XO (BWWM)

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

   It was Christmas day and I was lying in bed texting Dane while Amelie was downstairs with Cassandra and Dad. He had come to wake me up to open my presents and I told him I’d be down as soon as I was fully awake but I had been fully awake for over an hour and I was still in bed. Dane was also in bed and when I asked him why told me that he didn’t like Christmas because Christmas meant family and well, his family wasn’t a particularly happy family.

   Jennifer –who was in the next bed- was still fast asleep so I knew dad wouldn’t come call me again anytime soon but I knew I couldn’t stay in bed all day. Dad was acting as if he was walking on eggshells ever since our argument and kept asking me if I was okay which was annoying because my dad and I didn’t argue and it was weird having him act like he was trying to please me all the time.  So after a few more moments I went to have a shower that was meant to be quick but turned out being much longer than I expected it to because my hair was itchy so I put it in twists and washed it then got dressed in my favourite grey Nike jumper and grey jogging bottoms. If I’m honest when I went downstairs I looked a mess. Jennifer wouldn’t let me use her blow-dryer so my hair was still in twists and my outfit wasn’t exactly new so when Cassandra snapped a picture of me when I went into the living the glare I gave her was very much fair.

   Dad noticed but he didn’t say anything, he just prompted me over to the small little Christmas tree to open my presents. Amelie had already opened hers and left a huge mess. It was so unfair; she was four and had gotten more gifts than I had gotten for the whole year that I was four. Mum always said that Dad didn’t want to spoil any of his children but that obviously wasn’t the case anymore. I wasn’t really jealous; it would be pretty ridiculous to be jealous of a four year old I was just kind of interested in how much my dad had changed in his ways since he was with us. I mean, with the argument I probably got let off really easy. My dad was a cool guy, he wasn’t strict but when he said something he meant it and he hated it when he was disobeyed. I knew when I was younger and we all lived together (him, my mother and I) I’d never get away with doing something like that and then shouting at him about it. It was weird.

   The first present I opened was the one Cassandra gave me, seeing as it would probably be the worst present. She really didn’t know anything about me and I was pretty sure she only got me a gift to make herself seem like a good step-mother to my father. This year however, she didn’t do too badly. She had gotten me a nice bottle of Yves Saint Laurent perfume. I wasn’t really a girl who wore much perfume but it smelt nice and I knew she could’ve easily gotten me something cheaper. For that she got a genuine smile and thank you, but she was still a bitch.

   Next I opened the gift signed by my dad and Amelie which was a pack of books which was probably nerdy as hell but I loved it. Dad was always giving me books to read and this time I had gotten a novel, a book on politics and as usual a book on black history. My dad was a man who was very proud about his race and he really just couldn’t help educating me about everything. I didn’t mind though, it was interesting learning about what had happened years and it was personal. It was all fun and games learning about the carefully picked out white history they taught us at school but learning about black history hit home and intrigued me much more. I mean, Florence Nightingale was a great nurse and overcome many obstacles but so did Mary Seacole if not more and all she got was half a page in a textbook at school at most. 

   Jennifer came just as I was opening my gift from her holding a huge mug of coffee but I already knew that she had gotten me make-up and I also knew that Dad wasn’t too keen on the idea of me wearing it but he didn’t say anything and when Cassandra made a joke about raising his blood pressure he just stared at her.