"Wake up!" A distant voice cries.
I roll over, throwing an arm over one of the twins. I need sleep.
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" Saffron tries again, bouncing up and down on the bed, making me feel sick in the process. After a few solid jumps she lands on Sage with a thud.
He groans in pain, hugging his stomach. "I guess that's what I get for trying to delay Christmas."
A whine escapes my mouth, it's not even eight am. Hasn't this child heard of sleeping in? After a solid mental pep talk on the importance of making today special, I pull myself out of bed. After admiring the twins sleeping faces, I shake them awake.
No man shall be left behind in the beautiful grasp of sleep.
Saffron barrels down stairs so fast I almost miss her reaction to the gifts. We still do Santa for her and last night, at 1:30 in the morning, I really debated just telling her the truth to save us the hustle, not that Sage was bothered eating all the cookies. Seeing her face; however, always makes it worth the hassle.
The twins are just as pleased, maybe even more so, with their gifts. I bought them both skateboards, knowing how much they loved using Sam's. Now, I only hope they wear the helmets I got them too. For Sage, I splurged into the money Uncle John sends me each month and bought him a new wood bat, his last one broke a while back. He's already named her Tina. There are somethings in life I decide it's better not to question.
"We have one more gift." Sage says, pulling an envelope out from behind the tree. I wrinkle my eyebrows as he hands it to me. Slowly, I open it up, struggling to read the words on the paper.
"Oh my God." I whisper in disbelief, my eyes rescanning the paper.
"Do you like it?" The twins ask, peering over my shoulders.
"Yes! How did you guys even manage to get them?" They bought me tickets to the Florence and the Machine concert. Tickets sold out in minutes, I checked.
"Uncle John may have helped a little." He admits sheepishly, tugging on his sweatshirt.
I grab Sage and pull him in for a hug, completely surprised he would even think to give me a gift like that. "I love it, thank you."
I order them to start cleaning up, double checking to make sure nothing valuable gets thrown away. The last thing I need is for someone to realize something's missing after the trash has been taken out.
"Who are you gonna take with you?" Silver asks, handing me my crutches.
I shrug, "Sage or Stella probably." They're the only two that appreciate my type of music, not that Sage would ever admit it. It ruins his street credit, or so he claims. I wasn't aware he had any to begin with.
"Why not Ashton?" Silver counters, pulling me to my feet.
I roll my eyes, "I don't think Ashton would enjoy the music as much as I would." Rap and country are the only two genres he listens to, much to my dismay. One can only hear nonsense rambling and stay sane for a short amount of time.
Silver shakes his head, muttering "Whatever." underneath his breath before heading off to the kitchen. Sometimes I wonder what goes in his mind.
After eating a Silver prepared breakfast of French Toast we hear the front door open. In walks Stella, Sam, Ronnie, Ashton, James, and Ella with her camera in hand. All still in the PJ's Stella's mom gifted everyone. Saffron runs over to her friend and I'm amazed by how much growth she's had. At the beginning of the school year she had no friends and then she met Ronnie.
Before I can even thank them for knocking, Ella whistles, "Alright you know the drill people. This is the first white Christmas we've had in a while so move it." She waves her camera in the air for emphasis.
We take pictures every year for the photobook Ella gives us as a late Christmas present. For each person she compiles every picture she has from the year into an album. It's a hassle to be constantly harassed for pictures but the end results are always worth it.
I stay seated on the couch while everyone moves. Stella rebraids Saffrons hair and all the boys fight with Ella on whether or not their hair is a mess, it is of course.
"Good morning, Sweetheart." Ashton sings as a hello, plopping down next to me on the couch. My heart skips a beat thinking back to last night, our second kiss.
I mentally roll my eyes. Come on, Scarlett, it was just a kiss, under mistletoe. That I really wanted when I was under the influence of pain meds. It's tradition to kiss under mistletoe. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Morning," I yawn, leaning against his shoulder. Maybe I can snag a few minutes of sleep while everyone gets ready. "I didn't know you would be joining us today."
