Even the Sun Sets in Paradise

The weeks leading up to Christmas were hectic. I saw slightly less of Layton again, and from what Ellis had told me, he had started dating this other girl called Alice. Without a doubt, I still had feelings for him and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous, but I knew there was nothing I could do about it. If Layton wasn’t willing to stop the drugs, I wasn’t willing to be in a relationship. Especially now I had the baby to think of, I needed to avoid drama. Rowan took me Christmas shopping to buy presents for everyone, but I had to stick to a budget since I needed to save for the baby. The pregnancy wasn’t actually too bad. The morning sickness and other discomforts of early pregnancy were long gone, but the new challenges of the third trimester were not causing too much trouble just yet. Apart from occasional cramps and mood swings, things weren’t too bad. I hoped we could get past Christmas before anything started to become a problem. Nothing new had happened with George, not that I was aware of anyway. I still refused to be alone for long periods though, using the baby as an excuse. It was better to be safe than sorry.

On Christmas Eve, Julie, Dave, Ellis and I went out for a meal and then watched Christmas movies all evening.
“Mum, I need to ask you a serious question,” Ellis smirked as we finished watching Elf.
“Okay then.”
“Do you think we could have one extra person for Christmas dinner tomorrow?” he asked, smiling sweetly. I mentally went over who it could possibly be. The guys and Mel were spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with their families before heading over to ours, but Julie already knew that, so I couldn’t think who else it would be.
“Who might this person be Ellis?” Julie asked him.
“It’s just this girl…she’s called Amber,” he said quietly, staring down at the ground. I noticed he was blushing. I sat forward in my seat.
“You have a girlfriend?” I squealed.
“I don’t know,” he shrugged, “It’s not official. It’s just her parents are away for Christmas and I don’t want her being on her own.”
“Ellis has a girlfriend,” I chanted teasingly.
“Jenna, shut the fuck up,” he muttered, elbowing me in the side. I shoved him away, punching him as hard as I could in the arm before he started to tickle me. I hated how ticklish I was.
“Stop it!” I squealed and he smirked, pulling me into a hug.
“You started it.”
“Cut it out you two. You’re a pain in the ass,” Dave chuckled to himself.
“Tell me about this Amber then,” I ordered, “Is she nice?” Ellis let out a small laugh.
“Of course. I only date nice girls.”
“But she’s not like…” I trailed off.
“Oh no, she’s not a whore like Maci,” he assured me.
“Language,” frowned Julie.
“Sorry mama,” he grinned, “So is it alright if she comes round now then and stays here tonight?” Julie sighed, rolling her eyes before nodding.
“Love you mum,” he smirked as he went into the other room to ring her.

I sat up with a jolt, shaking and in cold sweats. Out the corner of my eye, I saw the time. It was 5.04am. I switched on the light because I was scared and I couldn’t get the image of George out of my head. The nightmares never went away. Sighing, I clambered out of bed and got in the shower, knowing there was no way I would be able to get back to sleep now. My mood lifted slightly when I remembered it was Christmas day. I had always loved the idea of Christmas, but this would hopefully be the first one I would actually enjoy. I decided to curl my hair and dress nicely because of the occasion. I wore a lace skater dress that fell to just above my knees, which showed off my growing bump, along with a pale pink woollen cardigan to keep me warm. Then I applied my make-up and went quietly downstairs, careful not to wake anyone. When I got downstairs, I switched on the light and grabbed a glass of water. I still felt a bit shaky because of the nightmare. My eyes fell on the giant piles of presents under the tree. It made me smile and realise how lucky I was to finally have a family that cared about me. For a moment, I forgot everything about the past and I felt perfectly happy, just for a moment. I heard footsteps on the stairs and turned around to see who it was. It was a tall slim girl with a bright grin and gorgeous blonde hair that was tied up into a messy bun on top of her head. She was wearing blue pyjama shorts and one of Ellis’s t-shirts. I figured it must have been Amber. I went to bed before she arrived last night.
“Hi,” she said quietly, reaching out her arms to give me a hug, “You must be Jenna.”
“Yeah,” I smiled warmly, “You must be Amber. What are you doing up at this time?”
“I couldn’t sleep. I’m like a kid at Christmas; I get so excited I can’t sleep,” she admitted, “What about you? Baby keeping you awake?”
“Something like that,” I told her.
“Thank you so much for letting me spend Christmas with you guys,” she smiled.
“Don’t be silly. It’s great to have you here.”
“Aww thanks,” she blushed, “I just felt bad you know, because I’ve never met Ellis’s family before so I didn’t think you’d want me intruding.”
“Honestly, it’s fine,” I told her, “I’ve never seen Ellis bring a girl home before so you must be special.”
“Aww, you’re really nice,” she grinned, “You look gorgeous by the way, I would have got ready myself but I didn’t want to wake Ellis up.”
“Thank you,” I blushed, looking down at the ground. I never knew how to respond to compliments. Amber and I chatted solidly for the next couple of hours. She was actually really easy to talk to. I was nervous at first but I relaxed a bit when I realised how nice and non-judgemental she was. She asked me about how my pregnancy was going and how I was doing at school and I asked her about her job and how long she and Ellis had been together. Then we prepared as much of the food as we could to save Julie some time. By the time it got to a more reasonable hour, the pair of us were so excited that we couldn’t wait any longer to go and get everyone up. Ellis moaned and grumbled about how he wanted to go back to sleep but eventually did as he was told. Julie and Dave were already getting ready thankfully.