Merry Christmas, I Could Care Less

Even though I didn't exactly believe Quinn and her fucking insane accusation against McKinley, that doesn't mean it didn't irk me. In fact, I spent the better half of that day on the couch in my boxers throwing back beers like I had nothing better to do. And in reality, I guess I didn't.

Tom had left.

Oli wasn't around.

Matt and Lee were always out with their goddamn girlfriends.

Jona was visiting his parent's in Australia.

God only knows where everyone else was.

And McKinley hadn't yet contacted me. Which I guess in some way was a good thing considering my state of mind at the moment.

McKinley was probably the only girl to have me completely pussy whipped. Before her I had maintained a few girlfriends, but none that had quite the control over me that Kinley did. And we weren't even really dating. How bloody pathetic was that? Honestly, I'd do anything for the bird. She was so captivating to me that it made it hard to think about anyone else when she was around. I wasn't exactly sure how she did it, but she had me wrapped tightly around her perfect little finger.

I must've fallen asleep somewhere in the midst of my thoughts of McKinley and Quinn's rage filled speech because I woke up to a loud knocking on the door. It was obvious that McKinley was on the other side and I slowly pushed myself to my feet and trudged over to the door where I unlocked it, leaving her to storm in, pushing past me roughly.

"Well 'lo ta yeh too," I muttered.

"I'm sorreh I jus' realleh wanna kill someone righ' now," she seethed, pacing back and forth in the kitchen. I took to leaning against the wall as I watched her burn a hole through the floor and mutter profanities. I had learned early on not to get in her way when she was like this. It was much better to wait till she was calm to ask what was wrong. If I did it now she would only snap at me. And when she finally seemed to calm down she turned around and turned all of her attention towards me in a slightly scary stare down.

"Yes...?" I asked her.

"I hate Quinn sometimes," she said finally.

Well that makes two of us...

"Why wha' 'appened?" I inquired curiously, seeing if I could piece things together from Quinn's previous conversation with me. Maybe if I was sneaking I could find out of there was any truth behind her words.

"She's jus' a right bitch sometimes! She's always actin' like she's better than me an' it pisses me the fuck off," she fumed, her fists balled together at her sides. I walked towards her cautiously, like she was a wild animal.

"Calm down, okay? Yeh'll give yehrself an ulcer," I chuckled, placing my hands on her shoulders and rubbing them softly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again and focusing on me. I gave her a small smile and leaned down to kiss her softly. She grinned. "We all know Quinn 'as tha tendency ta overreact 'bout fhings. Jus' stay 'ere tonigh', don't stress too much. We'll jus' watch a movie or somefhing and order take out, yeah?"

She smiled widely and threw her arms around my neck, pulling me down towards her. "Matty, yeh're wonderful sometimes, ya know tha'?"

"I suppose," I joked.

I made good on my promise of watching movies and getting take-out. Only once the food was gone we didn't really end up paying a lot of attention to the movie. Even if we were watching Star Wars. It was honestly too hard for me to keep my hands off of McKinley. Especially when had decided she didn't want to wear the jeans and top she had come over in, and had since changed into nothing more than one of my tee-shirts.

When people wondered why I liked McKinley as much as I did, I just wish I could have shown them moments like these. And no, I don't mean the sex, I mean the moments afterwards. And the moments before. The moments where she would just curl up next to me and our mindless chatter would fill the room. Moments where she would take to tracing all of my tattoos with her fingers, something she could easily do with her eyes closed at this point. Moments where I would tell her tour stories and her melodic laugh would fill the air. Maybe I was stupid and too struck by love to see what Quinn had told me, but deep in my heart I knew she at least liked me. She had too. This wasn't how you treated someone you were using.

"She's gettin' laid too," Kinley explained later that night. She was sitting on my stomach, wearing absolutely nothing as she explained in further detail her problems with her best friend. "Yeh fhink that'd mean she wouldn't be so fuckin' wound up, but she is."

