Dedicated to books_before_looks for the cover at the top thanks💓💓
Chapter Twenty Six: "Ripping His Shirt Off."
THERE WAS LOUD KNOCKING on my door the morning of Christmas Eve and I groaned in agitation, keeping my eyes tightly shut. Whoever it was could kindly take the hint and stop trying to break down my door.
The knocking became more and more persistent and eventually I leaned back into Sam who had a tight grip around my waist. I could feel him breathing against my neck, still knocked out into the sleep.
The knocking increased and it was then I realized who was on the other side, my eyes went wide and I quickly got up. "Sam! Sam!" I whisper yelled at him but he didn't wake up. Instead, he shifted to lie on his stomach, his head buried into the pillow.
I grabbed another pillow and used to whack him on the head several times before he groaned loudly, snatching it from me. "What?" He asked in a low voice, fazing me for a quick second. God, his voice...
"Gigi is outside. Hide!" I hit him again with the pillow.
He didn't process what I told him at first and I watched him sit up, rub his eyes with the back of his hands and stretch. Then his eyes went wide with realization of what I had said and he quickly dove out of my bed and crawled underneath it.
Gigi found it nontraditional that Sam would sleep over at most times. A lot actually. She would manage to make Sam go home every time even though she and my dad knew we wouldn't do anything under his roof.
I patted my cheeks to wake me up a bit and opened the door slowly, revealing my grandmother on the other side. "Morning."
She stepped into my room, her eyes looking around skeptically like she already knew he was here. Fudge.
"Morning bella," She said, moving her gaze back to me. "Everyone is downstairs and your cousins and uncles and aunts aren't coming tomorrow. You know this si?"
I nodded, acting like I was still tired when in reality I was wide awake. "Um...I'll see you guys downstairs in a second. Let me just get ready."
I was practically pushing my grandmother out of my room at this point, and she was about to cross the threshold when she turned around. "Macy?"
I smiled at my grandmother, hoping she didn't notice the foot peaking out from underneath my bed. He could've at least tried to hide a little bit better.
She moved past me and reached down, grabbing Sam's foot and with all her might, pulling my boyfriend out from under my bed. He yelped, smiling at my grandmother sheepishly. "Hi Gigi."
"Samuel..." She warned. "I'm going to have a word to your grandmother and mother about this."
"You could've just said mother but why did you have to include grandmother? She listens to everything you say."
"Go home Samuel." My grandmother grabbed his shirt from the floor and tossed it to him just as he stood.
Sam threw his shirt on, grabbing his jacket that was on the desk. He kissed me on the cheek, smiling. "I'll see you tonight."
After Sam was gone and I cleaned up, I walked into the kitchen to spot Justin lying down on the kitchen counter and my dad opening and closing cabinets in the kitchen. Gigi was doing the same beside him, going through a list and muttering harshly in Italian under her breath. "I cannot believe you Nicholas." She scolded my dad.
"I forgot okay?" He tried to assure her, walking over to kiss my forehead before, sitting on a chair. "Justin, get off the table."
Justin got up and went over to the fridge to grab milk. "What did dad forget?"
"A whole bunch of things to buy for Christmas dinner tomorrow night."
"I can get them. Actually Justin and I can. You have anything to do before tonight?" I asked my brother.
He shook his head. "Not really. Emma's going out with her sister...Christian and couple other of us were honestly just going to go play Xbox... so nothing."
"Alright we can go. We're just going to have a visitor who actually has a car."
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"I haven't seen you in months. Since August and the first thing you do is call me and tell me we're going grocery shopping?" Simon asked, pushing the cart forward.
"Of course." I took a glance at him. He wore glasses on his face and had on a funny winter hat, the flaps over his red ears. I took in his jaw and cheeks which never had the ability to grow facial hair.
Justin grabbed random things and started tossing them into the cart. I allowed him to seeing as they were on our list and the store was packed and supplies were running out fast but then he put in something we didn't need.
"No." I told him, handing him back the box.
"It's Christmas!" He defended, putting the package of Twinkies back into the cart.
"I don't care." I mumbled, looking at my brother and wondering how he was almost sixteen. He's in tenth grade in high school and the idea of him growing up bewildered me every time.
"You know what? Put it in." I could see him silently say 'yes' as he tossed in the cart.
"We're grabbing nachos after this right?" Simon asked me, glancing at me.
"Yeah sure."
"Then we can go bowling?"
