Chapter 10
Christmas Eve,

'Twas the day before Christmas, stockings were hung on the mantle with care, Christmas lights glisten, presents are being wrapped, snow has finally fallen for the first time before Christmas in Vanilla Valley.
"Maybe we'll get a white a Christmas?" I say looking out the window, a thin white blanket covers the ground leaving tiny green strings above it, snow still falling from the sky, it's cold and snowing but inside our town house, is cozy with the fireplace burning.
"I hope so." Andrew says as he pours himself a cup of coffee, my mom watching the daily news. The news reporter repeating the same sentences from last year,
"Remember, spend time with your family. Have fun-"
I turn off the TV, my mom looks up at me.
"What, Bailey?"
"We don't have a tree up, the least we can do is put a tree in here?" I say, I examine the tiny space, maybe we couldn't put millions of huge Christmas trees in this house like our old one, but maybe a tiny long one.
"I suppose." My mother says as she sips her tea, her sleeves pulled over her hands.
"Wait mom, that reminds me. When are we going to buy a new house?" Andrews asks from the kitchen gazing at the calendar.
"We have an offer, but I plan on viewing some houses sometime around January, and than in between February and March we'll maybe be buying one." I can't believe that we may be living in a big house again, my own room and bathroom, that's actually big. A huge kitchen and great room.
"Do you guys wanna go buy a tree?" I ask.
"No need, Bailey." My mom says,
"In the basement there's some Christmas decorations and there's an artificial tree that would fit perfectly here!" She continues.
At least we have a tree.
Mom, Andrew and I dragged the artificial Christmas tree from downstairs up to our living room. We set it down and my mom signs, Andrew looks at me funny.
"What?" I say, he looks away and looks back at mom.
"Uh, Bailey- can you run down again and get the box of lights and ornaments?" Mom lifts her eyes gazing at the tree to mine.
"Yah." I respond and run back down. As I got down there the smell of gas and wet coppery suffocated me. It's like an odd dank smell, foul but sweet almost. I scrunch my nose as I look for the box of ornaments and lights mom told me look for. There's like million of boxes down here, all labeled "delicate" I move my eyes to the brown boxes labeled "X-MAS 1989" and look for the box labeled with ornaments and lights, it stick out to me like a red flower in a snow storm.
"There it is." I say, I try lifting the heavy box from on top of it, and it brings me down to the floor, gasping for breath. What the hell. I get black up, and lift the box filled with ornaments and lights with a heavy sigh. Walking back up the stairs was a horror, making sure I didn't drop anything.
"Here." I tell my mom as I set the box on the ground and fall onto the couch.
"Now was that so hard." She looks at me, I bat my eyes at her.
"Alright." My mom says and opens the box, she licks her lips and instantly her eyes well with tears. I look over at the box. All our old ornaments from last year, every one of us had a special ornaments only we could place on the tree, and my fathers sits there proudly on top, my mom sheds her tears as I comfort her, I rest my head on her shoulder.
"Throw it out." She says, it's like the spell of despondency bounced off her in a second, her tone sounded harsh.
"Uh- okay." I whisper, I get up and take the ornament from the top, but it's out of my hands the second I touch it and is in moms. She looks at it with animosity and resentment.
How quick she changes the masks.
"Bastard." She says as she takes the ornament out of the box and smashes it to the ground. The red and silver glass spatter just around her, every single piece she shattered, around her, whatever she does it won't ever stop circulating around her head. I look at her with disbelief, and she looks up at me and Andrew, frightened by her own actions she stands up.
"I don't- I don't know what happened." She says and she looks at her hands, her left palm with a tiny cut from the glass, even when father isn't here anymore he still finds way to cut my mom. I grab the broom and start sweeping it up, mom leaves to go to the bathroom, Andrew standing aside watching me.
"What happened?" He asks looking up at the ceiling.
"I have no idea." I say with frustration.
"I think she needs a counselor, or a psychiatrist." I add on, Andrew looks at me. And shrugs his shoulder. I think after what we all went through we would need a family counselor more than anything.
"Mom! Are you ready to decorate the tree!" I yell as I dumb the glass into the trash can, she comes out of the powder room and looks at me and smiles,
"Of course, sweetie."

As we're decorating the tree in silent, I have a vivid memory of us all decorating our tree at our old house, of course we had multiple ones, but the one we had in the living room was sentimental, it held so many memories through the ornaments. This is just like old times, just in a different world. The phone call from the kitchen breaks the silence,
"I'll get it." I say as I jog towards the phone.
Ian.
I pick up instantly.
"Hey." I say over the line, stretching the cord to the powder room.
"I won't be here tomorrow because I'm going away to see family, but do you wanna hangout today." He asks over the line, my heart skips a beat.
"Duh. How long are you gonna be gone for?" I ask.
"Until the new year." I sigh, I won't be able to see Ian for almost ten days.
"Alright. How about tonight at like 5." I say,
"Sounds good. I'll pick you up. Bye." He says and hangs up. I breath in, and keep it in until I need to exhale.
What'd I do to deserve him?

I run back to the living room, my mom almost done putting the decorations up.
"Who was that?" She asks as putting an ornament on the very top of the tree,
"Oh it was Ian, he was wondering if we could hangout at 5, he won't be here until New Years is over. Is it okay?" I cringe,
"Sure, why not. Be home at 11 o'clock sharp!" She barks at me.
"I think it's done." She says and backs up to see the full view.
It's gorgeous.
I look over at my mom smiling, which makes me smile, and my brother standing besides me smiling as well.
A picture perfect moment, for a picture flawed family.
"Alright, put those boxes away I have a call with the real estate agent." My mom says and quickly runs to the phone.

