Wax

“Kiyann, can you make Jet lunch, I have to go to work.”

“But mom, it’s Christmas, you can’t go to work.”

“Well wait to open your presents, okay? We’ll only be a little while, an hour at most.” She closed the argument, giving me a quick hug and a peck on the cheek. She did the same to Jet, and my dad pet my head.

I was thirteen, and Jet was six. Me and Jet did as we were told, we ate lunch, watched a couple movies while we waited, and then we ate dinner. I made a quick pot of macaroni &cheese, not quite the Christmas dinner we had planned, but we hadn’t planned for our parents to be gone all day either.

Jet was curled up on my lap, our puppy in his arms, sucking his thumb, something he had never grown out of. I could tell he was beginning to fall asleep, and we wouldn’t be opening presents tonight. I had no idea where my parents were. Daisy, our cat, jumped up and curled up against my leg. I gave in, and laid down on our oversized couch, jet in my arms, the cat curled up in my legs, and Jet holding the young Siberian husky against his chest, and I fell asleep.

I decided to leave school early, instead of going back to class and having my teachers sign my suspension slip, and get a head start on my vacation. My family was having a Christmas party, on the 23rd, which are only a couple days away. I had planning to do, and I had to buy decorations and food. Usually, I’d have my cousin, or Rex and Tessa with me. But I’m suspended alone this time. It was a rare occasion that I’d be suspended without Rex or Tessa by my side. We didn’t get in trouble often, like other kids, but we were known to do it together. It was probably the only reason juniors and seniors accepted us, and weren’t ashamed to hang around with us, we actually lived, we weren’t uptight. We weren’t what you would call “popular”, but we were well known.

It was still snowing, and I wondered if it planned on stopping. While everyone else hoped for a blizzard, I hoped for it all to melt, so my parents could get home from work in time to celebrate Christmas with us, the right way. Jet still loved Christmas; the one lonely day hadn’t affected him much. He didn’t care what day he got presents on, as long as he got them. I on the other hand, I always expected Christmas to be a tragedy, even if there was no reason. It was forever imprinted in my mind. Christmas never excited me, besides the fact that we got a couple weeks off from school, and new clothes. Other than that, it was just any other day to me.

I walked down the aisles in Home Depot, looking for anything Christmassy, when my phone started ringing so horny by live crew. I laughed and answered, knowing very well it was either Tessa, or Rex.

“Yo, what’s up?” I asked, picking up Christmas streamers and looking at them.
“Want to come pick me and Rex up? We got suspended.” Tessa said, sounding immensely irritated. I sighed,

“What did you guys do?” I questioned, imagining the possibilities.
“We put Viagra in Mr. Sheehan’s coffee…” She said, cautiously, awaiting my reaction. I sometimes treated my friends like my kids, and watched out for them. But usually I’d just laugh with them, or sometimes I’d be the one being yelled at. I laughed out loud, and accidentally dropped everything in my hands. Of course, I made a scene, and people watched.
“Are you serious?” I asked, loudly. I could hear her chuckle, and Rex say something in the background along the lines of “Fucking freezing”.

“Yeah, I’m serious. But really, can you come get us?” She asked, sounding rather desperate. I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah sure, I’ll be a while though, I’m leaving the Home Depot now.” I said, walking out the sliding doors into the icy wind. Rex had a car, but his mom crashed hers, so she took his and drove him around now. Tessa hadn’t gotten her license yet, so she usually stuck with me. We said good bye and hung up.

I drove to the school, taking my time in the snow, my windshield wipers out and in use.
When I pulled in, I immediately recognized Tessa’s long, jet black hair that contrasted greatly with Rex’s sandy blonde color. Tessa wore her grey Hollister jacket, black jeans, and converse. Rex wore his black Northface, Nike’s, and what I like to call ‘sex pants’ – slightly baggy jeans with holes in the legs. Not surprising, he wore sex pants on a regular basis. I came to a stop, a couple yards away, and honked. They turned towards me, and ran. Rex climbed into the passenger seat and Tessa in the back.

“Jesus Christ, my balls are freezing.” He muttered under his breath. I turned to him for a second, my eyebrow raised questioningly. He returned a confused look.
“What?” he asked. I chuckled.

“Your balls? Would you like me to help you warm them up for you?” I asked, in a serious tone, but obviously kidding. My friends had learned to never take me seriously. Even when I was mad or upset, I’d probably laugh it off within a couple minutes. He smirked.

“I’d say yeah, but I think it would result in disappointment.” He stated, rubbing his hands together to warm them up. I reached over and turned the heating dial all the way up, blasting them both with hot air. They both cursed at me for being an ass, and then changed the subject to where we should go and what we should do. We were always together, and I felt bad about Vincent not being with us, but I think he deserved it, after the way her acted towards me earlier.

We decided on going shopping for our Christmas party. I figured my mom wouldn’t mind, these two were practically her own kids. My mom had always wanted more kids, but my father disagreed; he thought two was more than enough. They came to my house whenever they needed. If they ever needed to talk to me, visit my parents, need a place to stay overnight, somewhere to play out a hangover, or even just to take my food, even if I wasn’t home.

I party, oh home of chaos. It was just around the corner from the school, but it was always empty.

We got out of the car and approached the front doors, getting covered in snow in the process. It was coming down hard and nearly everything was covered by now. We all went our separate ways once we were inside, gathering random things in our arms and meeting in the middle. I found streamers, and helium balloons. I smirked, put the balloon to my lips, and inhaled. I looked to the man next to me, and spoke as clearly as I could

“Hello sir.” The two words came out sounding like Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing before I burst out into high pitched squeals. The man just looked around, and walked away hastily, obviously not wanting to be seen around me. My eyes began to water as Rex and Tessa ran over at my sound, and grabbed their own balloons. I picked up a can of silly string, and sprayed them both, while taking another puff off my balloon. Rex rang my neck with streamers as Tessa prayed me back, all over, and put feathers on me. I laughed and pulled Tess along with me, by her neck. Tessa got glitter glue and peacock feathers Rex got covered in ‘used baby powder’, and I got that slime in my hair. You know that goopy stuff that comes in the small containers? Yeah, that was all up in my hair.

And to make matters worse, we were on the outside of the double doors that created the barrier of the part store. The snow was still coming down, and we were one huge mess. Yes, we got kicked out of I party. I looked back and forth between my two best friends.