On the first day of Christmas, Zara Fischer's 'true love' gave to her... a breakup.
The day before seventeen-year-old Zara takes off for the Christmas holidays to the other side of the world--cold, dreary London--her boyfriend of two months dumps he...
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Friday: December 3rd, 2015
On the third day of Christmas, I woke to a quiet house. Glancing at the clock, I noticed it was 8am, meaning everyone had left for work and daycare. After a slow start of showering, having some breakfast, and a cup of coffee, I ticked off my first task of the day by calling my mum.
"Zara?" was the first thing she said, voice ecstatic.
"Hi mum," I replied.
"Oh honey! Tell me everything so far. How was your flight? What was it like meeting them? How is your heart? Did London change much?"
"Whoa, whoa... one question at a time mum!"
"You're right... how was the flight?"
And so I began answering one question at a time, all pretty uneventful until we got to her final one.
"Are you getting along with them okay?"
Heaving a sigh, I said, "Who knows. They kind of all just went to bed last night after dinner so the interaction was brief." I didn't want to tell her that Amelia was warming on me and that Clare had given me no reason to hate her.
Mum and I had both been furious the moment dad told us he was seeing someone—someone with a kid at that. Mum and dad had separated as a result of me. Because I no longer relied on them as much for attention as Jasper and I hung out all the time instead, the final two years of us living together saw them unable to navigate a relationship without kids involved. So what does dad do? First relationship afterwards, he finds someone with a child... and now has another of his own.
So telling mum that I might like Clare... it felt like the ultimate betrayal. Because no matter how kind she was, I was still furious that this family was our replacement.
Thankfully, mum accepted my brief response. Though I knew I'd have to dig deep over the coming days for reasons to dislike Clare... ones that would be enough to tell mum so that she knows I miss her and that she'd always be the number one in my heart.
After hanging up my call with mum, I ran up to my room and opened my laptop, ready for the video call that was bound to be painful.
I had mostly been avoiding Jojo and Ria's messages that had come through while I had been on the plane. Apparently Rowan had already changed his relationship status to dating Sarah, and considering I was in a state of denial for most of my final hours in Australia... well... I didn't let my best friends know.
But when Ria sent me a message last night that Jojo had gone to Rowan's house...
Ria was already waiting in the chatroom when I called, filling me in on as much as she could. But the moment Jojo's face popped up on my screen, I interrupted Ria mid-speech to say, "Did you seriously threaten to throw your rocks at Rowan?"
"Of course I did," Jojo replied proudly, lifting her chin defensively. "He hurt my friend and for a second I was convinced he didn't even have the decency to break up with you. Because I was sure you would tell us if that happened." Her eyes narrowed at me and I could feel the scrutiny in her glare even through the screen.
