If you are, can you also bring your car? I don't think we're all going to fit in Xandre's Infiniti."

He glanced at Elise, who smiled and nodded as to indicate that she was also planning to go. Asher said, "Fine."

"Guys!" Tyra called out to the group, "You have to check this out, because this is just freaking amazing."

Everyone went around the armchair to take a peek at Brandon's tablet, which was playing a Youtube video. Asher was the last one to arrive, and as soon as he saw the video clip, his face turned slightly pale.

It was no wonder he recognized the music. It was him, doing a hip hop dance routine with two other guys. His hair was in a short ponytail, and he appeared to be likely in his older teen years.

Everyone except Beatrice and Brandon's eyes were widened, with their lower jaws that collectively dropped simultaneously. Then Asher felt what he hated the most; the unwanted attention from everyone in the room.

"Damn Asher," Doralee said, "No wonder you're so good at dancing. You're a professional!"

"I am not a professional," Asher said as he blushed for a second and furrowed his eyebrows, "Can you turn that off now?"

Brandon immediately pressed on the 'back' button, where Tyra and Clarence both moaned. "Geez Asher. Why do you have a stick up your ass?" Clarence asked, "Your dancing is so fucking awesome, so you should be proud of yourself."

"Yeah! You could easily be famous. You're actually really good," Tyra pointed out.

Elise became concerned when Asher snarled out, "How the hell did you even find the video in the first place?" She reached out to hold onto his hand, where his anger moderately dissipated as he squeezed the hand back.

"I typed in 'Asher Fleurdelis' on Google," Brandon replied, "I was curious to see what type of people Beatrice associate with."

"Yours has the most interesting result, that's for sure," Tyra said, "Good thing nothing pops up from my name."

"I also found an article about Alexandre Leir," Brandon said, "He was involved in a collision caused by an intoxicated driver fifteen years ago. There was one fatality."

Everyone else except Beatrice froze when Brandon announced that, and slowly turned their heads to reluctantly observe Xandre. He was in complete despair as he quietly said with a sinister tone, "...That was my father who was... needlessly killed by that careless imbecile. Worse yet, he survived and just received a fractured femur." The rest of the group, even Brandon and Beatrice could almost feel a ghastly cloud looming over Xandre as his face darkened and continued with, "And he... was released from prison five years ago, and has been living amongst us." He crossed his arms while his face twisted with anger, which at this point it frightened Elise and Doralee, "The charges were absurd. He caused the death of an innocent man and he received just ten years?"

"That's the maximum sentence in this state for vehicular manslaughter," Brandon said with his quiet, neutral tone.

Silas frowned and said, "That's true, but I hear your Xandre. If you were to compare it to other charges like second degree murder, it really doesn't seem fair at all."

"It absolutely is not," Xandre growled, "And to avenge my father's untimely death, I will change the laws someday to reflect the pain this crime causes the victims, and the justice the perpetrators should rightfully face."

Beatrice's eyes widened when she realized this was why Xandre was always focused on his studies to make sure he received the best grades, and he always sought her help in tutoring for the past several years. He was driven, not just academically, but also personally.

Asher was relieved that everyone else was focused on Xandre instead of himself now. However, he also knew his friend was spiraling again into the depths of his harrowing thoughts after being triggered.

"We're losing daylight," Asher said with a slightly louder voice than usual.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that," Clarence said as he chuckled and got the hint, "All right guys, we really should get going."

"Y-yes... of course," Xandre sighed. The spirit of wanting to go out to get some much needed fresh air and exercise disappeared. Beatrice watched as Xandre was staring on the ground, as if he didn't wish to go anywhere. Thinking of what she could possibly do to help him at the moment, she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. Xandre turned his head to see Beatrice's serene grey eyes, and that provided the encouragement he needed to continue on with the day.

After the six of them wore their coats and left through the front door, Silas turned to Brandon and Tyra to ask, "You guys wanna play a board game together?"

"Yes," said Brandon as he put his tablet away.

While they were walking down the stairs to pick something, Silas said, "By the way Brandon, I watched a couple of your lectures yesterday. Great stuff."

"If you have a topic in mind, I will make a lecture on your behalf," said Brandon.

"How about coding?" Tyra asked as she leaned towards Brandon where her ample chest slightly brushed against his arm, "I can be your private tutor." It didn't seem to phase Brandon, but he did respond with a nod.

"I may take your offer on that one day," Silas said as he gave a smile.

*

Later that night after a great day of using the hot tub, having dinner together and watching a movie, Doralee and Silas were getting ready for bed. The brassy haired lady with the voluptuous curves was relieved to see how much Asher was clearly smitten by Elise during their snowshoeing adventure. As for Elise, she was happy to be holding onto Asher's hand, but she would sometimes be lost in her own thoughts, likely wondering why despite Asher feeling the way he does for her, he was hesitant to go all the way with her.

Silas was preoccupied with watching more of Brandon's lectures on his Youtube channel, and his choice today was about one of the retro video games 'Metroid'. When Doralee came to bed, she rested her head on Silas's broad chest, where he welcomed the affectionate gesture by wrapping his moderately muscular arm around her back.

