Glittering white snowflakes. The handsome blond ski instructor. The sparkle on a cashmere skirt. Hot cocoa and kisses in front of a crackling fire. The holiday season is the ESSENCE of magic...and romance. Four of today's bestselling teen authors -- Melissa de la Cruz (THE AU PAIRS), Aimee Friedman (SOUTH BEACH), Hailey Abbott (SUMMER BOYS), and Nina Malkin (6X) -- bring us delectable tales of love and lust and holiday cheers (and tears) in this one-of-a-kind collection that teens will devour faster than a plate of Christmas cookies.

“Absolutely not,” Aria declared when Marcus slowed his walk outside of Abercrombie, nearly getting them run over by the Christmas Eve mall traffic. “If I go in there, I’m going to buy myself those flare-leg jeans, and I swore I wouldn’t buy anything else until after Christmas. I might need to go on a shopping strike until summer.”

Marcus laughed, his blue eyes gleaming. “Oh, come on, Aria,” he teased. “Don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud.”

Aria made a face. “I can’t help it. Plus we are here on business, remember?”

Marcus nodded. “Locate gift, purchase gift, present gift to Emily,” he recited robotically, then smiled down into Aria’s upturned face. “I know.”

“Good,” Aria said, leading the way through the packed mall. Racing past J. Crew, she caught a quick glimpse of their reflections in the glass storefront. Though Aria was tall – nearly five foot seven – Marcus still towered over her. They made a striking pair, what with her skin the color of dark coffee, and Marcus’s the pale hue of cedar wood. While Marcus’s hair was reddish-brown and straight, Aria’s was dark brown, and though she usually wore it in a row of braids, today it fell to her shoulders in a riot of curls.

Not for the first time, Aria wondered if people assumed she and Marcus were a couple. But they weren’t. Marcus’s true love, his girlfriend of three years, was Aria’s best friend, Emily. And Aria’s heart belonged to Jason, the captain of their high school football team. Aria, Emily, Jason, and Marcus had been a formidable foursome, double-dating every Saturday night, until Emily, who was a year older than the others, had left for college in September. Aria missed her best friend every day, and she knew Marcus felt the same way.