24th of december
we'd been in the house since september now and every day we woke up it still felt unreal.
we had been decorating for christmas and i couldn't fathom how beautiful the house was. the tree was real pine and all the ornaments were new, we didn't have any traditions yet so this was the chance to make them all together, fairy lights were hung everywhere as well as fake candles. we couldn't have real ones because rose was crawling BIG TIME now and we didn't want to endanger her in anyway.
i had last minute shopping with gemma to do today, nothing big, i just needs an outfit for christmas and something for lewis.
we were in mattys car right now because mine had broken down and i needed to buy a new one but cars are expensive even though i've been promoted at work. i needed to save and mattys car was fine for now.
"how's harrison then?" i asked
"good! he's spending christmas with his family and well you know i'm not" , gemma's looked sad after saying this
"you can spend it with us gem!"
"are you sure?"
"are you serious? of course you didn't even need to ask"
"thankyou gracey" she said in a small voice
"however densieiscominground" i said quickly
"WHAT?"
"only for an hour!" i assured her
"i am going to smack her" gemma said
"me too"
two hours later
"how does this look gem?" i asked coming out of the changing room
i was wearing a short black velvet dress, it was off the shoulder and tight
"it's beautiful" gemma said clapping her hands
"you sure?" i asked turning to look at my legs in the mirror
"yes you look great and denise will hate it"
"that swings it" i said pointing at her and laughing
i shut the curtain and shrugged my black jeans jeans back on and my off the shoulder dropped white jumper. i laced up my black doc martins before heading back out to meet gemma who was looking at a bag,
"heya"
"hi"
"you okay?" i asked
"mmh"
"gem? i asked
"just missing harry you know?" she said, i looked at her and she seemed worn out again. i hoped it was just the jet lag from coming back to england and nothing more because she deserved to be happy and nothing less
i pulled her into a hug, i couldn't bare to see her like this, she was my best fiend and i didn't know how to help right at this moment apart from telling her i buy the bag.
"buy the bag"
"huh?" she asked confused
"buy the bag it will help trust me!"
she grinned at me and her eyes turned from sad to happy again in a second, this was the gemma i wanted to see
back at grace and mattys house
"we are home!" i said as i put my keys on the table by the door and took my docs off
"heya baby" matty called from the kicthen, we left our bags in the living room and i walked through to see him.
"heya" i said kissing him
"hiya rosey" gemma said walking to rose who was in her high chair at the island
"uh matty?" gemma asked
"yeah?"he relied
"why is she covered in flour?" she asked in relation to rose
"oh we were baking"
"BAKING?"gemma yelled
"YOU WHAT?" i choked
"oi shutup, i can bake" he said raising his arms above his head
me and gemma shared a look of confusion, this man could not cook OR bake he was terrible
"okay okay it was a packet but-"
"ohmygod" i said
"useless as ever" gemma laughed
"oright oright get out of my kitchen now" he said swatting at us with a tea towel
"am i raking rose?" i asked
"uh no she my chef" he said kissing her head
i smiled at him before joining gemma in the living room, we had wrapping to do.
christmas morning
"gracey wake up" matty whispered
"matty?" i asked worried instantly, why would he wake me up st this time if it wasn't urgent?
"happy christmas" he said smoothly
"what time is it?" i asked
"9"
"and why the fuck did you wake me?" i asked
"i wanted to give you a gift grumpy"
he leaned and clicked the side lamp on, he smiled at me and i rubbed my eyes
"here" he said handing me a box as grace started to mumble on the baby monitor, i refused to get rid of it because i still worried about her
"open it and i'll get gracey changed"
the box was red and just a little bigger than both of my palms, around it was a silk white ribbon. i carefully undid the bow and opened the box to see a bracelet.
it was a gold bangle with etchings of roses all around the outside, i smiled at the simplicity. i looked inside to see an inscription
forever - matty & rose
it was beautiful, matty came in with rose crawling behind him
"i love it matty" i told him, he smiled at me
"happy christmas babe"
"happy christmas" i smiled back
12 pm
everyone had arrived at this point apart from denise and we were all sat around the dining table
i was next to matty and gemma, kian and lewis were opposite me as were my mum and dad, tim was at one edge of the table and there was one empty seat for denise
"maybe we should just eat?" matty thought aloud
"we can wait a little more" i said rubbing his arm, i knew he was tense and we all wanted this to go well
the doorbell rang
"i'll get it"
i stood up, there was a mirror between the open plan kicthen, living room and front door that i looked at myself in.
i was wearing the dress i bought yesterday, the velvet really flattered me. i had tan tights on with high black heels i turned my worst to the light to watch the gold bracelet that matty had got me catch the light, it was beautiful. i smoothed my hair down before opening the door to see denise scowling
"merry christmas denise" i beamed
"hm happy christmas"
she walked in and handed me her umbrella and coat,
"that was expensive be careful" she said as she flounced to the kitchen to greet everyone
"okay then" i mumbled hanging her coat up and placing her umbrella in the stand
i took a deep breath before joining them.
good luck to me.
i took my seat at the table and matty turned to me
"you good?"
"i'm good"
everything was fine, matty had been cooking the turkey and surprisingly it was okay, my mum made small talk with denise and weirdly denise didn't seem to hate her. just me.
