Let My Heart Rest In Pieces

Let My Heart Rest In Pieces 062

Perfect

As soon as the last chord of Silent Night rang through the auditorium and the thunder of applause started, I snuck out of the Chorus group and went behind the curtain of the stage, running through the back doors and quickly entering the empty Chorus room.

I don't know why I was so rushed, I had plenty of time to get changed and make sure my appearance was perfect; the music department still had three songs to do before my solo came up. There was just no way that I could calmly put on my costume.

I shed the silky black Chorus robe from my shoulders, catching it before it could fall to the ground below. Underneath the robe I was only wearing a pair of loose shorts and a baggy t-shirt, that way it would be easy for me to strip of them and put on the dress. Plus, who was going to see my lazy attire under the robe?

Not trusting that there weren't any cameras in this room, I rushed off to the girl's bathroom with all my supplies in hand. Just as the other room had been, the bathroom was completely empty and all the noise I made echoed around. I quickly pulled off my loose clothes and slipped on the tight dress.

The red velvet easily fit over my skin, hugging every curve that I had and ending an inch or so above my knee. Like every other Santa costume, it was a deep red, but every time I turned and the light hit it just right, it would change to either a dark or light hue. I made sure it was completely in place before throwing the attached hood on, feeling the white down tickle my face. I added the gloves that it had come with as well as a shiny ring as the final touches before looking at myself in the mirror.

I had curled my dark hair for this and made sure that each lock was perfect. With the hood up, I smiled at myself and joked about how I looked like Little Red Riding Hood. The red eye shadow that I had applied earlier in the day went well with the outfit and when I figured there was nothing else I could do to further myself, I put on the cute red shoes I had bought and scurried out of the bathroom.

As I knew I would be, I was a little earlier than I had to be, but that had never been a problem. The dancers and orchestra members that were in the wings of the stage listening to the song before mine glanced over, some who I knew giving me smiles, before returning to listen to the melody as it faded away.

My stomach clenched in nervousness as I heard the audience applauding and I tried to calm myself. It wouldn't be that bad, I had all my friends out there to support me. Who cares if half the school was out there watching me, waiting for me to screw up? Aw man, I was so not ready for this.

"To end tonight's performance, we have a talented young lady singing a very familiar song that I am sure you all know very well," Mr. Smith's voice announced through the mic, relaxing me, "Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Envy Moore."

As the lights dimmed down behind the curtain, I heard my friends, most prominently Jepha, cheering for me. I couldn't help but smile and composed myself as the curtains opened to reveal my shadowed form standing there. I looked at all of the faces in the audience as the music started and instead of nervous, I felt elated.

"Santa baby,
Just slip a sable under the tree
For me

Been an awful good girl
Santa baby,
So hurry down the chimney tonight"

The lights came up fully after I had sung the first two lines, and as I put seduction into my voice, it felt a little strange. Nice, but strange. As the next part of the song came along, I slowly started to walk around the stage, making sure that my long legs could be the main focus.

"Santa baby,
A 54 convertible too
Light blue

I'll wait up for you dear,
Santa baby,
So hurry down the chimney tonight

Think of all the fun I've missed
Think of all the fellas that I
Haven't kissed"

As I sang "fun" I winked to everyone, causing hoots and hollers to roll through the crowd. And when I sang about the kisses, I blew one out into the audience. In the back, where all my friends were, I saw Bert catch it and pretend to swoon. I had to stop myself from laughing at his act.

"Next year I could be just as good
If you'll check out my
Christmas list

During this, I pushed back my hood, letting it fall lamely to my back, exposing all my curls. Since my hand was so far up my face, I continued and let my hand slowly trail down my face and to my neck.

"Santa baby
I want and really that's not
A lot

Been an angel all year,
Santa baby,
So hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa honey,
One little thing I really need
The deed
To a platinum mine

Santa baby,
So hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa cutie,
Fill my stocking with a duplex
And checks

Sign your 'x' on the line
Santa cutie,
And hurry down the chimney tonight

With the small pause in the lyrics, I strutted over to the small Christmas tree we had to the left as decoration and began to play with the fake pines.

"Come and trim my Christmas tree
With some decorations bought at
Tiffany's

I really do believe in you
Let's see if you believe in me

Santa baby,
Forgot to mention one little thing,
A ring
I don't mean on the phone"

I held up the ring that I had on my left ring finger, letting it shine in the light that was put on me. A smirk lit my face and I pressed my pinky to my plump lips while my thumb went to my ear, forming the telephone sign.

"Santa baby,
So hurry down the chimney tonight

Hurry down the chimney tonight

Hurry…

Tonight"

As the music began to fade and I only had the last few lines to sing, I started to dance my way to the edge of the stage, swaying my hips as I did so. And when the drums ended the song, I threw my hands up into the air and everyone started to clap.

I smiled at them all real wide and bowed, rolling my hand, telling them to go on. Mikey, surprisingly, was the first one to make it to me and jumped onto the stage, giving me a bouquet of red roses before hugging me. I laughed at him and did the same, giving him a kiss on the cheek for his kindness.