It was obvious she had no idea Tom was the one fucking Quinn and I think that meant I shouldn't be the one to tell her. So I just kept my mouth shut as she went on.

"Maybe 'e's got a small dick, yeah?" She asked. I laughed out loud hard that I ended up rolling over and causing McKinley to fall down onto the mattress next to me. She smiled and looked quite pleased she had made me laugh so hard. "Yeh fhink I'm funny, eh?"

"For different reasons than yeh fhink," I continued to laugh.

"Oh yeah? Do yeh know somefhing I don't?" She asked, her eyes twinkling from beside me.

"Can't say I do, love," I sighed, leaning over to place a chaste kiss on her lips. She smiled and then rolled over so she was on her back, her hands carelessly placed on her bare stomach as she just stared up at the celeing.

"I really am sorreh fer me parents yeh know," she spoke softly. "They can be proper twats when they wanna be."

"So they wanna be twats all the time then?" I asked, rolling over to my side and nuzzling my nose in the crook of her neck. She laughed and pushed me away softly.

"I suppose," she shrugged. "But uh, there's another party..."

I already knew what she was going to ask. And I already knew what I was going to say. This girl could have asked me to jump off a bridge and I probably would have fucking done it.

"Yeah?"

"And I want yeh ta come wiff me," she bit her lip. "'s a realleh fancy one. 's at one of me parent's best friend's banquet hall and 's for charity."

"Do I 'ave a choice?" I smirked. She smiled as well and rolled over towards me.

"Not realleh," she shook her head, her nose scrunched up.

"Didn't fhink so," I quipped, pressing my lips to her's again.

It was amazing really how out of place I felt within minutes of arriving at the hall. My pants seemed too skinny, my tie seemed crooked, and my jacket felt all wrong. The only thing that felt right about Kinley and I’s arrival was how she looked, which was absolutely stunning. If there was one thing the bird was, it was fit. The dress she wore was silver and hugged her curves, and the black heels she had on made her legs look like they went on for days. Her hair was pulled up in some complicated looking side-twist thing, with her streak of pink prominent as always. She looked proper gorgeous, which I made sure to tell her as we walked up to the entrance of the party.

She just laughed. “Yeh betta keep in mind how fit I look, ‘cause yeh’re probably goin’ ta ‘ate me afta tanigh’.”

I didn’t answer. We both knew that wasn’t true. I could never hate Kinley.

Although, she was right—the idea of hating her, or at least her parents and everything they were about, passed through my mind a few times once we got into the party.

She hadn’t been kidding. There were fancy suits and expensive dresses everywhere we looked. The air just reeked of stuck-up, but I wasn’t really surprised. This was what I had been expecting afterall—this is what I had prepared myself for. And yet all the preparing in the world wouldn’t have been enough for that night.

Once she shed her coat and handed it to the coat-check, she looped her arm through mine. “We should probable find me parents so they know we’re ‘ere.”

I nodded. “Yeah.” It was all I could say. I was trying as hard as I could not to fuck up; not to show too many tattoos, not to get too many stares because of the plugs in my ears, not to do anything wrong.

We went off in search of Kin’s parents, and found them pretty easily actually. It was like Kinley had them on her radar. Whether that was to actually find them on most days or to avoid them, I wasn’t sure. But we found them.

“McKinley! Matthew,” her father greeted us first, hugging McKinley and just giving me a short nod and a quick handshake. As we shook, I could feel him burning wholes into the backs of my hands at the tattoos there. I tried to ignore this, but it was hard to. I shrunk back and stuffed my hands in my pockets.

“Hi daddy, hi mum,” she said, giving her mum a quick hug. It was forced and I could tell Kinley was pulling out her best act tonight.

“So Matthew,” her mum said, turning her icy stare on me. “We’ve been seein’ yeh at quite a few of these fhings recently. To be honest, I didn’t know yeh ‘ad so many suits.”