"You still have an obsession with bowling?" I asked him, wondering if he was actual serious but like always he was.
"Of course. But seriously, if you make me to grocery shopping for food I'm not even going to eat then we're going bowling after and you're paying."
"I hate you."
"That's fine, as long as we're going bowling after." Simon shrugged.
I looked around trying to find tomatoes when I noticed someone grabbing onions, her phone nestled between her head and shoulder. She was talking on it with a smile on her face.
"Hey, it's Jasmine." Justin said, glancing at me.
"Yeah. Sheesh I haven't spoken to her in forever," Simon went up to go say hi to her but both Justin and I pulled him back. He stared at the both of us in confusion. "Am I missing something here?"
"I haven't told you some things for a very long time." I informed him carefully, trying to let him know I was serious with my eyes.
"Are you and Jasmine still friends?" He asked me, looking over at her.
"Yeah...it's just-something- awkward I guess."
"Have you talked to her since whatever awkward thing went down?"
"Not really."
"Go talk to her," Simon put both hands on the cart already steering it in a different direction, over where the tomatoes were. "Justin and I are going to finish the list."
They disappeared out of my sight and I made my way towards Jasmine. She noticed me quickly, almost dropping her phone. "Uh, yeah I'm fine. I'll talk to you later. Bye."
There was a pause and I could see her try and fight the smile on her face. "Yeah I love you too."
She hung up the phone, sliding it into her pocket. "Sorry about that. Hey."
I gave her a much needed hug, the two of his hugging like it was completely normal to do so surrounded by categorized vegetables. "Let me guess? That was Ace?"
"Yeah."
"How is he?"
"Do you really want to know?"
"It seems like the polite thing to ask since we haven't spoken since November. I only knew you were coming home for the break because Drake told me."
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh. Jasmine, what's really going on?"
"Me? I thought you didn't really want to talk to me after everything."
"I thought you needed space. From everyone."
"I thought out of all people, you were the one I could talk to from back home besides my brother."
And for the first time in the years of Jasmine and mine's friendship, there's a moment of silence between us. There was never usually silence between us. Jasmine and I were the type of friends that could stare at each other for one second before bursting out into laughter.
This-how we're acting right now-isn't normal. Definitely wasn't.
"How are you?" I asked her.
She shrugged. "I'm okay. It's him I'm wondering about. How is Drew?"
"He's getting by," My eyes trail over to the pile of perfectly stacked lemons we were beside and I couldn't meet her gaze when I whispered out the next sentence. "You really hurt him you know?"
"I know and I feel terrible. I'll always feel terrible. I spent almost a year on a great relationship only to end it badly."
"It's not like your relationship was a waste. Sure, the terms you ended it on weren't...the best terms but at least you learned from it."
"Did you just make dating seem like a class lesson? Like we were back in high school?"
I scoffed. "Remember our history teacher in grade ten? He turned every single lesson into a story about his dating life."
"At least from him we learned not to give out your bank card to people you think you're completely in love with."
"Or how to use match. com properly."
"Or tinder."
"Or all the other dating sites and apps."
Jasmine and I laughed. "I wonder if he's married now."
"Only one could hope with his dating record," I grinned and like how it was since we were nine, we looked at each other and started laughing again. "Are you coming to the Cahill's Christmas party tonight?"
She shrugged. "I...I don't think I'll be wanted. It's for the best if I don't go anyway. I'm going to spend it with my mom and Drake instead."
"Are you going to talk to Andrew eventually?"
Jasmine's eyes shifted to the ground before she looked at me with carefulness in her eyes. "One day. Right now? It'll be too soon. Probably in the future."
I nodded, my hands hovering over my camera bag. "We're definitely going to hang out this week right?"
"You and me?"
"That'd be great but Stevie and Natasha can come over too. Like old times."
Jasmine smiled and I realized she needed this. That even though she cheated on Andrew and their relationship was over, I figured she needed a bit of the old normalcy. Andrew knew that eventually one of them would move on from one another from the distance. He wasn't certain about it but I knew he had that doubts. He didn't have to voice them I could just see it in his face whenever we talked about university the past summer.
And I'm looking at Jasmine right now and I'm trying not to think of her as the girl who broke my best friend's heart. I'm trying to think of her was that same girl I met back in third grade. She was the same one who I could call my best friend along with Andrew. I was trying to stick with how I had thought of her. "Thanks Mace."
