If Santa had a Son

Chapter 19 - Gone?

Chapter 19

Gone?

When I woke up the next morning, my head was pounding. It proved to be a difficult task just to get myself untangled from my quilt. I swear it attacked me.

How did I even get in my bed? The last thing I remembered was going to a party with Hayden and...Oh dear God. The more I sat there and thought about it, the more came back to me. It was a slow process, but I really had no desire to break the warm embrace my quilt held me in.

Yeah, I still hadn't managed to get myself untangled.

Sighing in frustration, I flopped back down on the bed. I hissed through my teeth, not a good idea to bang my head around. So that's what a hangover feels like. Well, a hangover mixed with the aftermath of losing my virginity.

The door creaked open, and I groaned. God, how hungover was I? Just the creak of the door made my head throb!

"Hey," Mackenzie said, closing the door softly behind her. "How're you feeling?" I rose an eyebrow at her. She should know. The events at home I remembered pretty well. I remembered telling her everything that happened.

"Like crap," I muttered, regaining my struggle with my squishy restraints. She chuckled, setting a cup of water and a bottle of ibuprofen on the bedside table.

"I kinda figured you would be suffering after last night," She chuckled, gripping a corner of the quilt and yanking with all her might.

With a squeak I rolled off the bed, landing in a heap on the floor with a thud. Okay, ow! Not only did that hurt my head but it hurt my broken wrist, too.

"Kinz!" I whined, rolling onto my back. Yeah, I was not getting up anytime soon. She laughed at me, dropping two red pills in my hand.

"Grow up, baby. You owe me after last night." She sat down next to me, practically throwing the glass of water at my face. I took it and gulped down the cool water greedily, quenching my thirst. Hopefully, those pills would take away the mother of all headaches.

"I wasn't that bad," I griped. "All I did was spill my guts in the toilet and tell you about the party." She rose her eyebrows at me, obviously holding back a laugh.

"Babe, have you checked what you're wearing?!" She laughed, throwing her head back. So much for holding back the laughter. Confused, I looked down at my 'outfit.' My eyes widened in shock when I saw what I was wearing. A pair of black boy shorts and the red bra I had worn the day before.

"Yeah," Kenz said, looking at my face. "And it was a struggle to get you to wear that. You wanted to go to bed buck naked because you were too 'hot.'"

I felt my cheeks blush. Just how bad was I last night?! I had no memory of that whatsoever. I buried my head in my hands, trying to block out Mackenzie's crackling.

Have I mentioned she has the most annoying laugh ever?

"Seriously though," She said, sobering up, "I've got your back." I smiled at her. "Take a shower and stay in here until the meds start working. Kayla is on a Christmas high and trust me, you do not want to be around that with a hangover."

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" I asked, wrapping her in a big hug. Kenz was like my sister, what would I do without her?

"You may have mentioned it before, but it never gets old." I laughed quietly as she left my room, hopefully, to convince my family to leave me alone.

Have you ever tried tying a plastic bag around your arm with one hand? It's a difficult task, let me tell you. By the time I got it to stay on my arm, I was beyond caring if it was actually going to keep the water off my cast.

I got in the shower and let the warm water beat down on my body. It felt good, but it really wasn't doing anything for my actual headache. When I had scrubbed myself clean, I quickly turned the water all the way to cold. I squeaked as the ice-cold liquid soaked my body for a split second before I jumped out of the shower.

Damn, that was cold!

Shivering, I wrapped myself in a towel. After wrapping my hair in a towel, I headed in my room to pick out an outfit. Yeah, I don't think I'm going anywhere today. I picked out a pair of gray sweats and a pink Happy Bunny T-shirt that said 'I'm cute, you're not. I can't believe how well this worked out.'

It had been about twenty minutes, but my head was still throbbing. Instead of heading downstairs, I flopped down on my bed, wrapping myself in blankets. Suddenly, my bedroom door burst open so fast it hit the wall. I jumped up, staring at my little sister who came barreling in my room.