It was a dig. Not a very deep one, but I had a feeling she was just warming up. I smiled and nodded politely. “Well, Kinley asked.” It was all I said, because it was all I had.

“Ah yes, and when McKinley asks, she usually gets what she wants,” her father added with a nod. “But I guess as ‘er boyfriend, we’d expect nofhin’ less, aye?”

I stopped short before answering and looked at McKinley. There he was, calling me her boyfriend and she wasn’t correcting him. What exactly did that mean?

She brought a finger up to her hair and wrapped the pink strand around it slowly, as if trying to draw attention to it. She wasn’t saying anything, just smiling at her parents and twirling the hair.

It wasn’t long before her mother was shaking her head in disgust. “Honestly, McKinley. Could you at least hide that hideous pink stripe? It makes yeh look trashy.”

“Really?” she asked sweetly before turning her gaze to mine. “What do yeh fhink of it Matty?”

Oh Jesus Christ. Of course she’d drag me into this. I swallowed hard and shrugged. “I mean, I fhink—“ I stopped short to catch her parents glaring at me. But as I brought my attention back to Kinley, she was smiling and batting her eyelashes and I knew what I had to say. “I like it,” I finally blurted out.

Her mother scoffed. “Of course yeh do,” she said quietly. “Between yeh tattoos and yeh ears, yeh probably told McKinley to get the pink.”

I wanted to correct her and tell her I had nothing to do with that decision, that McKinley made that one on her own as she did with most of her decisions because no one could influence her, not even me. I wanted to yell at her and tell her that if she knew her daughter at all, she’d know that. But I didn’t. I stayed quiet. Kinley didn’t though.

“Actually, he helped me pick out the color. ‘e liked this best. Says it brings out my eye color.”
My jaw dropped. That wasn’t true, but it didn’t matter. Her parents were already thoroughly disgusted with me. Shaking her head, her mum said, “Make sure to say ‘lo to the Thomas’ before yeh leave,” and then her parents were leaving.

Once they were out of earshot, I turned to Kin. “What the fuck was tha’?” I growled lowly.

Her eyes twinkled in amusement. “Yeh sound sexy when yeh’re mad, Matty,” she purred, taking a step closer to me.

I backed up. I wasn’t going to back down. “Yeh sure as ‘ell like ta make me look like propa shit when yeh parents are around, Kinley,” I said, the venom in my voice not disappearing. “First, pointin’ out all me tattoos at tha’ first party and ‘ow I’m in a band. Now, blamin’ the pink in yeh ‘air on me when I ‘ad nofhin’ ta do wiff it!”

Her smile disappeared. I was expecting her to drag me away to somewhere more private, but then I was reminded of my fight with that bloke at one of the parties and I realized she wasn’t going to. She wanted me to make a scene.

“Why do yeh care, Matt?” she spat at me, taking a few steps closer so she could be in my face. “Why do yeh wan’ ta impress me parents? Wha’ does it matta?”

“Why do yeh wan’ them ta ‘ate me so much?” I retorted quickly.

For once, I had managed to silence McKinley. She just stood there and looked at me.

Then, suddenly, I was reminded of Quinn and her rage induced speech. And suddenly, I was just as angry. “Son of a bitch,” I said lowly, shoving a hand through my hair. “The bird was righ’.”

“Wha’?”

I looked back up at Kinley. The anger in her eyes was still there, but now she just seemed confused. I shook my head. No. Quinn couldn’t have been right. Kinley wasn’t using me. Was she?

Suddenly, flashbacks of the parties all went through my head. Kinley making me sound extra awful to her parents. Kinley egging me on with that stuck up bloke and not bothering to stop me from punching him. Kinley making me seem like a terrible influence and not once correcting her father when he said I was her boyfriend. It made sense now. I had been a fucking idiot to miss it before, but now I couldn’t do anything but see it.

“Yeh bitch,” I spat.

I didn’t say anymore as I turned on my heel and left the party. I couldn’t be there, be with McKinley anymore. I had to get out, and fast.