I Can't Be Without You

December 23rd's morning appeared faster than what I had thought. My dad came home, even though he wasn't supposed to be home until the 30th. How did I find out he cam home? He jumped onto me when I was sleeping.

"Josline! Jawsy Jaws!" I had that screeched into my ear. What a pleasant way to be woken up. I tried to roll over, but my dad was on top of me.

"Dad..." I groaned, trying to push him off me. He jumped off my bed and sat on the end of my bed instead.

"Sorry sweetie." I sat upright, scratching the back of my head, my eyes trying to adjust to the darkness.

"What are you doing home?" I asked. My dad looked rather sad. "Oh! Dad, you weren't fired, were you?" I asked.

"Oh, God no! Never." My dad smiled slightly. "The set burned down."

"Was anyone hurt? Are you okay?" I asked.

"Everybody is fine. No one knows how it happened. All the actors and extras got sent home early. I'm glad too. I don't think I could be away from you guys on Christmas." My dad pulled me into a hug, and I hugged him back.

"Mom is making pancakes. Come on and eat." My dad hopped off the bed and got himself into a running position. "I'll race you for them." I rolled my eyes at my dads enthusiasm first thing in the morning. Both my dad and Airin were like that. I got out of my bed and walked over to my dad. "3, 2..." before he even said the 'o' in the word one, I had taken off down the stairs. I heard my dad call after me, "CHEATER!"

I made it to the table before dad did. Mom looked at me strangely, and then my dad when he appeared from the stairs. "What...no. No. Chloe, don't even bother asking. You'll only get a stupid answer..." Mom said walking back into the kitchen to get the pancakes. She returned with a large plate with fluffy pancakes and set them down infront of us. Airin was first to devour his food. "Airin, did you even actually TASTE those?" My mom was shocked when Airins three pancakes were gone even before her first one.

"I'm a hungry, hormonal teenage boy mom. What do you expect?" Airin said, with pancake in his mouth.

"Airin! That's gross!" I said, putting my fork down.

"You're gross!" Airin said after he swallowed the food in his mouth.

"You're grosser."

"Both of you be quiet." Mom said. Airin and I both looked down at our plates.

"Sorry mom." We said together. It was silent for a few minutes, aside from the scraping of knives and forks.

"...You're grossest." It wasn't me or Airin who had said that. It was dad. Mom looked at dad, a 'stop-it' look on her face. Both Airin and I were just cracking up at our parents.

I was sitting in the living room reading. The snow had started to fall around 2 in the afternoon, and it looked beautiful. I had my cup of hot chocolate set out on the coffee table, and Airin was sitting on the floor with his guitar, playing something that I wasn't paying much attention to. Both of our heads snapped up when there was a knock at the front door. We saw my mom look at the door, and then at us. She had a 'are-you-expecting-someone' look on her face. Both Airin and I shook our heads. Mom put down the book she was reading in the dining room and walked to the front door.

"Oh! What are you doing here?" We heard our mom say. Airin and I looked at eachother strangely. Airing put his guitar back in the case, and then became over-excited.

"KEITH!" Airin ran to our cousin, jumping on him, nearly knocking Keith, and the dining room table over. I fell off the couch in a fit of laughter, and my mom was laughing as well. "OH MY GOD! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!" Airin said over-enthusiastically.

"If you let me go, I'll tell you!" Keith said, even though his words were muffled from Airin's massive glomp.

"Airin, let go of Keith." Mom said, trying to pry the two apart.Airin finally let go, and mom got her chance to hug her nephew. I got up from the floor and walked over to the other three.

"Hey, Shark Attack!" Keith hugged me, ruffling my hair slightly.

Keith was my cousin from Vancouver, and I loved him to bits. He was more like a brother than anything. "Hey Key Lime! What ARE you doing here?"

"Well, I thought that I should spend time with family that WASN'T my brother." Keith frowned at the thought of his brother, Brandon. "And besides, I haven't seen you guys in, what? 5 years?"

"Since we moved away from Vancouver." Mom clarified for us. "Oh! I should go set up a room for you!"

"He can bunk with me mom!" Airin jumped up and down, clapping his hands.

"Airin, no one can FIND your room let alone sleep in it." Mom said, walking upstairs to one of the spare rooms.

"I can find my room just fine." Airin pouted, folding his arms across his chest. Keith and I both laughed. We all sat down in the living room, catching up on life. My cell phone started ringing, which scared all of us. We had a quick laugh before I answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Jaws." I heard Josh's voice. I smiled as soon as he said 'hey'.

"Hey Josh! How are you?" I asked him. I saw Keith look at Airin and say something, but I didn't hear it.

"I'm good! Just really missing you, that's all." Josh said, and I turned pink.

"Aww, well, I miss you too. You should come home soon." I said.

"I'm trying. But my parents want to spend tim in Van for a little longer. I wish I could be there for Christmas with you."

"I wish you could be here too Josh." There was a little bit of a pause between the two of us, because I could hear Josh's mom talking to him.

"I have to get going Jaws." Josh said. "I just wanted to see how you were."

"Alright. You be safe now, okay? No getting into trouble with Andrew and Chris." I laughed at the stories Josh had told me about Andrew and Chris. I had met Chris in the summer, but not Andrew.

"Ah, no promises there sweetie. Catch you later."

"Bye Josh." There were a few seconds of Josh muttering something before finally hanging up.