"Jasmine. You're still one of my best friends. You know that, right?" She blinked back tears, dramatically fanning her eyes with her hands. I rolled my eyes and lightly shoved her. "Stop being dramatic and hug me you dumbegg."
"We're so stupid. We're actually hugging in a grocery store."
I laughed, hugging her tighter. "Austin once knocked over that stand in this place, remember?"
"Austin was such an idiot."
"We love him."
"Toby definitely does."
Jasmine lets out a breath just when her phone buzzed. "I have to finish up. I'll see you eventually this week?"
"Definitely."
Normalcy. At least for a little.
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"Stop!" I exclaimed with a small laugh, slapping Sam's hands off of me when I leaned over to grab bottled water that was far inside the fridge for the third time.
"I'm sorry," He laughed, his hands going straight to my butt again as I reached over to grab the bottle. "I take it back, I'm not sorry."
"Wow ultimate pervert right behind me." I said, pulling back to swat his hands off me and closing the door.
"Jheeze," I heard Jon Ming yell. "Let's not get freaky in the kitchen, alright Sam?"
Sam chuckled, hitting him on the shoulder when he passed by us. Sam hands moved to hug me from behind as I tried to drink water. "What do you say Hazel? Want to get freaky with me in the kitchen?"
"Or freaky in general?" I heard Caleb say, eating a grape and watching us from the counter.
"I'll pass on that offer seeing as our friends are in the room."
"So...we weren't here you'd be ripping his shirt off like this was some kind of erotica novel?" Austin asked, stealing a grape from Caleb's bowl.
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't deny it." Andrew chuckled.
I shot him a playful glare. "Stay on my side would you?"
He stuck his tongue out at me as he passed by and I returned it, smacking him on the back of his head.
Sam's head moved to my ear and I could feel him nipping at my earlobe. I held myself up by his arms. "Do you ever realize how much more playful you are when we come home?"
Sam shrugged. "Didn't notice."
"That's actually so true." I heard Caleb say and I pulled myself away from Sam forcefully.
"How did you hear that?"
"Good hearing? I don't know. But that is actually so true."
"What?" Sam asked in disbelief.
"It really is." I told him, patting his chest when I turned around.
"Yeah, jheeze your honeymoon phase never stopped before you guys left." Jacob muttered, rolling his eyes.
"Maybe because he doesn't have that immense pressure held down on his shoulders when he's here." Brandon suggested, walking out of the room with his twin brother. I thought about how stressed how Sam actually was when we're at Uni, with school, part time work every once in a while, soccer, expectations and...Peter, he probably felt much freer when he was here.
"That's true." I said when Andrew followed the other boys out along with Jon Ming.
Caleb and Stevie held their own conversation and I took in Sam's sweater for the millionth time of the night. The theme was ugly Christmas sweaters and my dad, Gigi, Justin and I all wore the same version of a blue sweater where Santa was riding his reindeer around the world on his sleigh.
The funny thing was that the Cahill's almost did the same thing. Just with the same design (A jolly Santa Claus) on all of their sweaters just in various colors. Plus, there was the reindeer ears his mom had forced every single one of them to wear.
I have no idea how she convinced Vincent Cahill to wear it.
"I want to take this off." Sam mumbled, acting like they were glued to his curly hair.
"Then take it off." I deadpanned.
"It's mum. She's going to find out if I take it off either way. I'm not going down the road of Elizabeth Cahill's many lectures."
"What a mommy's boy." I heard Caleb mock.
Sam rolled his eyes. "Shut up. She's practically your mum too."
Caleb smiled then his expression morphed into curiosity. Sam and I exchanged a look. "What?"
"Can Stevie braid your hair?"
"Why?" Sam asked, staring at Caleb.
"Because I want to know what it'll look like." Caleb stared at Sam like he was an idiot just when Natasha came into the kitchen with Liz right behind her.
Caleb grabbed Sam and started pulling him away when Liz stopped them. "What are you doing?"
"We're braiding Sam's hair?"
"Do you mean Stevie is braiding Sam's hair or you are?"
"Stevie."
"Thank God." I heard Liz mumble and she allowed Caleb to pull Sam along with Stevie.
"Wait, what is that supposed to mean?" I heard Caleb try to come back inside the kitchen but Stevie pushed him along.
"It's so hard to believe that Caleb is eighteen." Liz muttered just as waiters filed in and out of the room, filling their trays with little snacks. Leave it to Liz Cahill to throw a Christmas party with the same style of elegance.
