Anna
I felt sick and uneasy. It had never occurred to me that my mom’s absence from home was abnormal. She hadn’t spent much at-home time since my dad was alive, but the confused look that flashed across his face suggested otherwise. And then my dad was brought up, and my heart ached with longing and nostalgia to have him back for Christmas. He was worth more than any clothes or CDs. And then, to make matters even worse, I found out that Jessiah hadn’t informed his parents that he invited me to spend Christmas with them.
His mother crossed her arms. “Jessiah, care to explain?”
He smiled sheepishly. “Anna was alone, and I figured you wouldn’t mind, so…”
Her face softened a bit. “You should have asked me first.”
Jessiah shifted his feet and laughed. “Sorry,” he apologized. He took my hand and smiled at his mother. “It’s Christmas, Mom! Let’s have fun!”
She rolled her eyes, but a smile graced her lips.
Jessiah pulled me into the dining room behind his mother. It seemed to double as a living room, with the large dining table on one side and a couch, TV, shelves on the other. There were two older men, a young girl, and two older women (besides Jessiah’s mother).
Jessiah kept me close to him. His introductions were murmured into my ear, his hand tight around my waist like he was trying to say, “She’s mine.” It made warmth spread throughout my entire body.
He pointed to the older men, one with graying black hair and glasses, and the other with a shaved head and mustache, “The one with glasses is my dad, and the one with the mustache is my uncle.” He pointed to the older women. “Those are my aunts; Aunt Debbie and Aunt Kendall. Aunt Debbie has the oversized sweatshirt on, and Aunt Kendall is the one with the red hair.” He nodded toward the young girl, who couldn’t be older than seven. “And that’s Kelly, my cousin.”
Their eyes were on me. I did my best to keep up with names, but my face was heating up and their gazes were making me more self conscious by the second. I tugged on my clothes, trying to make myself look presentable. Was I under-dressed? Over-dressed? Black leggings and a sweater felt weather-appropriate, but were they holiday-appropriate? I suddenly regretted agreeing to Jessiah’s offer.
“This is Anna,” Jessiah announced. “She’s my girlfriend.”
Everyone’s faces, except for Jessiah’s parents, were full of curiosity. One of his aunts (Kendall, I think) opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Zack running into the room, Jared hot on his tail.
Jared was screaming and Zack was laughing. Jessiah’s mother intervened quickly, scooping Jared up into her arms.
“Hey!” she yelled. “What’s going on?” She looked at Jared’s frosting-covered face and her eyes widened to saucers. “What happened to you?”
Zack giggled, and it seemed she didn’t need an explanation. She glared at him. “Zack…”
“It’s just cupcake!” Zack exclaimed. “Jeez!”
The entire family broke into laughter. Jared was the only one not laughing. He huffed and squirmed in his mother’s arms. She let him down between fits of laughter and he ran off.
“Clean yourself up!” she yelled after him.
Everyone returned to the conversations they had been having before we entered. Jessiah led me to the dining table, where his uncle, father, and mother were sitting.
Jessiah pulled out the chairs across from them, one for me and one for him. He waved his hand toward one of the chairs and grinned goofily. I mocked a curtsy and sat down, pulling the chair closer to the table. Jessiah sat down next to me and immediately laced his fingers with mine.
His father smirked at us, obviously having noticed the display. Jessiah merely rolled his eyes at him and peppered my lips with a kiss. My cheeks burned.
“Ew,” Zack commented from the couch.
Jessiah’s rebuttal was another kiss; this one longer, deeper.
“Okay, okay,” his father joked. “Enough with the PDA. I don’t think your brother can take much more.”
His mother and uncle laughed, their faces joyous and overly happy. Their faces remained that way throughout the entire day, as did everyone else’s. Even Jared was giggling and full of energy after his face had been cleaned and Jessiah offered to play a video game with him on Nintendo DS.
There was laughing, a lot of it. Everyone was smiling and hugging and rejoicing like they hadn’t seen each other in years, but Jessiah had assured me that they had seen each other just a month before on Thanksgiving.
Grandparents stopped over and more presents were given. Jessiah gave me a present, and I gave him his.
My heart beat faster as he tore the wrapping paper off of the box, slowly as if he was trying to make me as anxious as possible.
He pulled the cologne out first. It was a small blue bottle that my mom used to buy for my dad all the time, called Indulgence. She always said, “Indulgence can make any man smell good, even your father.” I didn’t tell Jessiah this. I was afraid he would think it was weird that I gave him the same cologne that my mom bought for my dad all the time.
He smiled and thanked me, leaning over to kiss me. I turned my head, letting his lips brush my cheek. His face scrunched up in confusion.
I smiled. “There’s something else.”
I reached a hand into the side of my brown boots and pulled out two slips of paper. I handed them to him and shrugged my shoulders. “Sorry, I don’t have any pockets.”
He unfolded one of the papers and flattened out the creases. His eyes scanned them quickly, widening little by little.
Suddenly, he dropped them. As he did, my heart jumped into my throat. Did he not like them? He picked them up again slowly.
My thoughts were interrupted as he threw his arms around me and stood, taking me with him. My feet dangled inches from the floor.
“Oh my God!” he shouted. He was clutching the papers and me as tight as he could. “How did you get these!?”
I laughed, as much as someone who was being suffocated could laugh. “You said you loved them, and my uncle knows the head of the stadium they’re playing in.”
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…” he repeated, shaking me in his arms. “The Giants!?”
“Jessiah,” I giggled. “I can’t breathe.”
My feet tapped the floor and air rushed back into my lungs, but his hands remained on my arms. He was acting like Victoria whenever she was excited; mostly every day.
“Hey, Jess,” his grandfather said. “What’s going on?”
“Giants tickets! Amazing tickets, too!” he exclaimed. He waved them in the air. His grandfather’s mouth dropped. Jessiah turned back to me. He wrapped his arms around me again and rested his chin on my head. “God,” he murmured. “I love you.”
I didn’t know if he was just saying that because I had gotten him great seats at a New York Giant’s game, or if he was really meaning it. Either way, it made my toes curl and my head turn fuzzy. I smiled and laughed, trying my best to seem casual about it.
“I love you, too,” I said into his chest, voice muffled.
He pulled away and looked at the bag next to him. He handed it to me, his bottom lip caught between his teeth. “It’s not Giant’s tickets or anything cool like that…” He cringed. “Sorry.”
I just shook my head and grinned. Under a huge wad of crumpled red tissue paper, there was something wrapped in more tissue paper and a small navy blue box. The tissue paper was forming a mountain at my feet.
“Sorry,” Jessiah apologized, again. “I’m not great with wrapping paper.”
I opened the tissue-paper-wrapped gift first. There was a CD inside with Birdy written across the front.
“You said she was your favorite, so…”
I smiled at him brightly. “I love it, Jessiah.”
He nodded toward the bag. “Open the other one.”
I pulled the top off of the box and looked inside. I gasped. There was a silver bracelet inside, with words engraved into the side: Come on, skinny love, just last the year. It was beautiful.
Jessiah’s cheeks were red; a first.
“I was afraid you’d think it was weird, ‘cause they both have to do with Birdy and we’ve only been dating for four months, and so jewelry might seem crazy, and cliché, but I just, I don’t know, I--”
I cut him off with a kiss, hard and deep and long. “I love it, Jessiah, so much. I love you.”
I was terrified that the words had been said too fast. I didn’t even know if he’d been serious, and yet there I was, just blurting out my thoughts. Only four months.
But when he smiled and kissed me again, I wasn’t so afraid. It felt right.
He felt right.