Immediately as Andrew I finish putting the boxes back downstairs, I rush to my room and lock the door. I'm just so genuinely happy right now for no reason.
Maybe it's because I found closure?
I check the time on the clock that reads, "11:37." What am I supposed to do for five and a half hours. Moms busy, Andrew is boring. I look over at my bookshelf thats filled with classic books, one by the infamous author Ron Collins; "Come Before the Wake." I haul myself off my bed and grab the book, and read the back cover. It's a pretty cliché storyline, the family moves into a haunted house, and they all figure out it's haunted, and the little boy they adopted starts acting strange. The same recycled garbage they've been using for every famous Halloween movie. Whatever, it sounds interesting anyways. That'll buy me time for a few hours.

3:48 PM
As I finish page 336 out of 678 pages, I check to see the time, it's already 3:48. I can't believe I was actually intrigued by the story, I'll definitely finish it tonight though. I should probably take a shower real quick though.

I wipe the fog off the mirror that reveals a blurry sight of me, a pink towel wrapped around my body, my damp dark hair resting on my shoulders. My blemishes clear.
What am I going to wear?
Where is he even taking me?
I don't know, but I guess we'll find out.
I walk to my bedroom and open up my closet, I should wear jeans since it's cold outside, I grab the first pair of light blue boot cut jeans, and black sweater. I pull the sweater over my chest, it's a bit too big but it's not that noticeable, I pull the jeans over my waist and slip on my white nike shoes. I turn my vanity lights on, the mirror smothered in dust, considering I haven't used the thing in like five months, I don't blame it. I put on red blush, black mascara, and a tan lipstick, I fluff my hair up and stare at myself in the mirror for a couple seconds. He makes me feel so good to the point I feel insecure. I notice every blemish on my face. Every imperfection. I turn off the lights and head down stairs, the time reads "4:53." He should be here any minute, he usually arrives early. I than hear the sound of his car pull into my driveway,
"Okay, bye mom love you!" I say rushing towards the front door.
"Love you too, be back by 11 sharp!" I hear her voice as a shut the door behind me.
"Hey." I say, my breath visible from the cold as I hop in the warmth of his car. His smile warms me up instantly though. He gives off an incandescent glow as he smiles, every time.
"Where are we going?" I ask him as he pulls out of the driveway,
"Somewhere." He says smiling. Only I could focus on him and not his words.
Somewhere?
"Think of the twenty second of December last year." He says chucking.
"Wait they're doing that again?" I ask surprised.
"No, I'm doing it. At my house." He responds. His house wasn't that far away from where I used to live, only a five minute drive, it's now like a fifteen minute drive to get to his house now. I turn on the radio and listen to Ian mumble the lyrics underneath his breath.

We arrive at his house, it's a simple house, three beds, four baths. A decent sized kitchen, living room, and dining room.
"Come out to the backyard with me." He says and he takes my hand and leads me to the backyard where a huge white screen sits at the back of the fence and a projector playing the movie "Christmas Vacation." I laugh and look up at him. He's so affectionate. He's perfect in every single way. He guides me to the pre-laid blankets and buckets of popcorn that are probably cold now, but it doesn't matter because I have him by me. The movie starts playing and I have my head resting on his shoulder, despite the cold weather I feel warm and content. I'm not shivering and I'm not miserable by the harsh winter breeze.

The movie plays for about twenty more minutes, we don't talk, we just embrace the moment we're living in, sitting underneath blankets, my head on his shoulder, a Christmas movie playing. I look up at him. And turn his gaze at me.
"The movie is getting boring, isn't it?" I say, my breath hot against his neck.
"What?" He smiles. I roll my eyes and lean closer to him.
"I said-" He nudges me away,
"No, I heard what you said. But why?" He asks.
"What?" I say with confusion, getting up. He pauses the movie.
"Bailey..." Ian stops at his words, and he lets a ten second stand of silence fill his words. I can already see where this is going.
"There's another girl." He says. Nothing after, just those words didn't process in my brain at this time, I'm so confused.
"What?" I ask for reassurance, making sure what I heard is what he said. He nods his head.
There's another girl.
"Than why would you kiss me." I say, my eyes squinting at him, my voice soft.
"There was just so much happening, I'm sorry." He tells me, he looks up at the sky with his hand on his chin. I shake my head with disbelief. I don't want to hear anything else anymore. He took a hammer at my already bruised heart and depend the cracks.
"Drive me home, please." I tremble. He sighs and gets up. We both walk to the car in silence. I don't wanna say anything to him. He starts his car and we start heading off.

Those fifteen minutes were the longest fifteen minutes I lived my entire life, I looked out the window the whole time, it felt as if I was on a never ending road trip. He pulls into my driveway.
"Bailey."
"No." I cut him off and step outside his car, and he waits there for a second but leaves as I start slowly walking to my front porch.
Merry Christmas.
I open the front door. My moms head peeks over from the couch.
"Well you're home quite early." She says. I nod my head and walk upstairs, as I get to my room I turn on my lamp and fall into my bed.
All
I
Want
To
Do
Is
Die.
How could he do this to me? I don't even know what to think right now. All I know is that I need to go to sleep. And not think about it.
Tomorrow is Christmas.