"so denise" gemma said after taking a long sip of wine
"here we go" matty mumbled while he turned to rose who was throwing mash potato around her high chair
"yes gemma?" she sighed
"why don't you like grace?"
"gemma!" i hissed
"valid point i guess" denise muttered
"not now mum" matty said sternly
"what do you mean?" i asked looking at matty with wide eyes
"i mean don't start this now, it's christmas"
"how's work?" kian asked me changing the subject
"good! i've been promoted to assistant manager now!"
"and where is it you work again?" denise asked crisply
"i work in a business firm for statistics and so forth"
"hm, mattys a rockstar and you're an office worker"
"mum" matty said
"i'm proud of you!" my dad said tasing his beer glass, i held my wine glass up to meet him
"me too" said lewis smiling at me
"thankyou" i mouthed at them both
"speaking of Matthew, when is the new album happening?" denise asked
"oh i'm not sure, we've already done two so we are taking a break, living our lives"
"you won't be famous for long with that attitude" she commented
"it was never about the fame for us"
"at one point it was" she said jabbing back, the old matty would have exploded but my hand found his beats the table and he squeezed it
"have you tried to wine gem?" matty asked
"oh uh yeah, it's good thankyou"
"so you'll talk to your ex girlfriend but not me? hm, do you not think it's weird she's basically LIVING WITH YOU" denise said tasing her voice
"mum" matty said
"those two have a plan to ruin you matty" she said pointing her long witchy finger at me and gemma,, i tried to not laugh
"i think you need to leave" tim said
"excuse me" denise relies appalled
i barley new tim and he always seems quiet but i'm guessing like everyone else round this table he'd had enough of her
"yes please leave mother" matty added
"hm" she commented leaving the table, matty followed her.
i placed my head in my hands, w couldn't have a nice christmas meal because his mum hated me so much
"you okay?" my dad asked, i nodded my head not really trusting my words right now
tim smiles at me from his end of table, he seems so warm compared to his ex wife, maybe he could be the parents who doesn't want to kill me?
matty came back through smiling but i could tell he was upset by the event that just happened for his eyes were a little red and puffy
"so who's ready for desert?" he asked as he walked towards the island, he produced a christmas cake
"did you bake that son?" his dad asked, matty keener his mouth to speak but gemma answer:: for him
"he did not"
"could have done" matty joked
"if you have even touched that cake i am not eating it" i said joining in
"you all doubt my mad skills"
"you bake matty?" my mum asked, me and gemma looked at one another before laughing
"he got rose covered in cookie mix yesterday so if that's what you call baking"
"ignore the witches, i do bake" he said proudly
"he's okay at cooking ... a bit but his baking is terrible"
kian and lewis laughed at him
"you're all gonna be shocked when you taste mine and roses cookies ain't they rosey?" rose clapped her hands and mumbled incoherent words
"right, so who's for cake then?" he asked as we all groaned. this was the family i'd always wanted
5pm-
everybody but gemma had left at this point, we'd given them their presents and they all had their evening meals to be preparing. me, gemma and matty still had to give our presents to one another though.
everyone had just given rose clothes, beautiful clothes i might add, some shoes and my dad had bought her another walker which was so helpful with the amount she was crawling lately
"present time?" i asked as gemma and matty nodded
"okay, gem this is for you, and matty for youuu" i said handing them presents from beneath the tree
"thank ya" gemma said instantly ripping into her present
"how did you get these" gemma asked with her mouth opened wide
"a lot of hunting, you're not easy to shop for gem" i laughed
i'd bought her some hardback covers of french wittier she liked, rare books. they were exposed hard to find but i knew that both her and harrison would love them so it was worth it.
matty opened his next, i'd bought him a new leather notebook, some old essay books i found at a flee market, they were latin but i knew he was learning and finally a framed photo of him, me and rose in the garden.
"i love it" he said kissing my head
we said no big gifts this year and i thought about it while admiring the gold bracelet on my wrist, we didn't have a lot of money since we had bought the house so we were only suppose to get small things. of course matty went against this. it's matty.
"okay gracey here YOU go" gemma said handing me a flat box
i opened it to find a beautiful lace dress, it was white and mid thigh length. i got it out of the box completely, wow. it had a bodice fitted in and it was off the shoulder with puffy sleeves. it wasn't fitted more of a flowy style at the bottom. but wow.
"gemma-" i breathed
"i saw it in pairs and i couldn't help myself i just thought of you"
"i love it so much" i whispered holding the material in my hands
"happy christmas bitch" she and hugging me
"happy christmas" i said raising my glass
"happy christmas" matty added
"habby cwimas" ross said as we all stared in awe at her with her deep brown eyes and cheeky grin. all our jaws dropped and she gave a smirk, this kind was going places, she knew exactly what she was doing.
"you all-" i started
"heard that" matty finished
"i love that kid man" gemma laughed
"love you guys" i said
"it's a weird combo" gemma said
"but it works somehow"
"thankyou for an amazing christmas" i told them both as we sat by the open fire (guarded by a gate obviously for rose) the heat was in our faces as the snow fell outside
"omg look!" i said pointing to the window
"it's a christmas miracle" matty joked as i jabbed him in the ribs
"that's snow" i told rose
"snow" she repeated as we all clapped at her
"yeah that's christmas snow rosey"
we all stared our of the window while it began to settle on the floor, the heat inside the house was such a nice comparison to the snow outside, we were safe in here. we were family