"suck on this, you losers!"
eleanor screamed before storming off with her skis on the black slope while throwing a whole bunch of snow at maddox and pax.
"eleanor!"
screamed after her angelina, she had asked them to avoid the black slope as it was the most dangerous one and she wanted to race all together on a slope where also the kids would be safe, but she didn't listen.
both maddox and pax ran after her on their skis and sometimes managed to overtake her, but she would claim her pole position once again.
angelina had arranged a nice gateway in switzerland so that it would be just the eight of them and they could bond together. unfortunately brad decided to join them on christmas eve as he wanted to spend the holidays with his kids. angelina wasn't looking forward to that, but she knew that she had to be civil in order to make co-parenting work. well, at least until she got full custody of her kids.
"eleanor, maddox, pax! what did i tell you?!" just as they reached the top of the mountain, where everybody else was gathered, they had to face their angry mother.
"sorry mom."
"sorry angie."
"you'd better not disobey me again."
she threatened with a stern tone before turning her back at them and reaching the other children.
"looks like someone's in trouble."
teased them shiloh.
"how about we go buy everybody hot chocolate?"
"yeah good idea."
agreed both boys, they knew chocolate was the key to angelina's heart. they came back with their hands full of steaming cups of hot chocolate and eleanor could have sworn she had seen angelina's eyes turn into a heart shaped form.
she tried to resist them but the smell was delicious and she bet the taste would be even better.
"hot chocolate for everybody!"
they exclaimed in unison, handing one to each of them. vivi and knox clapped their hands enthusiastically before gratefully hugging their eldest siblings. angelina hesitantly grabbed hers.
"can i consider myself forgiven?"
eleanor asked, displaying her best puppy eyes.
"we'll see. you sure know how to buy me off," angelina tried to give her the cold shoulder but eleanor snickered as she saw her struggling to do so. her mum displayed a frown, typical of children, while she hid her nose inside the cup of hot chocolate, slightly grinning.
"c'mon it's christmas! everyone is nicer. you need to forgive me, please!"
her birth mother rolled her eyes at her insistence as she nodded her head in silent agreement. of course, she couldn't be angry at her for much longer. she loved her too much to do so anyway.
"fine, but just because i know you'll never leave me alone if i don't."
"i'm pretty sure you'd rather be with me than alone," eleanor teased and earned a mocking scoff from angelina.
"well i guess that if the alternative is being alone, i can manage being with your annoying ass."
angelina teased as well, eleanor gasped dramatically, mocking offense as she placed a hand on her chest.
"how dare you!"
"oh who am i kidding? you and i both know that there's no one else i'd rather be with."
she encircled her shoulders with her arm and eleanor snuggled closer to her warm body, already feeling the maternal love spreading in angelina's chest. she tightened the grip on her shoulders, wanting to engrave that peaceful moment in her mind for the rest of her life.
"i love you."
"i love you too, pumpkin."
angelina pressed a soft kiss on her daughter's forehead.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
"okay, i know you don't wanna see him, but just be civil. for the kids eh?"
eleanor gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, encouraging her to face her former husband who had just knocked on the door for the second time in just a matter of seconds.
she opened the door welcoming the older man, alongside her angelina stood awkwardly. brad stepped inside and as he did so he eyed eleanor up and down, as if he were checking her out.
what kind of man would do that?
she rolled her eyes at him, biting her sharp tongue as sarcastic comments were starting to flow through her mind.
"well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes?"
angelina's hands were tight as a fist, her knuckles white as rage boiled in her veins. brad moistened his lips as his blue eyes rested a second too much on her plump ones.
how dare he checks my daughter out?
"brad, this is my daughter eleanor."
angelina placed both hands on her eldest's shoulders protectively, tightening the grip on them as she saw him flash her one of his disgusting smiles.
"excuse me? your daughter? i would certainly remember her."
a look of shock washed him over as he was now rather embarrassed.
i'm sure you would, you disgusting pig.
"you clearly don't, because i most definitely told you about the babygirl i had when i was 21 that i had to give up," angelina's hands were now stroking eleanor's arms, her presence was all over her as she tried to establish with her ex husband that he shouldn't even think about touching her daughter.
"oh . . uhm right. nice meeting you eleanor."
of course he doesn't even remember.
