A Story to Tell Your Friends

“Mom! We’re back!” I called through the house, kicking off my shoes and putting my coat on the rack. I was apprehensive, to say the least, but Jack had put his calm and collected face back on and that made me feel a little more confident. If Jack felt okay about this, I’m sure it would be fine.
“Oh, Clara, I’m glad you’re back,” she smiled warmly as I made my way into the kitchen. “Did you get those apples we needed?”
“Yep,” I replied, dumping the bag on the counter before jumping into a stool. “You sure that’s all you need? I don’t mind heading back out.”
“Well, I’m assuming you bought yourself candy while you were out to keep you quiet for the rest of the night, so no.” I snorted loudly, but couldn’t argue with her logic, especially considering Jack chose that moment to come in with the bag of candy we’d bought ourselves at the mall. “Hi, Jack. Did you two have a nice morning?”
“Absolutely. Clara has been showing me the sights.”
“I hope she didn’t show you anything too ridiculous.”
“Not until we got to the candy store,” he chuckled. I paused as I leaned over the counter, reaching for food my mother had been in the middle of prepping.
“Hey, no twelve-year-old is getting the last box of sour candies on my watch. That shit is mine.”
“You know when you mocked me for saying you were terrifying...?”
“You’re 28, you shouldn’t be scared of me,” I scoffed. “That kid, on the other hand, had everything to be scared of if he tried to take my damn candy.”
“You should never have children,” my mother told me. I looked at her, stuffing the stolen food in my mouth and chewing slowly.
“I would be the most amazing mother,” I told her. “It’s everyone else’s little shits who need to watch out.”
“Clara, you can’t call children ‘little shits’,” she scolded. I scoffed again, catching a glance of Jack’s amused face.
“Hey, Jack, can I have a word?” I snapped my head around at the sound of my brother’s voice, narrowing my eyes at him. He ignored me, continuing to look at Jack.
“Sure,” Jack shrugged in response. I turned my head to look at him, but he only shrugged once again to indicate he had no idea before leaving behind Marky.
“What’s that about?” I asked, as soon as the pair had left.
“Nothing. It’s between them.”
“I’m gonna eavesdrop.” I stood up, immediately turning to leave.
“Clara!” My mom hissed, making me hesitate. “You can’t. Leave them alone.”
“Make me,” I snorted, continuing on my path. I stopped temporarily in the entrance hall, listening for them, before realising that they were on the front porch. I cracked the living room window (far enough away from the door for them not to see me, but close enough that I could hear) and remained there as they talked.
“She’s my little sister, my only sister. If you so much as make her cry—” I held back my snort and ‘too late’ so as not to give myself up.
“I get it, man. I have a sister too,” Jack replied, as diplomatic as ever.
“But this is my sister,” he snapped in return. “She’s just some girl to you but she’s my sister.”
“If you think she’s just ‘some girl’ to me, you’ve been following the wrong story.”
“Look, I know what you’re like—”
“No, you don’t,” Jack told him bluntly. Jack didn’t annoy easily and it seemed like Mark had actually begun to piss him off. I felt a small smile tugging at my lips when I realised that his annoyance was in defence of me. “I’ve done some shit, but I will never knowingly hurt Clara. I’ve made mistakes, some of them with her, but we worked it out. You need to learn to trust her. She’s not five, she’s not fifteen, she’s an adult and she knows what she’s doing. I’m just lucky she’s happy with me right now.” A stunned silence followed his outburst, finally stumping Marky. I loved it. I’d never managed to keep the asshole quiet for longer than ten seconds at a time and I’d been trying for 25 years.
“Does she know about everything?”
“I’ve told her plenty and I’m sure Tammy told her more. She’s in this with her eyes wide open, man. No tricks.” Marky paused again and I could tell he wanted nothing more than to continue to hate Jack, unfortunately for us both, Jack was the worst person to be mad at, because he just talked way too much sense in situations like this. “Look, I love your sister, I promise you can punch me if I do anything to hurt her. I’d do anything for her and what she wants right now is for us to get along.”
“I can do that,” Marky replied hesitantly.
“Good. Now, can we go back inside? It’s fucking freezing out here.” I could almost picture Marky rolling his eyes and shaking his head as he muttered something about California, but instead moved myself away from the window. The boys returned inside and I watched Marky return to the kitchen where my mom was still cooking. Jack stayed back, returning his jacket to the rack. I jumped on him as he stepped back, grabbing me instinctively as I pressed a kiss to his lips. “What was that for?” He chuckled.
“For being cute as shit.” He chuckled again, kissing me once more.
“You were eavesdropping, weren’t you?”
“Oh, damn straight I was eavesdropping.” He shook his head, but continued to smile as he put me back down on the floor.
“You’re the worst.”
“I am the best and you know it.”
“Monopoly!” Marky shouted, re-entering the room with the box held high. It was now around seven and Marky and I were ‘getting along’ again, which in this context meant being absolute dickholes and waiting for our parents to tell us we’d gone too far. Jack was still mildly on edge, not allowing himself to be dragged into our normal back and forth, so I’d laid it on extra thick with Marky. I was glad Jack was still nervous (I know, I’m awful) because it put my absolute hissy fit in November into the vague realms of a normal reaction (super awful, I get it).