Everyone else made it to the stage just after he did, so we all settled on a group hug instead of individual ones. These were better because they were always so much warmer. And I was happy to notice that Taylor had joined us, and even better, that Frank had come to congratulate me before Tamara.

Everyone sort of dispersed after that, giving big hugs to other people that they knew, and the person who stayed next to me was Jeremy. I looked up at him and he smiled down at me, giving me a side hug and kissing me on the head.

"You did great, and you look amazing in your dress by the way."

"Why, thank you," I teased, doing a little curtsy. He snorted and we both ended up laughing.

I noticed that my dad was in the back, waving at me to come to him with a smile on his face. I excused myself from my friend and jumped off the stage, hurrying over to him quickly. He hugged me tightly and whispered that I had done well into my ear. When I pulled away, we were both smiling wide, and he had pulled en envelope out of thin air.

I cocked and eyebrow at him, wondering what it was. Without a word, he just handed it to me, letting me figure out what it was myself.

I opened the lip of the paper and pulled out what was inside. I was confused when I saw two pieces of paper. I skimmed it quickly and was shocked at what I read. My dark eyes looked up at my father, and his smile only got wider.

"Opa paid for us to fly out to California for Christmas."

Honestly, I screamed like a little girl when I heard that. It surprised the people around us, but I didn't really care. I threw my arms around my father's neck and hugged him tightly. He did the same with a chuckle, rubbing my back.

Soon after that, I danced back to my friends, leaving the tickets with my father. Because of the commotion of all the guests around, no one except for the people closest to me had heard me scream. When I made it back to my group, I was lifted up again, this time by Bob.

"Come one, let's all get to Envy's house so can we open presents!"

As if that was a signal, my large group of fourteen, fifteen including Dad, rushed to the doors. I didn't have a say in anything, seeing as Bob still had a tight hold on me. Every once and a while, I had to duck to make sure my head didn't connect with the frames of the doors we went through.

And, seeing as how excited everyone seemed to be, everyone was at my house in no time. I didn't even have time to get out of the car myself before I was pulled along by Taylor, laughing the whole time.

My house was nicely decorated, an average tree in the corner of the living room, lights making it shine against the ornaments. Instead of presents being under the tree, they were all in the middle of the living room. Everyone made a circle around them, and the glow in everyone's eyes reminded me that they were really children on the inside.

"Okay, I demand to go first!" Dan exclaimed, picking out a particularly badly wrapped present and holding it up in the air proudly.

"I got Roxy," he said with a smirk and threw the small box at her.

"Oh god," she mumbled after catching it, "God knows what this could possibly be."

She unwrapped it quickly with her nimble fingers and fished out a doll with longish black hair and dark clothes on. She cocked her eyebrow and looked at Dan, who was still standing up proudly.

"It's a doll of Gerard!" He sighed, as if it was completely obvious. A chorus of "oh"s went throughout our group. Dan's mouth was open for a minute before he sat down sadly.

"Okay, me next, and I had Mikey," Taylor said, picking up a very small package and handing it to the boy.

He smiled at her and took it gently from her hands, unwrapping it quickly to see a case for his glasses. He opened that and saw that there was a pair of new, smaller glasses in it, just without the prescriptions.

"I thought you could use something more stylish. Those bottle cap glasses are getting a little old."

Mikey blushed at that, but thanked her all the same. He then stood up and searched in the pile for the present. He threw some of them to the side that were in the way, causing a "Hey!" to come from some of us.

"This is for Quinn," he said with a large grin.

Quinn caught the present when Mikey threw it at him, and opened it smoothly, as to save the wrapping paper, and snorted when he saw it. He held it up for everyone to see, and we all started laughing at the sight of a cast.

"For what almost could have been," Mikey cheered, and we all did the same.

"Well, if we're going to play like that, then it's my turn," the boy announced, getting up from his spot on the floor to walk into the kitchen.

"Why is his gift in the kitchen?" Ray asked me. I could only shrug my shoulders and watch as he came out with something behind his back.

Quinn walked up to Jepha, who was staring at him with a question in his eyes. I knew something bad was going to happen when the blond let and evil smirk grace his face. He took the thing out from behind his back, a piece of pizza, and smacked it right into Jepha's face, smearing it all around.

"Pay back!"

The entire group burst into laughter as the brunette could only sit there and stare at us all in shock. Globs of cheese that had stuck to his face slowly fell off, making the scene even more comical.

"I'm… going to go clean up," Jepha said with a chuckle before running up stairs to the bathroom. When we all calmed down, Gerard stood, going to get his gift.

"For you Tamara."

She smiled angelically at him and opened the present, giggling when she saw what it was. Frank blushed a deep red and hid his face when his girlfriend turned the picture frame towards us, showing us an adorable looking Frank as a baby. He only had a diaper on and looked like he was dancing. The girls "awww"ed while the boys just pointed and laughed at Frankie.