"daddy!"
shiloh, vivi and knox exclaimed at the same time before rushing to their father, while the other three stayed seated on the couch, minding their own business. she felt sorry for them, they couldn't preserve the image of a loving father like the others did, they just saw him as the abusive and alcoholic man that he was.
now that brad's attention was on his kids, eleanor's jaw grazed angelina's cheek as she leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "you okay?"
"yeah, i'm fine."
"you're not alone in this, you know that, don't you?"
"i know and i thank my lucky stars every night for the wonderful daughter i have," she pressed a kiss on her cheek and wrapped her hands around her shoulders, leading them to the couch where she was sure the other kids were having a horrible time watching their father be so affectionate to their younger siblings.
"so sorry mates."
eleanor said before snuggling between angelina and zahara who cuddled up together. beside their mother sat pax and maddox who protectively wrapped their hands around angelina's body. having brad around was always hard for them, but they managed. they had to.
and besides, with this new addition to their big family, the thought of their abusive father completely slipped out of their minds as they enjoyed each other's love and warmth.
angelina made everybody wear idiotic christmas jumpers, and it honestly felt like a fashion crime. despite her grinch behaviour, she felt genuinely lucky she had someone to spend christmas with.
it was her first time celebrating christmas without the two people she loved the most— her parents. james would always spoil his two favorite women in the world with expensive gifts who were clearly over the top, but they appreciated them nonetheless. while lily was absolutely enthusiastic about spending time with her family, most importantly her daughter, whom she rarely got to see since she left to study at yale.
eleanor was having a hard time bearing the presence of brad pitt, and she was sure she wasn't the only one struggling. she could see that the three eldest kids couldn't wait to get out of that situation, and she found herself wishing so too.
but it all got worse when his stupid ass had to ask the two questions he shouldn't have asked.
"so eleanor where are your parents? why aren't you with them?"
those questions may have been legit seeing it was christmas eve and everyone was with their own families, but she was sure he could have kept his mouth shut instead. she caught angelina sending him her death glare, but he didn't mind.
"they . . um . . . they're out of town. excuse me," she decided to lie, she certainly wasn't gonna let him know. angelina frowned as she couldn't see why she needed to lie, but she knew that it was a sensible topic for eleanor and decided to stick by her side.
brad and angelina locked gazes and his brows were drawn together as he couldn't understand why she was basically sending him daggers with her eyes.
"what now?"
his voice low and stern as he was on the verge of starting an argument right before christmas. angelina just scoffed angrily, not having the energies to bear a fight with him and ruin the dinner for everybody. she followed her daughter upstairs as tears welled up in her eyes.
oh how she hated and loved him at the same time.
"i'm so sorry, he's such a jerk."
she found her curled up into a tiny ball in the corner of the room, her head ducked down to her knees as she cried silently.
"it's okay pumpkin, it's okay."
she crouched down to her height and stroked her back softly, trying and failing to soothe her. she knew that the thought of her parents hurt like hell, especially during this period of time, and she was so sorry she couldn't do anything to avoid that.
angelina pulled her closer on her lap, so that now eleanor was in a fetal position, crying her heart out on her chest.
"oh my beautiful babygirl, you know you've got a family with us. don't listen to him, you're more family to me than he'll ever be," her birth mother pressed a kiss on top of her head as she heard her daughter sniffing quietly.
"you okay babygirl?"
she felt her nod slightly against her chest, angelina released a sigh of relief.
"anchor to hold
you leave me room for my imperfections,
i'm a mess and you jump right in
if i drift in the wrong direction,
you turn the tide and you calm the wind
anytime, every time i get lost
you will find me."
she sang faintly, it was basically a whisper but angelina heard. she didn't know the song but she could recognise the two of them in those lyrics. singing that song always managed to soothe eleanor.
"i will always find you pumpkin."
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
"so i basically hopped on the table full of goods, and started swaying my hips and stripping. it was, by far, one of the lowest moments of my life.— she chuckled wholeheartedly as she recalled one of her high school memories— but believe it or not, i was way more popular with the boys afterwards."
angelina chuckled as well as she tried to imagine the scene in her mind and when she succeeded, it wasn't even half as funny as it was in reality.
"oh my god! i can't believe you actually did that."
both women couldn't manage to get some sleep while everybody else was already dreaming in the depth of the darkness of the house. they decided to entertain themselves with a film, but now it had become their background to pillow talk. the whole point of this holiday was to spend some quality time with each other, but angelina felt like she wasn't really getting to know her daughter any better.
she wanted to be her confidant, be the person she would go to whenever she would suffer a heartache, whenever she would peel her knee, she wanted to know her deepest secrets, her unspeakable regrets and her lifelong dreams.
