If Santa had a Son

Chapter 14 - Words of Wisdom

Chapter 14

Words of Wisdom

Anthony's car pulled into my grandma's driveway, skidding to a stop on the slick ice. The lights were on in the house, which meant they were waiting up for me.

I didn't blame them, it was a little after eleven. We hadn't meant to stay out so late, we had just got to talking, or 'flirting' as Joe put it.

Speaking of Joe, he was really nice. At some point he had come and sat with us, just joining in the conversation like he was a part of it.

At first, I thought it a little awkward, but I soon forgot because I was laughing so hard. It was amazing how one man could be so funny.

"Here we are," Anthony said, shutting the car off. "Want me to walk you up?"

"No, it's fine," I said quickly, putting my hands up. He raised an eyebrow but shrugged. The thought of my mom seeing him and jumping to conclusions scared me. "Okay, well I'll see you around," I chirped quickly before he changed his mind. It took me a second to get to the door, the snow was still piled high, but eventually, I made it.

I placed my hand on the knob, glancing over my shoulder at Anthony's car. He was watching me, waiting for me to look back. When I did he smiled and waved, making my heart flutter.

God, why did I fall so easily?

My cheeks started to heat up as I smiled back, waving over my shoulder. There was a part of me that wanted to run back to his car, to hop in and never get out. But I didn't. I couldn't hide forever.

Instead, I took a deep breath, pushing open the front door, deciding it was better to face the wrath of my family. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the room was everyone standing in a circle, my mom standing in the middle.

Their backs were turned away from me and they obviously hadn't heard me come in, so I just stood there, letting all the cold air drift into the house. I don't know why, but I was shocked.

Usually, by this point, everyone was fighting and keeping their distance from each other, but now they were all huddled together, arms wrapped around each other, while my mom talked on the phone.

"Alight, thank you. Will you let me know if you see her?" My mom choked, sniffing afterward. Wait, was she crying? She nodded and then hung up the phone, bobbing her head into her hands.

"This is all my fault!" My dad wailed. Okay, it was obvious he had been the one crying. "I was just so worried...I can't believe I drank that whole case of beer!"

"Yes, this is your fault, George!" My mother snapped, glaring at my fathers face. "You know you can't hold your alcohol!"

"You both need to calm down, this isn't helping find Bree." My grandma added, rubbing my mothers back. She seemed to be the only calm one of the bunch, the others were losing it. Especially Mackenzie who was sobbing into her hands.

"Uh...Guys?" I stuttered, still utterly confused. Where did they think I had gone? Mackenzie's head popped up, and everyone else turned to look at me.

Not even a second later I was tackled to the floor by Mackenzie, my head landing on the ground with a loud thud. My wrist also hit the ground hard, making me hiss in pain. Wasn't the cast supposed to help?

"Bree!" She yelled, not making a move to get off of me. "Where the hell have you been?! We were so worried!" She glared at me, and oh lord if looks could kill.

Wow, she was really really angry. She only ever cursed if she was mad or upset.

"You were worried?" I asked, giving her my best ' I'm confused' look. I had only been gone for a few hours....

"Damn straight, I was worried!" She exclaimed, finally rolling off of me and helping me to my feet. I brushed off my clothes, careful not to overexert my wrist.

I seriously hoped they would let me go to bed now, I was so worn out from my dad. But, looking up I knew that was a long shot. All their eyes were fixed on my cast, eyes bugged out.

"What the hell?!" Mackenzie yelled again, this time turning on her heels. "You did this to her!" She was now inches from my dad's face, and I swear he looked scared.

Not that I blamed him, Mackenzie could be scary when she wanted to be. And right now, she was seconds away from clawing out his eyes.

"Woah, chill Kenz, I'm fine!" I quickly rushed forward, pulling her away from my father and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. She sighed and grabbed my hands, which were still wrapped around her, but she still glared daggers at his face.

"I'm so sorry Bree, honey. I don't even really remember it..it's just a blur. Please forgive me." My dad pleaded, taking a step towards me.

My heart rate sped up as he got closer, and I flinched away. I didn't mean to, that's just what happened. A look of sorrow crossed his face as he stepped back, bowing his head.

Honestly? I felt sick just looking at him. He had done this to me and, drunk or not, I couldn't forgive him in the blink of an eye. Maybe some people thought I should, but I couldn't.

"Oh my, Bree." My mother said worriedly, pulling me away from Mackenzie so she could hug me. "Are you sure your alright?"

"I'm fine mom, I just need some sleep." Could she really not see that in the way my eyes were dropping?

She nodded. "All right hon, there's some Aspirin in the bathroom if you need it." I pulled away, walking over to my grandma and giving her a quick hug.

"Good night, sweetie," She said, hugging me tightly. I smiled, I really did love her. She was so sweet.

"Night." And then I pulled away, heading up the stairs. I could hear Mackenzies steps behind me. She must've decided to come to bed too.

I sighed when I reached my room, grabbing pajamas from my bag. All I wanted to do was go to sleep right away, but I decided on changing first.

Slowly I walked to the bathroom, while Mackenzie just stripped right there. I rolled my eyes at her. She never did care who saw her changing.

When I opened the bathroom door, I gasped. In front of me was the biggest mess, ever. My makeup was strewn about everywhere, most of it popped out of its containers.

The mirror was smeared with several different colored lipsticks along with my green and blue mascara. My sister stood in the middle of it all, cover in a ton herself, red lipstick in hand.