"Christmas in two days!" She sang, jumping on me. Wincing, I hugged her back. She squealed in excitement before flying out of my room again, singing about the gifts she was going to get.

Is it good for a child to react that way? Because to me it just screams spoilt.

She always got that way around Christmas, though. Maybe it was the Holiday spirit, but I had a suspicion it was because my parents pretty much showered her with gifts.

With a groan, I pulled myself out of bed and shuffled down the stairs. It was really quiet in the house, like too quiet. The living room was empty, which confused me. Usually, my grandma spent the days before Christmas watching those cheesy movies. As I got closer to the kitchen, I could hear whispers. Curious, I pressed myself against the wall and strained my ears so I could hear.

"I don't know," My mom sighed, I furrowed my eyebrows. She sounded upset...Wait, it was because of my dad? How could I have forgotten about the hole in the other side of the wall?!

"Look, Hun," My grandma whispered, "George was always a sensible man, but I think he had a problem." My mom sniffed, and I realized she was crying.

"But he has been so careful!" She wailed. "He would come home drunk almost every night but he would never hurt the girls. I wouldn't let him. As long as he didn't harm my babies he could use me as his punching bag."

My gut twisted. I knew I wasn't supposed to be hearing this, but I couldn't move. My father had been coming home drunk at night and abusing my mother?!

How did he hide his hangovers so well?

"You shouldn't of let him hit you!" My grandma hissed. "Why didn't you call the cops?!"

"I thought I would be fine," She sobbed. "But then he broke Bree's wrist and..." Her voice broke off, and I realized tears were slowly rolling down my face. I ran around the corner, wrapping my mom in the biggest hug I could. Yeah, now she would know I heard her, but she needed to know I was okay.

"I'm fine, really," I whispered. She was crying too hard to respond. Wow, who knew this would happen? All along I thought I had the perfect little family.

"Bree, you can't tell Kayla," My mom finally whispered. I looked at her puffy red eyes and runny nose with disgust. My father had made her like this.

"Don't worry mom, I won't. She's too little to understand anyway and-"

"No, you don't understand," My mom cut me off, shaking her head. "He was in an accident." My eyes widened. "After he left yesterday...He got drunk, really drunk, and then tried to drive home...He died on impact."

I sucked in a breath, taking a step away from her. She looked down at her hands, silent tears running down her red cheeks. Okay, I had decided ten seconds before that I would hate that man until the day he died. He deserved that and more for what he did to my mother. So why, then, did I feel like a truck hit me when I found out he was dead? I guess because he was still my father, and there was a part of me that didn't believe that he would do those horrible things. I stumbled back in horror, tears pricking my eyes.

"Please, Bree, listen to me!" My mom begged, "I didn't want to tell you till after Christmas, but you can't tell Kayla. A little girl like her...She won't understand at all. All she will know is that one day her Daddy never came home."

"No!" I shouted. "She won't! Wanna know why? Because I don't, and I'm seventeen! Why would he do those things? Why would he be so f*****g stupid to leave his daughters without a father?!" I wasn't sure where my anger came from, but I couldn't stop it.

"Bree," My grandma said in warning.

"Stop," I said, wiping my tears away angrily. "I won't tell Kayla because she dissevers to be happy, but don't expect me to be understanding about this." I turned on my heels and stormed up the stairs, ignoring the desperate shouts from my mother.

The only thing I could think of was if Mackenzie had known. She came into my room and acted like everything had been fine, surely she would've told me the truth. I flopped down on my bed, pressing my eyes closed. Anthony, I needed him. I reached over and grabbed my phone off the bedside table, clicking the number I had just saved into my phone.

It rang three times before going to voice mail. Come on, Anthony, I need you, I begged silently. Why was he ignoring me?

I called three more times, but he still didn't answer. Wow, he really must hate me for what I said. Honestly, I didn't see what I had done wrong. With a choked sob I crawled under my covers, wishing Anthony would come and take me away from my grandma's house. It was the last place I wanted to be.