I ran the brush through my hair only 2 times before the door to the guest room I was staying in bursted open.
"Darren I swear, if you don't give me my football back I'll shove my fist so far down your throat you won't be able to breathe" I hear Luke shout as a laughing gleeful Darren comes running into my room along with a red faced Luke chasing him and in the end was little Lea running after the 2 yelling "fight, fight" while Charlotte rolled her eyes and leaned against the door frame watching her siblings.
"You'll have to catch me before you can threaten me Lukey pie" Darren taunts, using the nickname I had heard their mother call Luke a few days ago making Luke's face turn more red.
Darren races as fast as he can over to me and quickly runs behind me and clings to my shoulders for protection.
It is December 24th and I have been staying at the Evans's house for a total of 4 days counting today and my visit has been anything but quiet. Every 5 minutes I either hear Luke yelling at Darren or Charlotte yelling at Luke or Lea just yelling in general. It is so much different than the quiet, empty house I am used to. I love it.
I have also gotten closer to Charlotte, Lea and Darren too. They are all so different I can't believe they are related. We have Darren, the jokester. That boy can't go 15 minutes without trying to prank someone or trying to cause trouble. No one has ever made me laugh as much within a short period of time as him.
Then we have Charlotte, the quiet one. She usually is playing with Lea or trying to break up a fight between Luke and Darren, which I guess she didn't feel like doing it this time. She is one of the wisest people I have ever met.
Then we have small, little Lea, the loud one. She loves it when she gets attention and will do anything to get it. She also loved it when the boys let her fight with them. She was one tough girl. Every time I decided to play with her I would end up exhausted in the end.
Then, lastly we have Luke. The boy seems to have a surprise around every corner. I thought I knew him pretty well but I have learned so much more about him and the more a learn, the more interested I am with him. It's like he is pulling me deeper into himself than I ever thought possible, and I'm not trying to stop it. I especially like learning his weird quirks.
For one, he has to make sure that none of his food touches. I don't know what his problem with food touching is but he has one. Another thing is he always has to have the last word, not just with an argument but with a conversation too. This usually ends with him and Lea just saying mindless things in hopes to get the last word in.
Finally, and must surprising to me, he actually loves to read. The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, all of those. I especially love it when he will actually let us have a conversation about the books.
"Claire, come on, please protect me" the fearful voice of Darren brings me to the present and out of my deep thoughts. "You won't let him hurt me right?".
"Claire, move out of the way for me" Luke says with a look that would have even the bravest men running to the hills but knowing him better than that, I decide to have a little fun.
"Oh I don't know superman" I say and take the football from Darren to examine. "I'm sure you'll be fine without it" he lunges for it but I'm too quick. Darren has already ran behind Luke and I throw it to him and watch as Luke gives me an exasperated look and chases Darren out of the room and down the hall.
Charlotte rolls her eyes at the 2 of them. "boys" she moans and I smile. "Tell me about it". I turn to look down at Lea who is in a pretty red shirt and a skirt. "Well don't you look like a princess" I exclaim and her face breaks into a huge smile, showing off her missing tooth.
Charlotte was wearing a casual pretty green dress with her long chocolate hair curled. I was wearing a strapless casual red dress with my dark blonde hair straightened. We walk downstairs to the kitchen to find their mother (who still insists that a call her Amanda) pulling out the roast beef dressed in a black skirt and a green shirt.
"Do you need any help mom?" Charlotte asks as Amanda turns towards us and smiles. "Don't you 3 look lovely. No dear, I think we are ready for dinner. Can you girls round up the 2 boys that are wrecking my house?" she asks and we nod and go to the hall.
"LUKE! DARREN! DINNER!" Charlotte and I shout as the 2 come running down in unruely suits, still fighting over the ball. I step in front of Darren and grab the football and hand it to Luke. "Hey!" Darren shouts as I sternly say "You, go put your football up and you, stay down here and fix your suit" I say pointing to Darren as Luke retreats back up the stairs.
"You sure you don't want to do it for me gorgeous?" Darren asks flirtatiously raising his eyebrows suggestively. I was used to his flirting by now so I just pat his shoulder and say "I'm sure" as Luke comes back down the stairs with his shirt tucked back in.
"Ready to eat slepping beauty?" he asks and I nod as we all 6 head to the dining room where we sit down and quickly dig in. The room is soon full of voices talking about christmas and presents and future plans of sledding. Soon enough dinner is over but we are all still talking.
"Lets take this to the living room. I have a little early christmas present for you guys" Amanda says. The 4 siblings quickly get up and run to the living room. I stand up and start to pick up a few left dishes when Amanda's voice stops me "Oh come on dear, you don't have to pick up those. Come on, lets go have some fun".
We get to the living room to be greeted by a shriek from Lea, who had already successfully opened the big present with the help of her siblings. "A kareoke machine!" she sqealed and tried to hug the box. "Thank you!".
Darren and Luke gave a moan. "Great, now we are going to have to listen to her sing into a mike for the rest of the year and next one. Great present mom" Darren sarcastically says. "Oh hush Darren. Come on, lets hook it up!" Amanda replies.
So for the next hour and a half we take turns singing songs, mostly listening to Lea doing solos but we all give it a go. I will admit one thing. We all sucked, which made it that much more funnier.
I don't know which was the highlight for me. It was either Darren singing "I will always love you" by Whiney Housten or Luke and I doing a duet to "don't stop beleiving" and Luke ending it by dipping himself in my arms, which, of course ends with me dropping him on the floor.