"Hey hun?" Doralee said as she glanced up at her boyfriend.

"What's up babe?" Silas asked as he paused the video.

"Do you know what's going on with Asher? He doesn't want to have sex with Elise, and neither her nor I can figure out why," Doralee said.

Then Silas's answer surprised her. "I think it's because Asher is self conscious about his... you know," he replied as he pointed at his crotch. Then he resumed the video.

Doralee blinked. Then she asked with an astonished tone, "I'm sorry. Did you just use the words 'Asher' and 'self conscious' in the same sentence? And about his dick?" She could hardly believe her ears.

"Yeah. Crazy right?" Silas said, as he was half paying attention to Doralee and the other half onto the lecture.

Doralee furrowed her eyebrows as she shot herself right up. She placed her hands on her hips and said, "How dare you Silas!"

"Uh, what?" Silas was confused as he paused the video again. He also sat up with a perplexed look on his face. "What did I do?"

"How dare you imply that my lovely Elise would be so shallow and care about anyone's dick size!" Doralee said.

"What? I didn't say 'I' think that way. I said Asher has the problem for thinking that way. Geez," Silas got defensive, especially since he knew he was telling the truth.

Doralee still stood her ground to protect Elise's integrity. "Size doesn't matter Silas. You tell Asher that it's the 'motion of the ocean', and us girls still enjoy the 'small' ones," Doralee said firmly.

Silas's lower jaw dropped to let that sink in for a moment. Then he started to laugh as he shook his head. "No, no babe. Asher doesn't have a small dick. It's like the complete opposite of that," he explained.

"The opposite of that?" Doralee repeated incredulously, "And how the hell do you know this information?"

"How can I not know that?" Silas said with a matter-of-fact voice, "You know he was my roommate in our freshman year. Not that he flashed it at me or anything, but he wakes up with a morning wood like every other guy. And yeah, it's hard to hide that thing since it's so big. It's like... longer and almost as thick as a tall boy beer can. Woof."

"Uh huh..." Doralee said as she slowly nodded, "And why would he be self-conscious about it? In fact, I thought it's something you guys would boast about."

"He's not the type to boast about anything. You know how much he hates it when people put him in a spotlight for... any reason," Silas said. Then he cleared his throat and said, "Do you remember Leena? You know, the tomboyish one with the short ginger hair?"

"Leena?" Doralee repeated as she tilted her head, "Um... she sounds vaguely familiar? But no, not really. Who is she?"

"She was the girl that Asher was seeing during our freshman year, for like a month. One day I came back to our room and there was a sock on the doorknob. The rec rooms were full and I had to do my homework, so I just sat next to our door and opened my laptop. It was like, not even five minutes when I heard her voice yell, 'I'm not putting that thing in me!', and Asher told her 'fine, but for Christ's sake, don't be so damn loud'."

"Okay? And he never saw her again?"

"No, they saw each other again the next week. Same scenario; sock on the doorknob and I had to do my homework in the hallway. This time, I heard a bloodcurdling scream, like someone was being stabbed. Then the next thing I heard was Asher saying, 'Are you okay? Should I pull it out?' and Leena yelling, 'Yeah pull it out you asshole! It fucking hurts!' So yeah, you can put two and two together to figure out what was going on. After that, I never heard from Leena again. Asher wouldn't tell me what happened between them, just that she ended it."

"What about any other girls he was with?"

"Well, he hasn't been with anyone else since Leena. The others before Leena... hmm... I don't know the details."

Doralee paused to ponder. Then she said, "Silas, you have to do something."

"Do something?" Silas repeated incredulously, "Like what?"

"I don't know! Talk to him maybe?"

"Talk to him about what? 'Oh Asher, let me talk to you about how to use your big long schlong so that you don't scare off Elise like how you did Leena'," Silas mockingly said as he waved his hands in the air. After he placed his hands back down, "For one, you know very well that I cannot relate to his... er... 'problem'. And second, he's going to gut me, flay me, and turn me into one of his running shoes for even saying the words 'your dick' to him."

Doralee crossed her arms, furrowed her eyebrows and said, "No he won't!"

"Okay fine, he won't actually do any of that. But I know that conversation will go nowhere because he's going to build a mental fort and shut me out."

"You have to think of some way to talk to him, so that he can finally be ready to have sex with Elise," Doralee said as she went under the covers, "And be creative."

"Be creative..." Silas said as he glanced at his phone. Brandon's lecture remained on pause. "Okay babe. I'll see what I can do."

Doralee relaxed and gave a smile of relief. "Thanks hun. You're the best," she said.

*

It was just after midnight. The house on the mountain side was quiet. Xandre peered out of the kitchen window to see clumps of snow were falling and filling the landscape with a fresh new blanket. He sighed as he sat down by the dining table, and placed his head on his hands. He couldn't sleep, and he didn't have his prescription medications because he forgot them at home. It was going to be a long night for him, as he didn't want to disturb Brandon with his tossing and turning, so he decided to stay downstairs. He thought about changing his extra large blue bathrobe and black sweatpants into his usual gym attire to start working out, but he decided against the idea when he realized he shouldn't go back to the occupied bedroom to cause a stir.

