Josh's P.O.V
"Ow!" I groaned as I woke up to a find a certain British sister of mine sat on me.
"Cherry!"
"What?" She asked, smiling innocently at me.
"What are you doing!?"
"Waking you up, lazy bones. We have to go running."
"Cherry, it's Christmas day. We don't have to go running on Christmas day," I mumbled, glancing at the clock. "And it's only four in the morning."
"Yeah, well see, I thought that if we went early today we'd be back in time to wake everyone up for Christmas," she said, grinning.
I sighed, smiling back at her. "Alright, get out. I'll be five minutes."
She skipped out of my room, shutting the door behind her carefully. God, she was such a pain in the ass sometimes; but you kind of had to love Cherry. If you didn't love her you'd want to rip her to shreds. She was like Marmite.
"Joshy!" She cried as I came out of my room, racing down the corridor. I winced as she launched herself at me and caught her as she wrapped her legs around my waist. "I haven't seen you for so long!"
"I know!" I fake sobbed. "I missed you so much Cher!"
She pulled her face away from mine and grinned. "We done?"
I nodded, letting her go. "We're done, now let’s run."
Cherry's P.O.V
I sighed as I stepped out of the shower. I felt weird. It wasn't really Christmas without Jake winding me up. I used to jump on him to wake him up, and since I started running when I was twelve, I would drag him with me early in the morning so I wasn't lonely on Christmas. I'd done that to Josh, to fill the gap, but it didn't take away the weird, empty feeling I had in my stomach.
I pulled on my skinny jeans and a red polo-neck jumper and tiptoed to Sam's room. Steve and Jenna had gone down to the kitchen to say good morning to Mary, Josh and Jake were placating an excited Steffan, the older brothers were on their way, the Johnson's were due over in an hour, and Sam was the only one left to wake up.
I smirked as I quietly entered his bedroom, knowing exactly how to wake him up. I clamboured onto his bed and lay next to him, feathering kisses over his jaw and neck. He moaned quietly in his sleep, and I held back a giggle as I sucked and nibbled on his sensitive spot near his collarbone. His arms snaked around my waist and I looked up into his open, hazy eyes.
"I wanna be woken up like this everyday," he told me seriously.
I chuckled, brushing my lips over his. "Merry Christmas."
"Happy Christmas, Cher," he whispered, kissing my forehead.
"Everyone's up. It's your turn now," I said, grinning.
He rolled his eyes and slowly got up. I sat on his bed, happily watching him dress. His back was gorgeous. Seriously gorgeous.
"Quit eye-raping me," he said, making me jump. I felt heat rush to my cheeks. How had he noticed?
He flashed me a cocky smirk over his shoulder as he left the room.
"Wait for me!" I yelled, running after. I jumped onto his back and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
"What are you doing?" He asked, catching my legs.
"Nothing much," I replied, resting my chin on his hard shoulder.
"I guess you wanna piggyback?"
"Yeah!"
He chuckled and carried me downstairs, before dumping me onto the couch. He plopped down next to me while everyone else came in.
"Morning guys!" Jenna chirped, giving us a big hug one by one.
"Merry Christmas Jenna," I murmured as she dropped a kiss on my forehead.
"Right. Youngest first?" Steve suggested.
Steffan hopped over to the gigantic tree, which was now crowded with presents. Jake ambled over to him and helped him pick out all of his, carrying them back to the other couch.
Most of his gifts were from other family; chocolates, dorky sweaters and stuff like that. No one really got a big present off Jenna and Steve; everyone had $2,000, which was apparently a tradition. Steffan and Josh had quad bikes, Jake had a new easel, Sam had extra money for the game we were going to, which he didn't know about and was really confused to find $1,000 sat in an envelope. Elliott, Luke and Scott had a new apartment in Denver, a massive hint to get their stupid asses back into college, Jenna said.
"Your turn!" Steve exclaimed, as he and Jenna collapsed on the sofa next to me. Jenna had three envelopes in her hands. She pushed one towards me and i opened it silently, grinning as voucher sort of things for driving lessons fell out.
"We wanted to get you a car, but someone beat us there," Steve admitted sheepishly.
"So we got you these instead," Jenna added, handing me another envelope.
I hesitantly ripped it open and stared at the plane tickets in shock. "What?"
"It's for you to go to London," Jenna whispered. "There's a spare ticket, so you can bring someone too."
I felt tears swim at the surface of my eyes and hugged her. "Thank you."
"You’re welcome, sweetheart."
i glanced down at the last envelope in her hands. it was really old.
"We'll leave this one until later, okay?" She suggested.
I nodded, grinning as I moved to sit on Sam's lap. "You want your presents now?"
He bit his lip. "Nope, I want my presents last," he decided.
I rolled my eyes and grabbed the bag of gifts, pulling Josh's out.
He shot me a blank look. "Why did you wrap it?"
"Because it's a Christmas present, silly..."
"I was there when you brought it," he reminded me.
"So?"
"I know what it is..."
"So?"