"How so?" Natasha asked, sitting with me at the counter.
Liz shook her head. "I'm always going to remember that thirteen year old boy Sam invited to our house. The first thing Caleb did was walk into the house like it was his own and give me a hug like he knew me since he was little. He was so scrawny looking at the time."
"That much change?" Natasha asked.
Liz nodded, leaning against the counter and took the fake elf ears off her head. "So many things have changed in this house at a span of five years. Four-counting Caleb-five of my boys are living outside of the house and soon the nest will be empty. I've never really had time to stop and think about it."
Natasha sighed, rubbing her face with her hands. "Great, Liz, now you're making me think about all that's changed over the past four years I've known you guys."
"Look at you. You're pregnant. The first time I met you, you were this girl Ivan used to bother next door that one summer wearing flip flops and demin shorts."
Natasha scratched her head. "I had an abundant amount of flip flops when I was younger."
"What about me? What changed about me?" A voice said on the other side of me.
I jumped to the sound of Phillip. "You have to stop doing that Phil, you're scaring the fudge out of me every time you do that."
Phillip held a hand up towards me turning back to his mom. "What changed about me?"
"Whoa, where in the world did all of this attitude come from?"
Phillip shrugged, sitting next to me and holding his fist up. "Sorry?" I bumped his fist and he shot me a smile before looking back at his mom. "Again, what changed about me?"
"Well you have grown taller."
"That's it?" He frowned slightly.
"And smarter."
"And?" Phillip asked impatiently.
"And have grown old enough to get that remote control helicopter you've been wanting for months." Liz pointed out and Phillip's adorable face broke out into a huge smile.
"Really?" He all but yelled in surprise.
"Yeah, but you can open it tomorrow alright?"
Phillip frantically nodded just as the door opened in the kitchen for the hundredth time tonight. The person gasped and Natasha did as well as she stood up to give the person a hug.
I realized by the time Phillip went up to the person who it was. It was Sydney, the girl that Sam was so sure was Lucas' girlfriend.
I'm still on Lucas, probably the only Cahill who had the least amount of social skills in the family, getting a girlfriend.
"Did you get me something?" Phillip asked her.
"Phillip." Liz admonished him at that question and I tried to hide back a smile at Phillip's obvious behavior when my phone buzzed in my pocket.
Matteo:
What do you call a person afraid of Santa Claus?
(2) Matteo:
CLAUStrophobic LOL
Me:
That was horrible.
I laughed inwardly anyway at the dumb pun. "It's great but I know you don't care...PJ." I heard Sydney say as I picked up back on their conversation.
"PJ?" Phillip asked, his eyes bright from the new information. "I've been called Philly, Leonardo because I love Ninja Turtles, Phil even little Cahill but not PJ."
"Yeah PJ," Sydney said. "For Phillip John."
I considered it for a second. We've been calling Phillip Leonardo for months because he went through that Ninja turtle phase that I was pretty sure was ending. "I like it." PJ.
"I like it too. I'm PJ from now on." Phillip said indistinctly, walking out of the room and I had the biggest feeling that he was going to walk around telling his brothers to start calling him PJ from now on.
"So...I heard." Natasha said to Sydney and I linked my fingers, leaning over slightly to hear more about the interesting topic of Lucas and his now girlfriend.
"Heard?" Sydney looked surprised at that word.
"You and Lucas." Natasha confirmed.
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh." Natasha wiggled her eyebrows, taking a seat next to me but now I felt kind of bad for teasing her. Kind of.
"Hey Sydney." I said to her, glad that I remembered her name at least and she gave me a small smile back.
"You remember Macy right?" Natasha asked and Sydney nodded but Natasha wasn't letting the subject die down. "So Lucas." Sydney rolled her lips into her mouth like she was embarrassed about the topic and wasn't comfortable speaking about it. I could tell especially since her eyes flickered to Liz a couple of times.
"Leave Sydney alone," Liz reprimanded before looking at Sydney. "Have you seen Lucas?"
"Yeah, he just went up to his room." She answered and my phone buzzed again on the table and I picked it up but I stayed focused on the conversation when Liz walked over to Sydney.
"She doesn't know does she?" I heard Mama Cahill ask.
I turned to Natasha in confusion. "Her mom?" I asked. Natasha shrugged, looking confused as well. "Your mom doesn't know?" I asked, in reference to Lucas and Sydney's relationship.
Natasha suggested. "You better tell her soon. Mom's find out things when you least expect it."
