Perfectly Dysfunctional

I woke up to the feeling of lips against my own. I smiled and opened my eyes to see Nathan looking down at me, “Merry Christmas,” his eyes sparkled as he said it and I hoisted myself up onto my elbows and pecked his lips.

“Merry Christmas,” I smiled then looked at the time that read ten past eight in the morning. We spent a while in Nathan’s room before deciding to wake people up. I went to wake Emma up but found her bed empty and not even slept in. I frowned then heard Nathan whispering my name so crept towards the sound of his voice. He was standing outside Jay’s room door so I peaked my head around to find Emma curled into Jay’s chest. I pouted, “I don’t want to wake them,” I whispered.

He gave me a look that said ‘tough’, “It’s Christmas Day, I want presents!” He whispered back before running and throwing himself on the bed. I laughed loudly as they jerked awake. Siva and Nareesha were hosting Christmas dinner despite Rebekah only being just over a week old, but they insisted. Everyone would be in and out of their house visiting each others parents whilst Emma and I stayed to help with the dinner Emma was cooking. When it was Nathan’s parents turn though, he was insisting that I went with him.

We headed downstairs after exchanging ‘Merry Christmases’ with each other, and after Emma tried to kill Nathan) and gave each other our presents. We made ourselves breakfast then got ourselves ready for the day ahead. We headed over to Siva and Nareesha’s to find both of their parents just leaving, so we wished them Merry Christmas before heading in to find Tom, Max and Michelle already there. We spent a while giving each other gifts and chatting, then everyone left so we started to help prepare the dinner. Nareesha had told Siva to go with everyone else so it was just the three of us and Rebekah. A few hours later, I heard a car horn beep and quickly washed my hands saying I’d be back as soon as I could before leaving and jumping in the car.

“Are you nervous?” Nathan asked me and I shook my head.

“Hell no,” I said, but the answer really was ‘fuck yeah’.

He chuckled, clearly not believing me, “Don’t be, they’re good people.”

“I really don’t doubt that for a second,” I smiled, “They raised you, didn’t they?” I grinned and soon enough he pulled up in front of his parent’s house. He grabbed my hand as he opened the door and I heard that everyone else was already here.

“Oh, Nath, is that you?” I heard an accent identical to Nathan’s and couldn’t help but grin.

“Yeah, mum, hi!” he said and a woman with short blonde hair emerged from the kitchen, “Merry Christmas!” He let my hand go to hug his mum and I smiled then waved at everyone else who was in the living room waving back at me. “Mum, this is Jenny,” Nathan turned to me.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said politely and she smiled.

“Of course this is Jenny, her accent’s a dead give-away,” she smiled and pulled me in for a hug, “You can call me Karen.”

I smiled, “Well it’s good to finally meet you, Karen,” I smiled and she laughed before shouting Nathan’s sister.

“NATH!” she bounded down the stairs, a blur of long blonde hair, and jumped the last three into his arms.

He laughed and held her tight, “Hi Jess,” he grinned, “I’ve missed you! Merry Christmas!”

She grinned, “Merry Christmas!” Her eyes were the same shade as Nathan’s and they sparkled in a similar way. The whole exchange I’d just witnessed made me smile and, when I turned my gaze towards Karen, she was smiling too.

“Jess, this is Jenny,” Nathan introduced me when he pulled away from her.

“Its nice to meet you,” I smiled. She eyed me then broke out into a grin, and surprised me by pulling me into a hug almost as tight as Nathan’s.

“So this is who you’ve been banging on about for months?” My jaw dropped and my cheeks flared, but not as much as Nathan’s. I heard everyone in the living room laughing.

“Nice one, Jess!” I heard Toms voice and laughed.

“Jesus Jess, I’m home for under five minutes,” he muttered, “Shut up,” he flicked her ear and she reached out and slapped his arm as he walked by. After about half an hour of chatting with Nathan’s family, we had to leave so that they could see everyone else’s family before heading back to Siva and Nareesha’s, so Nathan took me back so I could finish helping with dinner.

“Was that as bad as it seemed?” he chuckled.

“Not at all,” I smiled as he pulled up outside, “It seemed to be worse for you than it was for me, what with your sister and all,” I teased and watched as his cheeks went pink. I laughed, “I’m joking! Thank you,” I leaned over and gave him a kiss, “I’ll see you later.”

At seven pm, we all gathered to have Christmas dinner a little later than usual. It was absolutely incredible – if we do say so ourselves – considering I’ve never cooked it before, and especially for so many people. After we ate we all had some wine – or beer – and chilled for a while watching Home Alone, much to Emma’s utter delight. Nareesha and Siva took turns on checking in on Rebekah, and all in all, I had a pretty spectacular Christmas day. We left just after midnight and headed back home. When we got there we stuck in another DVD which happened to be Elf much to my delight, and we all sat on the sofa to watch it. I was curled into Nathan’s side, and ten minutes into the film, Jay literally hoisted Emma up – making her scream for a while in fright and us laugh at her reaction – and put her across his lap. We all dozed in and out of sleep when it was on, and when it finished we were all quick to head up to bed. I went into Nathan’s drawers and pulled out one of his t-shirts.

“Another t-shirt?” he smirked as he watched me pull it over my head.

“Damn straight,” I smiled, “I like them.”

He smirked and opened his arms for me to step into so I did, “Well good, because I like them on you.” He held me around my waist and I wrapped my arms around his neck. He leaned down and kissed me gently. “I hope you had a good Christmas,” he whispered. I was unable to speak so I nodded against the crook of his neck and he kissed my head then nibbled on my neck. “Good,” he lifted me so my legs were around his waist and carried me to his bed. He lowered me down and pecked my lips before getting in beside me and flicking the lamp off and I curled into him sighing happily. This was the best Christmas I’ve had since the last Christmas with my gran alive. I let my arm rest on Nathan’s waist and pulled myself closer to him, and I felt him smile against the top of my head.