If Santa Had a Son

Chapter 4 - The Talk

Chapter 4

The Talk

When I woke up the next morning, my whole body ached. Probably from skating the day before. This time, Mackenzie was still asleep. I presumed it was because the sun had barely risen when I got up, so I slipped out of bed to shower. After dressing in sweat pants and a hello kitty sweatshirt, I skipped downstairs. My parents were sitting at the kitchen table, eating their breakfast and talking in whispers. Before they saw me I quickly pressed my body up against the wall, hoping they hadn't heard me.

"Seriously George, what do you think of him?" My mom asked. What were they talking about?

"I don't know Linda, I've only spent a few hours with him. How can any dad judge a boy in that amount of time?" Were they talking about Anthony?

"Well, I like him, and I saw the way she looked at him last night. Surely you saw them on the ice rink, right? I didn't imagine it?" I sucked in a breath, my heart rate speeding up. They had seen us? What the heck?

"Yes, I saw it."

"So George I think we need to like him because Anthony is the first guy Bree has shown an interest in." I could hear the frustration in her voice. Why did it matter so much to my family if I found a boyfriend or not? I understood not wanting me to end up alone, but I had all the time in the world for boys. Highschool relationships never lasted, anyway. Why would I want to set myself up for heartbreak?

And yet something with Anthony felt almost...Inevitable. When I was with him I forgot everything. I forgot that I didn't want to date until college, I forgot that all boys did was lie and cheat, I forgot that this boy was a stranger I had met because I had run him over... I forgot everything.

"Do you think he kissed her yet?"

I couldn't take it any longer, it was too much. How could they think we might date? We were just friends if that even! I had only met the boy two days before, no way in hell would we actually date... Right?

"Morning!" I chirped, stepping around the corner. They both sat up straight, looking kind of shocked. "Everything okay?"

"Fine." My mom smiled. "Want some toast?"

"Sure," I grabbed the burnt bread from her hand and started to munch on it, swallowing some orange juice to wash it down. We sat in silence for a few minutes until Mackenzie came downstairs, happy and chipper like she was in the mornings. I really didn't know how she did it, I was NOT a morning person.

"Morning guys! Isn't it beautiful outside?! The snow melted a little bit!" She practically sang, pouring herself some juice. I just grunted, rolling my eyes. She smiled at me as she drowned the juice.

"What are we doing today?" I asked, looking at my parents.

"Y'all can do whatever you want, we're taking Kayla to build a bear for an early Christmas present." My dad answered, standing to his feet and leaving the room.

"Maybe you can hang out with Anthony." My mom suggested before following my dad out of the room. Mackenzie burst into laughter, gripping her sides so she wouldn't fall over.

"Can you believe them?!" I asked, throwing my hands in the air.

"Well, it's not exactly unbelievable." She gasped in between fits of laughter. She finally sobered up after rolling around on the floor for a few minutes.

"Are you finished?" I asked, giving her a stern look, which I'm pretty sure didn't work.

"Yes." She giggled, placing a hand over her mouth. "So what do you want to do today?"

"I don't know... We could build a snowman." I was being sarcastic, but apparently, she took it literally. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Or," I turned to face my grandma who was walking into the kitchen. "You could help me set up my Christmas tree. George, Linda, and Kayla will be gone all day and I don't want to do it alone."

"Sure," I said, shrugging my shoulders. How hard could it be?

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I flopped down on the couch hours later, burying my head into a pillow. Who knew Christmas decorating could be so tiring? At noon we had gone to the tree farm to pick out Christmas trees. We spent about three hours there looking at every single tree and ended up getting four - one big one and three small ones. When we got back to the house we took the big one in and left the little ones in the lawn.

What can I say, my grandma went all out for Christmas.

After securing the Christmas tree we put the tree skirt around the bottom, and started wrapping the ribbon and garland around the pine. It took us another hour to put all the various ornaments on the tree. Out of all of them, my favorite was a glass orb that had a nativity in it. Just when I thought we were done, Mackenzie pulled a box out of nowhere. It was filled with glass angles, snowflakes, silver horns, and several plastic snowmen. We spent the next thirty minutes scattering them across the house.

Over the course of the next four hours, we set up the four little Christmas trees in Kayla's room, my grandma's room, my mom and dads room, and mine and Mackenzie's room. Somewhere in all the chaos we somehow managed to make about thirty batches of cookies. Okay, it was more like five, but still, by the time we were done it was well after eight PM and I just wanted to go to sleep.

"Hey, Bree." I looked up to see my mom carrying a sleeping Kayla through the front door, "Could you do me a favor and put her in bed?" I groaned but pushed myself up off the couch, grabbing the sleeping child and heading up to her room. When I came downstairs, my mom was sitting on the couch with my dad, watching some Christmas movie. I settled myself on the rocking chair, pulling my knees up to my chest and started playing with my hair. "Bree?"

"Hmm?" I asked, snapping out of my daze. I was super tired.

"The place looks nice."

"Thanks, mom," I said smiling. My dad was gone and the show had changed to I Love Lucy. "What time is it?"

"Almost midnight."

"When did it get so late?!" I exclaimed, jumping to my feet. How had so much time passed?!

"You were pretty zoned out there." She chuckled, patting the spot beside her. I went and sat down hesitantly, startled as she wrapped her arms around me. "You know, Anthony seems nice.." I rolled my eyes, time to clear up some things.

"Mom we''re just friends!"

"I know, I just want you to be careful." She looked almost sad, but I was thoroughly confused.

"What?"

"Just, don't do anything stupid. If you..."go past the first plate"...Or maybe it's base? Anyway, as you teens say, be careful, be protected, okay?" I just stared at her, deciding whether to laugh, cry, or yell. "Use a condom or get on the pill."

"Mom!" I shouted, jumping to my feet. Looks like I chose to yell. "We're just friends, and even if we were more I wouldn't have sex with him!" I could feel my face turning red from embarrassment, this was a talk I didn't want to have. "Do you really not think more of me than that?"

"I do, and I trust you! But teen guys are so unpredictable..."

"Mom, I wouldn't have sex. If I did, I wouldn't let a guy pressure me into it. Anthony and I are just friends, and I'm not sure if we're even that. Nothing is going on between us." I said, grinding my teeth together. I was really mad that she didn't trust me more than that, she had raised me well. Without waiting for a response I stormed out of the room, up the stairs, and into my bed, trying to calm down from the most embarrassing talk of my life.