About fifteen minutes later, Xandre felt the familiar soft hand on his left shoulder with a gentle feminine voice greeting with, "Hello Alexandre."

He turned his head around to see it was Beatrice, with her doe-like grey eyes shining through. Although the light by the backdoor was the only source, he could clearly see that she was wearing a figure hugging bright red nightie. Just like Elise, she had a thin figure, and just like Doralee, her chest and her rump were more than a large handful. Both of her breasts were firmly pressed against each other, and exposed a deep cleavage that was just inches away from the handsome young man's face.

Xandre blushed as he was again, within the sights of the beautiful woman. However, this was hardly the time to think about such things, so he suppressed his urges and turned his head back around to continue wallowing in his sorrow. "I hope I didn't disturb you in any way," he said while not making eye contact with his mentor.

"No, you didn't," she said. Xandre knew Beatrice was telling the truth because she always does, and bluntly so. She was, however, oblivious at how sexy her attire was, as she always just wore this back at home. She was a hot sleeper, much like Elise. Most of the time she was also oblivious to others' emotions, but this time, she could see that Xandre appeared to be at least sad to her. So she offered, "Would you like some tea?"

Xandre looked up and said graciously, "If it's not too much trouble, I would love to have a cup."

Beatrice set the kettle to boil some water, and then opened the cupboard that was filled to the brim with tins of loose leaf teas. She filled the tea bags with mostly dried chamomile and sprinkles of lavender flowers with the special tea measuring spoon. Once the water was steaming from the spout, she carefully poured the hot liquid into each teacup. She brought the cup of tea with the matching saucer to Xandre, and then placed her teacup and saucer in front of her as she sat next to him.

"Thank you," he said. He took a slow sip, swallowed it and said, "Chamomile is my favourite and I can recognize its high quality already, but there's also a floral and fragrant taste I am not familiar with. What is it?"

"Lavender," Beatrice replied, "It helps induce a state of relaxation."

"Ah, I see," Xandre said as he took another sip. "What brings you downstairs at this hour?"

"I wanted some tea."

"Well, I am relieved to have you join me."

There was a long period of silence, while Beatrice took sips of her tea. Xandre took sips, while glancing at the gorgeous woman in the dim light. Her silky layered sooty black hair barely draped over her shoulders. In the last two and a half years he had known Beatrice, she never changed her hairstyle, and not even her wardrobe. This was the first time he had seen her in sexy attire, next to the witch dress she wore on Halloween. Her ample breasts were hugged tightly through the nightie, and he could see her erect nipples.

The blond man felt ashamed that he was ogling at her once again. However it was too quiet and he didn't want to be preoccupied with his perseverating thoughts or to stare at Beatrice, so he decided to start a conversation. "I hope you have enjoyed the snowshoeing excursion we did today. I know you would have much preferred to stay with your brother, and I heard from Silas that they played 'Settlers of Catan'. I am aware that particular game is one of your favourites to watch," he said.

"You invited me to come."

"Yes, I did. Of course, I am grateful that you joined us instead of declining the invitation. I just want to acknowledge that you chose an option that is usually less suitable for yourself," said Xandre. Then took a sip of his tea.

"I wanted to spend time with you."

Xandre then coughed as he lowered his teacup back onto the saucer. He blushed while Beatrice still sat there, with hardly any changes to her facial expression.

"Then I should thank you for kindly keeping me company, because I also wanted to spend time with you," Xandre said as he gave a genuine smile, "I was actually very thankful that you came. I noticed a lot of pity glances from our friends. Even Asher didn't seem to be as sharp tongued that time around. It was obvious that I was such a burden to our friends." He took another sip of his tea and said, "However, you have not changed anything about your tone or behaviour. That helped me feel... back to my baseline, so to speak."

"Your baseline?" Beatrice repeated as she tilted her head, "I don't understand."

"Well, I suppose it means back to my 'normal' self. Although I have to admit that I have not felt normal at all, ever since my mother died from cancer and my father was killed," Xandre said as he sighed and gazed at his steaming teacup. Then he jolted himself and said, "I... I apologize. I did not mean to unload on you again."

Beatrice's facial expression did not change very much as she said, "You do not need to apologize."

"I appreciate it," Xandre said as he drank another sip of tea. There was a long silence until he continued with, "Although I cannot express adequately enough about how tragic the loss of your late mother was, I have to selfishly admit that I am relieved to know that I am not alone in my grief. I feel that you understand me better than anyone else. It makes me feel... less of an outcast."

Beatrice said nothing, but her eyes never left Xandre as she sipped on her tea.

"Does it bother you, when you speak about your late mother?" Xandre asked.

"No, it doesn't bother me. I don't have any memory of her, so I don't have anything to feel or say about her," Beatrice said

"That makes sense," said Xandre. He felt he could ask more personal questions after that response as he inquired Beatrice with, "Your brother has been motivated to become an obstetrician due to your mother's death. Does he or your father ever speak about your mother?"

"My brother has no memory of her either. Our father does speak about our mother whenever we ask him. He tells us how we look and behave so much like her."