“Bitch, please, it’s time to open our Christmas Eve presents!” I retaliated, having been moaning that it was time for my Christmas Eve box since around 2pm, because it meant new PJs and I was down for lounging in my jammies all day at Christmas. Oh, screw it, I’m always down for lounging in my jammies all day.
“Oooh, yes!” I grinned widely as Marky took another sip of his (heavily spiked) eggnog, grateful that he was finally on my side. “Mom, Christmas Eve boxes?!” I watched as his eyes lit up like a child, giggling to myself. We’d been ‘sneaking’ extra portions of rum into our eggnog for the last two hours, so Marky and I were being teenagers, while Jack was being shockingly reasonable and drinking his drinks slowly. I hated him for it, but I was way too tipsy to actually care.
“What if I didn’t get you one?” She chuckled, watching our faces drop as the pair of us began spluttering our protests. “You’re adults now! You have your own homes!”
“Stop teasing them, Penny,” my dad laughed. “You won’t hear the end of it.” He leaned over the edge of the sofa, pulling out a box at a time. “Mark,” he read out, handing the first box to my brother, “Clara,” he handed the next to me, “and Jack,” he pulled out a third box and handed it to Jack and my heart all but burst. It was so fucking cute that they had planned this and thought enough to include Jack in our Christmas tradition when I hadn’t even thought about it. I watched Jack quietly say thank you, a small red tint creeping up his face and now I’m really surprised that my heart didn’t burst. I couldn’t put into words how happy this tiny little moment made me. I shuffled closer to Jack with my box, taking a peek at the tag on the front, reading ’To Jack, Merry Christmas Eve! Love, mom & dad #2’ and the amount of eggnog I’d had today began to take over. I rushed to my parents, hugging them tightly and trying my best not to cry. They were amazing people, I’d always known that, but I’d never brought a guy home before in the big ‘meet the parents’ moment, never mind had a serious boyfriend over Christmas, so I’d had no idea they would be this sweet.
“Thank you guys. Love you,” I told them, pushing a quick kiss to each of my parent’s cheeks as I pulled out of the hug.
“You haven’t even opened it yet, Clara,” my mom replied. I stared at her pointedly, making her understand what I meant. “You’re welcome and you know it.” I grinned widely again before bouncing back to my seat. “But you had better lay off that rum, young lady.” I snorted, trying to hold back a ‘bite me’ as I opened my box, pushing away the bags of candy and chocolates and pulling out my new pyjamas, grinning at the grey fabric and little white stars. Obviously they were brushed cotton because no one wants to go to bed without feeling like they were surrounded by clouds and feathers. I glanced over at Jack who was carefully opening his own gift and I couldn’t help but laugh at the little guitars on his pyjamas, they screamed ‘mom’ to me, but they were cute anyway.
“Laugh all you like, you can’t possibly have gotten me a better present,” he grinned, nudging me with his elbow, before turning to my parents and thanking them again.
“I got you the best Christmas present, thank you very much,” I told him, trying to act offended.
“Oh? What is it?”
“I can’t tell you that,” I replied, waving off his question. “But it’s great and it was vetted by Alex.”
“You got Alex to help you buy me presents?” He laughed.
“No, I got Alex and May to check what I bought. They love it.”
“Uh huh. Nice try, cutie.”
“It’s true!” I responded, trying to seem utterly scandalised by his lack of faith in me. I had, indeed, gotten May and Alex to check the presents I’d bought him, but only after they’d been purchased. I could always have returned them if they thought he’d hate them, but I had a lot of faith in my ability to buy gifts, especially for Jack.
“Do you just bicker with everyone?” My dad chuckled.
“Yes,” I replied, without hesitation. “Where have you been the last 25 years?”
“Yeah, she doesn’t need Monopoly tonight,” Marky frowned. “She’s aggressive enough anyway. Christmas movies and hot chocolate?” My parents both agreed, telling the three of us to go get changed while they made hot chocolates.
“If I come back and I don’t have a buttload of marshmallows, bitches gonna suffer,” I warned, earning another scolding for my language. I felt like a child again, bounding up the stairs with my new PJs while my parents made hot chocolate downstairs. I let Jack take the bedroom to change (still keeping my promise of ‘no funny business’) while I went to the bathroom again.
“You’re the biggest nerd ever,” Jack snorted as I bounced back into the room, while he was still buttoning up his shirt.
“Man, I am home. Mom is making me hot chocolate, I have my Christmas jammies and I am on the verge of arguing with my brother until he lets me watch The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
“You’re twelve. Literally twelve.”
“When I was twelve, I looked at pictures of you in your underwear.”
“Fourteen. Don’t make this creepy, Clara,” he laughed. I grinned brightly to show him I was at least half joking as he finished doing up his shirt. “Come here,” he motioned, pulling me into him as soon as I was within arms reach and pressing a kiss to my lips. “I’ve been dying to do that for hours.”
“Even though I’m creepy?”
“Kind of especially,” he chuckled, kissing me again.
“I’m glad you love me for my weirdness. This trip is going to make you love me a whole heap more.”
“I’ve gotta love you for that shit, it’s why you love me.” I smiled, pushing my own kiss to his lips this time. “Okay, now come here for real, I’ve got to get a lot of pictures of us in our cute matching jammies.”