He stifles his own yawn, my eyes focusing on his lips. Despite brushing the kiss off, I can't help but rub my lips together in remembrance. "Neither did I. Ella showed up at my house and practically kidnapped us. I didn't even get to finish breakfast."
"You went willingly!" She shouts over her shoulder, chasing after Sam to flatten his bed head.
I laugh at the astonished look on his face, she tends to have that reaction from most people. "We have leftover French toast in the kitchen, you can eat later."
His face lights up like the Christmas tree, "Really?"
He looks so cute, I close my eyes, enjoying the rest while Ashton looks around my house. "Where are your parents?" He asks curiously.
I freeze momentarily. I suppose absent parents on Christmas morning would be noticed.
"They went over to Uncle John's. They do it every Christmas, we just opted to stay home this time." I explain rather quickly, guilt spreading through me. It wasn't technically a lie, we used to go to Uncle John's every year, it just wasn't happening this year. I'll tell him everything, I just need to make it through this week.
Ella starts shoving everyone outside so Ashton shrugs his shoulders and picks me up, dropping the conversation for now.
Apparently, the fact I can be carried makes for extra fun photos. Everyone picks me up despite my constant protests. The twins hold me between them, devilish smiles on their faces. James carries me on his back. The girls basket hold me, constantly complaining about how heavy I am. Sage flips me upside down, letting my head hit the snow before pulling me back up.
Ashton twirls me around. A lot. I spend the most time in his arms, him volunteering to hold me in between turns so I don't have to sit in the snow.
My favorite picture of the day would have to be all my brothers holding me horizontally in the air while I pull Saffron up with my arms. They threw me into the snow once the pictures taken.
An hour and plenty of frozen hands later we head back inside for hot chocolate. The little girls comparing what they got from Santa, Ronnie let out oohs and ah's when Saffron shows off the embroidered fan John brought her back from China. She needs a lesson on being humble.
The guys sneak up stairs after a few hidden laughs and hushed conversation. Just when I start to worry, Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas" starts to blare from the tv. All six boys run into the room, dressed in varying amounts of feather boas and tutus from Saffron's dress up box.
We start hooting and hollering as they strut around the room, Sage wrapping his boa around Ella's neck. By the time they begin a kick line I'm doubled over laughing with tears in my eyes. Sam and Sterling start doing a poor attempt of a tango, a poinsettia between Sams teeth.
Stella lets out a wolf whistle, looking like the mom from Mean Girls as she records them. This definitely is blackmail worthy.
For the grand finale Ashton throws himself onto the couch, his head landing in my lap. He looks up at me and it takes all my strength not to stare at his lips, instead I run my fingers through his hair. The black locks feel like ink as my fingers mindlessly move through them.
Ashton lets out a sigh and I glance down at him to find his eyes closed, a peaceful smile on his face. My fingers stop, instantly wanting to trace his face instead but I restrain myself. That would be too weird.
He peaks open a gray eye, pulling my hand back to his hair. I chuckle, my other hand naturally falling on his chest. I watch the twins fly the drone John bought them, not really caring to see if they destroy anything because I'm content right where I am.
Ashton reaches a hand to cover my own, the contact making my heart beat speed up as he draws small circles on my palm with his thumb.
My bliss is ended thirty minutes later when Sage throws a pillow at us, startling Ashton who looks around briefly before nestling himself back against my legs.
"Dude, don't you have mass in an hour?" Sage questions, throwing another pillow.
"Oh, shit." He whispers, giving my hand a tight squeeze before setting up. I stifle a laugh at the mess his hair is in thanks to me, the strands poking out all different directions. There's no way he's going to be able to fix that.
Everyone ends up leaving and it's just the five of us left to face reality.
Family dinner.
*****
Hey guys! I was going back through the early chapters of this story and I still can't believe how much this story has grown. It's now at 3.5 thousand reads and somehow it just doesn't feel real. So for my thank you here is a short, cute chapter before the kids get to go see Earl and Edna. In the header I also linked one of my YouTube videos incase anyone was curious who I am or what high school is like in suburban Tennessee.
Please vote, comment, and SHARE this story please. It would mean the world to me.
Xo-Mo