"well who am i to judge? i literally had a vial of blood hanging around my neck."
"that's freakin' disgusting! god, imagine being that guy's kid."
angelina gave her a side eye, they still hadn't talked about who her biological father was and eleanor didn't seem like she cared. she was all good with the one parent she got, and besides angelina had been playing both mummy and daddy for a while now, she had gotten pretty good at it.
"fuckin' hell, i'm not! i am not!"
she categorically refused to be billy bob's kid, she found him kind of creepy.
"language!"
her birth mother smacked her arm, while eleanor snickered.
"last i checked it's english."
"hilarious."
angelina mocked her, while her daughter chuckled.
how she loved pissing her off!
"relax though, he is not your father. i was just messing with you."
"so if billy bob isn't my father, who is?" she took a deep breath before replying, she knew this topic was gonna come up sooner or later.
"my former husband, johnny lee miller," angelina sighed heavily, regretting her past mistakes. eleanor looked him up on the net, frowning once she started scrolling through his pictures.
"eh, seems like a nice enough guy."
"don't you like him?"
"i think you deserved far better."
"i did a few mistakes back then, but i don't regret marrying him."
eleanor nodded her head, she herself did some awful mistakes in the past and she wasn't gonna be a hypocrite and judge angelina for that.
they fell into a comfortable silence, and while the movie was still going, none of them were paying attention to it, they were both staring at the ceiling lost in their thoughts. eleanor knew that she was carrying a burden on her chest, that had been tormenting her again in the depth of the night since the death of her parents, and needed to divide it with someone. who better than angelina?
"i stayed at the orphanage till i was five. at first i was moved from one foster care to the other, but then i understood that nobody was gonna adopt me, because i was 'too problematic'. that's what the lady in charge told of me to anyone who was even slightly interested in adopting me. i remember being bullied by those who were older and i—i . . ."
her breath hitched as she was struggling to calm down, the memories from the orphanage were brought back to surface and there was nothing that could make her forget again.
"let it go baby."
angelina held her closer, she started massaging her scalp with her long pointy fingers, while with her free hand she caressed her daughter's soft face.
"they bullied me for my looks, and i couldn't do anything about it. i didn't have the strength to fight them back, so i—i just let them. as i let that awful lady put out her cigarettes on me, and as i let them kick my ass every and each time. i didn't even budge, i just cried and pleaded but they never cared," she rolled up her sleeve revealing her scarred forearm, just then angelina noticed the little scars caused by the cigarettes which would stay with her for a lifetime. her heart broke at the thought of what she had to go through just because she couldn't have made the right decision.
"i woke up every morning thinking that i would never get out of that hell, and that nightmare was now supposed to be my life. i never thought that i'd have a chance at life, i just thought i'd stay an orphan forever. i can still recall those filthy mattresses we were supposed to sleep on, and the food they gave us, so disgusting it made you want to throw up and yet that was all i got, and i had to eat those ridiculous portions, even though they weren't nearly enough, so that i could survive."
"baby, i—i am so sorry. i don't even know what to say. it's all my fault."
thankfully the darkness of the room didn't let eleanor see the salty tears that streamed down angelina's cheeks.
"no, well . . . yes, it is but i don't blame you, not anymore. this way i got to meet my parents, and even if it was only for 16 years i am profoundly grateful that i have. their lives inspired me so much."
"they must have been good people."
angelina kept caressing her face and pressed a kiss on top of her head, resting now hers on top of eleanor's.
"oh indeed they were."
"need cheering up?"
whispered her mother as a thought crossed her mind, a playful smirk appeared on her lips.
"please."
angelina started tickling eleanor's sides making her squeal and squirm off to the other end of the queen sized bed. of course, she reached her there and continued tickling now her armpits while pepper kissing her whole face.
"stop it! please!"
she pleaded while holding her stomach which was starting to hurt due to her laughter.
"stop! i'm going to die out of laughter!" angelina rolled her eyes at her dramatic statement, but wrapped her arms tightly around her waist and placed a kiss on her cheek.
"goodnight pumpkin. i love you."
the morning after eleanor woke up to the sweet sound of angelina's little pecks on her face, and found herself wishing this would never end.
or would it?