"I'm planning on it." Sydney answered but I could see the conflict in her eyes when two other people entered the room.
One of those people was my dad but I didn't recognize the woman next to him, the both of them laughing. By my guess, she looked slightly familiar and by the look on Sydney's face, I had a feeling that the short woman was her mom.
"Hey dad." I said, wondering what the heck was possibly going on with them. Wait, did Justin know about this and now bother telling me?
"Mace, this is Danielle-"
"Acosta." I finished, getting up, my eyes darting over to Sydney for a second. I was thankful that I remembered Sydney's last name from the wedding as well. "You're Sydney's mom. It's great to meet you Ms. Acosta."
I shook her hand and Sydney's mom smiled up at me, looking at me with interest. She's probably wondering how the hell I'm so tall. I pointed to my dad straighten things out for Sydney. "Sydney, this is my dad Nick Anderson."
The exchanged small hellos but I was honestly still wondering if something was possibly happening between my dad and Sydney's mom. I leaned against the wall next to Sydney as Liz, my dad and Sydney's mom talked.
"Wow." I heard Sydney mumble.
"I know." I mumbled back. Maybe it's okay for my dad to date, I thought, it's not really my choice as long he's happy. I shrugged, looking down at Sydney. "Is Lucas waiting for you upstairs?" She nodded and I gave her a smile. "I'll see you later then and I'll try and figure out what's going on here."
Once Sydney left, I pulled my dad aside and glancing over his shoulder at the two women talking. "Um...anything you want to tell me and Justin?"
My dad looked confused for a second before he realized what I was talking about. "For now? There's nothing to talk about. Danielle and I are just friends." Danielle. Pretty name.
"If you want to explore that option...you know we'll be okay with that right?" I assured him.
"Let's not worry about that now," He brushed off the topic and I didn't bother digging into it, instead telling Natasha I was going to go find Sam.
I exited the kitchen, an arm instantly being slung over my shoulder. "Ugh Toby." I grumbled at the sudden weight that was literally on my shoulders.
"I forgot how much I love eggnog." He said in my ear, laughing-no the man was giggling for the first time ever.
"You might want to sit down for a bit." I laughed, helping him stand.
"Toby...how is it that you're still having another glass of drink in your hand?" Austin stomped over to us, yanking it out of his hand.
"How much alcohol does that eggnog have?" I asked Austin in wonder at Toby's behavior but he didn't answer me, too busy trying to stop a touchy Toby.
"Enough." Toby answered for me with a boyish smile that was so unlike him that I think it startled Austin as well.
"Okay, let's get you to a safe place where you aren't a hazard to everyone." Austin took his other arm and started groaning when Toby started touching his hair. "Tobias, don't touch my hair."
"I love you more than you love your hair." Toby said matter of factly.
"That's a whole lot of love." I mumbled, helping Austin move Toby through the crowd of many people talking into small groups. We moved to the movie room and placed Toby on a couch.
Austin moved to get up but Toby yanked him down. "No, stay."
Austin sighed but settled next to Toby nevertheless. "Okay, what do you want to watch?"
The door to the room entered the whole load of my friends entered the room, filing in. "I knew I saw you guys come in here." Caleb said, sitting next to me on the arm rest.
"What are we watching?" Andrew asked, taking a seat in between Andrew and Jon Ming, leaning back in the recliner chair.
Austin and I looked at Toby for an answer before he got excited, shooting up. "I want to watch a Halloween movie."
"Huh?" Stevie asked when she entered the room, Sam right behind her along with Cedric.
"Why a Halloween movie?" Brandon asked;.
"Is there a law that states that you have to watch Christmas movies on Christmas? Is there a law where it says that you have to watch a Halloween movie on Halloween because if there is SHOW ME A RULE BOOK RIGHT-"
"Oh, shut up you git." Sam muttered, pushing Caleb backwards so that he fell onto the couch.
"The last time you called me a git, we were fourteen." Caleb remembered.
"So a Halloween movie?" Jon Ming asked, already getting up to find one.
Everyone agreed and I sat down on a couch next to Sam, looking at his braided hair that was tied up nicely almost like it was when he had his old hair but it looked better now. "I like it."
He shook his head. "Don't get used to it."
"Figured." I smiled, tucking my phone into my pants pocket.
And the night was filled with the gory screams from the TV because I decided to spend Christmas Eve watching a rated R Halloween movie with Toby's eggnog effected giggles in the air.