Said boy turned to Gerard with a glare. "Where did you even get that picture?!"

"Your mom," Ger said with a smirk, sitting down next to Roxy who was now laughing.

"Alright, to save the boy from embarrassment," I said, standing up, "I'll go. I got Ray."

I picked up ones of the gift bags there and walked it over to Ray. He smiled up at me and threw the tissue paper all over the place to get to what was at the bottom. Some of it even landed in his hair, and it fit nicely with his afro.

He took out the necklace that I had gotten him, a metal piece that looked like a pick with a guitar on the front, and turned it backwards to see what was engraved on the back.

"For Envy's Sugar Ray," he read, a small and cute smile on his face. He looked up at me and pulled me down onto his lap, hugging me tightly and saying thank you over and over again into my ear. I helped him put it on while Frank went up.

"This is for Jeremy," he said, handing the boy the very thin square. He eyed the gift with his mix matched eyes and opened it, and I saw those beautiful eyes light up. From here, I could tell it was a record of some sort, probably of his favorite band, and he thanked Frank with a big smile on his face.

Frank, who had seemed reluctant at first, grinned at him and sat down next to Tamara, looking proud of himself.

"All clean!" Jepha announced, coming down the stairs with a now clean face. His clothes were still stained from the sauce, but there wasn't very much that he could do about that until he washed it, "And now it's my turn!"

He skipped over to the shrinking pile and picked up another gift bag, throwing it at Frank, who barely caught it. He dug inside until his fingers hit something and pulled out something that was a bronze color. He turned it to himself and laughed, putting it on his hands like a ring and showed it to everyone.

"Pansy," I read off the bronze knuckles, shaking my head. Leave it to Jepha to get the boy something like that.

"Now that Jepha went, I have to go!" Bob declared, pulling out the last gift bag and handing it to Taylor.

"Yes, my turn!" the blond squeal, pretty much tearing the pink bag apart.

She, too, had gotten a pair of brass knuckles, one for each had, and when she showed it to us, it read "Pansy Punisher".

"That way, when she punches him, it'll leave a pretty cool mark."

"You guys are horrible!" Frankie shouted, hiding behind his girlfriend, who just laughed at him.

"Alright, I know I don't know you that well Dan, but I got you, and knew that you're a drummer so…" Jeremy trailed off, pulling out something very small from the pile, leaving only one large gift, and gave it to Dan.

Dan opened it excitedly, and when he saw that it was a pair of black drum stick, with a signing from a band in silver Sharpie, he gave my friend a huge hug and said he couldn't wait to try them out.

"Now, don't think that someone got left out," Ray said, taking something out from behind his back and chucking it at Bert. Unlike everyone else, he didn't catch it and fumbled around, cursing as he did so. When he figured out what it was, he glared at Ray.

"Try to wash your hair sometime," he chuckled, motioning to the shampoo bottle, "Maybe you'll get more girl's like that."

"Sorry we don't all have luscious hair like yours," Bert mumbled, hurt. I laughed and stroked Ray's light brown hair.

"It is quite silky," I teased.

"Okay, enough with being mean to me," the greasy haired teen hissed, taking out an envelope from his pocket and shoved it at Gerard.

"Sweet, tickets to the art museum! Oh, now we can go Rox, and then I'll show you all the-"

Roxy put her hand over the pale man's mouth, shutting him up and motioned for the last exchange to continue.

"Well, seeing as there is only one thing left, I guess everyone knows who it is for," Tamara said nervously, glancing over at me.

The small girl picked it up and handed to me. I smiled at her and started to unwrap it, and got unwanted help from Quinn and Ray. I pushed them off and pulled off the last piece of wrapping paper, staring down at the gift the red head had bought for me.

"Tamara, this is amazing."

It was a large canvas that had a bunch of pictures on it, all looking like they had been painted. A lot of them were of just me when I was singing, microphone in my hand and singing out to the crowd. Unlike what I had thought while singing, I didn't look silly at all while using my hands.

Some other ones were from homecoming night; Roxy, Taylor and I smiling at the camera while Dad snapped picture after picture; all of us paired up into couples; all of us dancing.

On the side, there were pictures of me with almost everyone. Roxy and I when we were hanging out at my house, Taylor and I practicing in the Chorus room, Ray and Bob and I working/goofing off at the store, and even Frankie and I showing off our tattoos in our Halloween costumes.

And right in the middle of it all was a big group picture of every single person in this room. I remembered this day, one of the monthly half days that we had had, and we all decided to take a picture. The photographer, a random student, agreed to take the picture and we all had made our silliest faces and poses.

Tamara smiled at me, and I felt a pang in my heart as she did so. She had been so nice to me, a true friend, and I resented her for being in a relationship with Frankie. She had no idea that I liked him, so it wasn't her fault. I had no reason to hate her. In fact, she was being the perfect friend. All in all, Tamara was just perfect; especially the perfect match for Frank.

I smiled at her and stood up, giving her a warm hug. "Thank you Tamara."