We are all sitting on sofa's, me with my legs laying on top of Luke as Lea does yet another solo to the song "let it go". I lean closer into Luke and whisper in his ear "Merry Christmas Eve" he smiles down at me and whispers back "Merry Christmas Eve to you too".
At that sudden moment, the whole house goes black. I hear a few screams around me and feel Luke tighten his grip on my arm "What just happened?" Luke asks aloud as Charlotte tries to calm a crying Lea while Amanda frantically looks through a drawer and pulls out a lighter.
After a few minutes the room is again filled with light, only this one is more dim and was caused by a ton of candles around us. "It looks like the power went out" Amanda says as she holds a now sniffling Lea.
"It's okay, it will probably go back on in a little bit" I say reassuringly and go over to the fireplace. I become relieved when the fire comes on. I help Luke as we drag a sofa over to the fireplace and Darren brings over a few chairs.
After a few seconds of sitting in silence everyone arupts in questions. "When will the power go on?"
"how am I supposed to know!"
"It was a rhetorical question moron"
"Hey, don't be calling me the moron when you are actually using a damn rhetorical question!"
"Darren! Language!"
"Sorry"
"What is damn?"
"Oh great job Darren, you are so stupid"
"Shut up!"
Soon a whole argument is going on as I stare quietly into the fireplace and remember one of my favorite memories that didn't have to do with my mom. It was a time when I was 7 and my dad read the night before christmas to me. I immedeatly asked him to read it to me every night because I loved it so much. I now had it memorized by heart.
"T'was the night before Christmas, when all through the house" I start as the argument continues, only quieter. "Not a creature was stirring. not even a mouse" by now I have everyone's attention.
"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there" and I continue the story all the way through with only the candlelight illuminating the faces of the wonderful people around me.
Luke's POV
I study every detail on Claire's face as she tells the story 'the night before christmas' to us. I study the way her slightly messy hair droopes over her shoulders. I study her beautiful light blue eyes that have a little bit of grey etched into them. I study her full lips as they open and close to the memorized words she is reciting.
It is truly amazing that Claire was able to stop our argument and as I look around me I see everyone paying attention to every word she says. I watch as my mom closes her eyes and says the words of the story silently to herself with a smile on her face.
All too soon the story is done and a silence sets on us. Suddenly I hear Charlotte from beside me, humming silent night. Soon Claire joins her song and softly sings the words and soon I decide to join and the Lea, and then mom, and then lastly, Darren.
I don't know how many carols we have sung by the time that the power comes back on but it does and soon enough we are all saying good night to each other.
I walk Claire to her guest room. "I hope you have a nice night sleeping beauty" I say softly. She smiles up at me and says back cheekily "I hope I do too" and it is only then that I notice how close our faces are but the weird thing is, I don't pull back because I, frankly for some reason, don't want to.
Too soon she pulls farther away from me and closes the door with a final smile sent towards me. I slowly walk back to my room as I try to make my heartbeat slow down a little. I quietly take off my shirt, put on some shorts, and climb into bed and after a few minutes, I drift off to sleep.
The setting around me envelopes into what it always does, me at the top of the stairs.
"I warned you bitch! You think you can get rid of me that easily? Because you can't! And you're going to pay for thinking that!" I hear my father say and fear drips back into my body like it always does.
"P-Please, just let me go" I hear a voice, but it isn't my mothers. My heart drops to my stomach as I recognize the voice and sprint down the stairs. I get to the living room to see my drunk father towering over a trembling figure, Claire.
"No! Don't you dare touch her!" I scream as I run full speed at him. He quickly shoves me into the wall and closes his hand on my throat. I can feel the air leaving my lungs.
"Stop! Please! Leave him alone!" I hear Claire scream, running forward as I start to see black in the corners of my eyes. I watch as the drunk man lets go of me and pushes Claire. Her body hits the floor with a loud smack.
"Pretty girl you've got here son" he teases but I can't move. All I can do is say between breaths "dont... you... dare" he bares his yellow teeth into a smile.
"Well if you want you can watch as I hurt her" he says and walks over to Claire who is now struggling to stand up. He swiftly hits her in the stomach and she falls down to the ground and all I can do is shout her name as he throws fist after fist into her body.
"Luke, Luke. Oh god, please wake up" I hear a voice say as I open my eyes to find Claire cupping my head with her hands as tears fill up her eyes.
"Claire" I manage to mumble and she lets out a sigh of relief and sits me up and hugs me. I hold on tightly to her body as I breath heavily into her shoulder. I pull her slowly onto my bed and lay back down with her head on my chest.
"Your siblings were worried. I told them to go back to bed" she says out of nowhere and I nod and pull her tighter to me. "Was it the same dream?" She asks.
"It was a little different" I say.
"You were screaming my name" she whispers.
"Like I said, it was a little different" I sigh.
Suddenly Claire sits up and I follow her gaze to my chest. I forgot I didn't have a shirt on. She could see it. She could see the scar.
I had a scar crossing over my chest that had never healed. Claire traces it with her hand. "Was this from him?" she asks while a few tears slip down her cheeks. I nod and say "It was from the glass table. When I hit it and it shattered, a piece of glass went into my chest" I explain as she keeps staring at it.
"I'm sorry" she whispers through tears. "Hey, hey. It's okay" I say as I bring her body back down to beside me. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me" I say as I hear her sigh. "I always worry about you" she states and closes her eyes.
And, as I watch her slowly fall asleep, gripping me tightly, I swear some part of me deep inside just knew that this indescribable girl sleeping next to me was not going to leave my life without planting, yet another scar on me. Only this one on my soul, for I was in too deep to get away without being affected by her. Without her leaving her mark on me.