"So why bother... never mind," he chuckled, ripping the paper off to reveal his new football. If you could call it a football; it was more like a rugby ball, if you asked me. "thanks Chez."
"My pleasure," I said, carefully handing Jake his.
He handed me another gift and opened his before staring at it in shock.
"You brought me a camera?" he spluttered.
"yep."
"But they're expensive!"
I giggled. "So was the car you brought me."
He jumped up and threw his arms around my shoulders. "Thank you soooo much, Cher! This is awesome."
"You're welcome."
I tore the paper off my gift and saw an expensive, gorgeous, Gucci bag in the box. "So, you complained that I brought you an expensive camera when you'd brought me a Gucci bag?" I chuckled.
"Well, yeah..."he mumbled.
I laughed again, and hugged him quickly. "Thank you, Jake."
He grinned. "You're welcome."
"Hey," Josh complained, throwing a large, heavy box towards my feet. "I didn't give you mine yet!"
He grinned as I opened it. I, on the other hand, gaped at the shoes inside. "But...Oh my god!"
"You like them?" he asked hopefully, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
I stared at him in disbelief. Of course I didn't like them. They were Christian Louboutins. I loved them! "Oh. My. God."
"Please tell me you like them," he murmured.
"She loves them," Sam told him, grinning.
"How would you know?" Josh asked sulkily.
"She's my girlfriend. I know when she loves something."
“You really love them?”
I nodded silently, too stunned for words.
“Yay!” He leapt across the room and hugged me. “I’m really glad you like them!”
“Thankyou!” I gasped.
“I want my presents!” Sam declared, crossing his arms.
I shrugged and chucked him his first one. “Don’t get too excited, it’s only a baseball,” I said nonchalantly. Josh snickered and Sam rolled his eyes.
“You’re not supposed to tell me.”
I smirked as he unwrapped it.
“It’s a baseball, I’m so surprised,” he teased.
“Turn it around,” I told him.
He did as he was told and his eyes literally bulged out of their sockets. “You got it signed by Adrian Gonzalez!?”
“You’re gonna love this one even more,” I said, gently handing him the envelope.
He grinned. “Nothing can beat a baseball signed by Adrian Gonzalez.”
He slowly opened the envelope and stared at the two tickets that fell onto his lap.
“Except tickets to see the red Sox,” Josh chirped.
“These are real?” Sam asked, gulping as he looked at me.
“Yep.”
“We’re going to see the Red Sox?” He stammered.
“Yeah. And we’re gonna meet the team. Are they called a team? I never really know what-” I didn’t get to finish my rambling sentence because Sam pulled me closer to him and kissed me hard. I sighed softly under his lips and wrapped my arms around his neck.
I vaguely heard the doorbell ringing and Jenna hurrying off to let whoever it was in. To be honest, I was too lost in kissing Sam to notice until something clattered to the ground. I looked up, over Sam’s shoulder right into Theo’s sad eyes. I froze as he slowly backed out of the room.
“Theo!” I yelled, scrambling off Sam to follow him.
“Cherry!” Sam shouted, chasing after me. He grabbed my waist as we got to the hallway. “Where the hell are you going?”
“To talk to Theo, you idiot,” I hissed.
“Why!?”
“Because he’s upset!”
“So what? He was a dick, he doesn’t deserve your sympathy,” Sam muttered.
I gently shoved him off me. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
He desperately tried to grab me again, but I was faster than him. I ran out of the house and followed the track down to the old barn where I knew Theo would have gone. I glanced down at my watch and guessed that I had about five minutes before Sam caught up.
“Theo?” I called.
“Go away,” he said, his voice muffled. I followed the sound to the back of the barn and found him hunched up in the straw.
“This Christmas sucks,” I said, mostly to myself as I threw myself down next to him.
“Tell me about it,” he mumbled. “I miss you Cher-bear.”
He crawled upright and knelt next to me, leaning over me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Why?”
“It doesn’t matter that you miss me; it doesn’t change anything,” I told him.
“No, but maybe this will,” he said, catching my face between his hands and kissing me softly.
I heard myself whimper slightly and shrink back against the wall. I should have fought him off, but strangely, I didn’t want to. “Don’t do that.”
He didn’t listen and kissed me again, forcing his tongue into my mouth. It felt so good and so wrong at the same time, making my head spin. “Theo, no.”
“Cher-bear, I love you,” he murmured.
“I love you too, but it doesn’t change anything! I’m with Sam, just stop kissing me!” I cried.
He took hold of my wrists lightly, bringing memories of Devon flooding back, but his kiss was gentler, softer. “You want this.”
“Not right now. I don’t.”
“You have three seconds to get the fuck away from my girlfriend,” Sam snarled. Theo pulled back enough for me to see him, stood in the doorframe, his hands curled into tight fists.
“Get out of here,” Theo growled.
“1,” Sam warned, earning a glare from Theo. “2.”
“Go away!”
“3.”
** What's Christmas without somefamily drama, hey? Sorry about the huge delay in uploading, I get busy in the holidays. But I hope you guys like it Vote/Comment/Fan? :) **