"Kayla!" I screeched dropping the pajamas. They landed with a splat and I looked down to see a bottle of eye makeup remover spilled on the floor. "Oh. My. God."

Kaylas eyes widened as I glared at her, deciding what to to do. The easiest solution was to get my parents and make them deal with it, but I didn't want to see them again right then.

"What's wro-" Mackenzie stopped as the reached the doorway, dropping her shirt she was holding in her hands, "Woah...."

Kayla still looked scared and was frozen. The only movement she made was to drop the lipstick.

"Kayla," I groaned again, rubbing my temples. "You should be in bed. How could you do this?! You know better! Look at this mess!" I was yelling by the time I finished, waving my hands in the air.

I'll admit, I probably looked crazy, but give a girl a break. All I wanted was sleep.

"I..." She stuttered, her eyes still wide. She looked like a deer in the headlights, "I..." Oh no, her bottom lip was trembling.

And then she burst into tears, throwing herself into my arms. Sighing, I scooped her up, letting her cry on my shoulder.

"It's okay." I cooed, running my fingers through her hair. Ew, it was sticky. What did she put in it?! "Kenz, can you get this cleaned up while I fix her?" I gave her a hopeful expression.

"Sure girl, good luck," Mackenzie responded, taking a hesitant step into the bathroom. I smiled at her and made my way out of the room, heading for Kaylas.

Her room was dark, so I didn't bother to turn on the light. I just walked over to the corner that had the rocking chair in it, placing Kayla in my lap.

She still had her arms wrapped tightly around my neck and was sobbing into my neck. The warm tears that slid down my back and chest made me shiver, but I tried to ignore them.

"I'm..I'm sorry Bree!" Kayla sobbed, pulling back to look at me.

"It's okay hon, I shouldn't have yelled." I sighed, reaching for a tissue. "Blow." She blew into the tissue, making me shudder. That was gross. "I need you to calm down, okay?"

She nodded slowly, biting her bottom lip. Her sobs had calmed down some, but she was still crying. She placed her head on my shoulder, snuggling into my body.

A few minutes later she was should asleep, snoring quietly in my arms. I quickly changed her clothes and wiped off most of the makeup before tucking her in, placing a soft kiss on her forehead.

By the time I made it back to my room Mackenzie had successfully cleaned and polished the bathroom, saving what makeup she could.

I would still have to buy new stuff, but she had saved me a good deal of money. Silently I slipped my pajamas on, then crawled into bed.

Just as I was about to fall asleep, the bed dipped next to me. I opened my eyes to see Mackenzie had turned off the lights and we were now sitting in darkness.

"So you walked all the way to the hospital?" Mackenzie asked, turning to look at me.

I groaned internally, would I never get any sleep? "No-I mean yes!" I said quickly, but it was too late. Mackenzie gasped, flying to a sitting position.

"I knew it! Anthony drove you didn't he?! I still wish that we were here because then I could've driven you...but then if we were here it wouldn't have happened. I'm starting to wish we weren't out looking for you...anyway I knew you were with him, I just had a gut feeling! What did y'all do?! Did you go anywhere afterward?! Oohh, what was it like living with him for a few days!? Wasn't that snowstorm crazy?!" She said that all in about five seconds, needless to say, I then had a headache.

Sighing, I sat up and turned on my lamp, "Yes, Kenz. Anthony did drive me, we went to the hospital, yes we went somewhere afterward, 'living with him' was interesting, and yes the snow storm was crazy."

She squealed, clapping her hands, "You o have to tell me, like, everything!" I rolled my eyes, biting my bottom lip.

For the next half hour, I told her of living with Anthony and our time at Joe's BBQ. Actually telling her about it made me realize just how stupid it all sounded.

It sounded like one of those cheesy romance books where the guy ends up with the girl, but this was real life. For all I knew I would wake up and Anthony would be gone, back to wherever he lived.

"Oh my god, he kissed you?! Like actually kissed you?!" She exclaimed, cutting me off in mid-sentence, "Your so lucky! He's so hot! What was it like?! How long did it last?!"

Really, Mackenzie?

"Technically, I kissed him for the dare. It was amazing and I don't know....somewhere between fifteen and twenty seconds?" I was wide awake now, totally worked up. My heart had sped up in my chest and my stomach tied into a knot just thinking about the kiss.

"Eeeapp! It was a serious kiss, then! And then you told him it meant nothing to you?! How could you lie?!"

"I don't know, Kenz," I sighed, flopping back down on my back. I just stared at the ceiling fan for a moment before continuing. "A guy like him wouldn't be interested in a girl like me for long. He's just way too sweet, caring, generous, kind, giving, selfless - not to mention handsome! He just wouldn't fall for me, I can tell."

"Wow." Mackenzie laughed, laying down and pulling the covers over her shoulders, "You've got it bad, girl. Do you hear yourself?!" I could feel myself blush. "But you are so stupid."

"Excuse me?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Girl, you're all those things too! With guys, you've got to take risks and jump hurdles. It's not a map laid out before you! He very well might like you and you totally blew your chance. What you should've done is told him how you feel, and if he doesn't feel the same way, you make him fall for you."

I just blinked at her. She had never spoken to me like that.

"Because girl, you have nothing any other girl hasn't got. You're beautiful, smart, funny, kind, sweet, caring, giving, and a whole ton of other stuff! Hell, your ten times better than any fake beach blonde b***h who walks around here. He would have to be friggin' blind not to see that."

And then she rolled over, ending the conversation. I just stared into the darkness, trying to let her words sink in.

Was she right?