Dating a YouTuber?!

Chapter 40: Christmas

I had always seen Christmas as a time for family. December had always been one of my favourite months because people just seemed a bit different. They were definitely stressed out but also so much more kind.

Christmas had been hard the past couple of years though. Since Luke had begun drinking and Emma had become a teenager, everything had changed. Luke had refused to participate in any Christmas activities and hadn’t even been home most of the time. Emma was constantly fighting with our mother about what she was adult enough to do or not.

This year would be different and I was so happy that I wanted to jump joyfully up and down. Luke was sober and home. Emma and mum had worked out most of their problems. It was truly the most wonderful time of the year.

It was the morning on Christmas Eve when Emma, Luke and I took the train to Brighton along with Nate, Sabrina and her boyfriend. Turned out that Luke actually knew her boyfriend, which was a wonderful coincidence.

I would be Nate’s and my first Christmas together and I was excited about it. I was as close with him, if not closer, than my family and it felt so good to have him by my side.

“I’m worried how we’re going to split our time,” I told him. I wanted to celebrate with my family and I was sure he wanted to celebrate with his.

“We’ll figure something out,” he said reassuring and planted a kiss in my hair.

“Nate would do anything to escape our parents’ party, I don’t think he’ll stay long,” Sabrina commented on our conversation.

Nate had briefly told me about his parents’ tradition about throwing a huge, fancy dinner party on Christmas Eve. I was so odd to hear because my family spend Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day in cosy Christmas jumpers and pyjama bottoms.

“What?” Emma said in disbelief. “That’s insane!”

“I know right?” Sabrina. “We’ve tried telling our parents for years but they refuse to listen.”

Emma and Sabrina had hit it off immediately and I wondered why I hadn’t introduced them before. They were very similar in their taste in almost everything and the age difference didn’t seem to make that much of a difference. Still, Emma had always acted older than she was.

It was freezing at the station but in the distance, I spotted my dad’s car. We said a quick goodbye to Nate and the couple and headed off. They would be picked up any minute.

Dad got out of the car and went to give Luke a hug first. I didn’t blame him though; he hadn’t seen his son since the summer. Emma and I came to visit maybe once a month if we could find the time.

On the drive, I let my thoughts wander while the chatty voices of my family sounded in the background. I was so lucky. I felt so goddamn blessed. I was surrounded by people who loved me and I had gotten a lot of recognition on my latest blog post. I might even be getting a freelance job for a small magazine if everything worked out.

Once at home we were interrogated by mum on all aspects of our lives and I could see Emma discreetly roll her eyes numerous times when she thought mum was being to nosy or voiced weird opinions. I was proud to see that she held her tongue and didn’t snap like she did just last year. Last year had been hell after their huge yelling match and then eating in complete silence while my dad and I exchanged worried looks.

“I think that’s enough questions for today, mother,” Emma said and got up. “We’re here tomorrow and Boxing Day as well. I need to film a video for my channel and these two are going to help,” Emma said.

Mum wasn’t too fond of Emma doing YouTube but after I had sat down with multiple times to explain it, she had warmed up to the idea a bit more. Emma had just hit 100,000 subscribers here in December and Nate had just reached 4 million a couple of days ago. I was so bloody proud of both of them.