Chapter 58: The Christmas Shock
Five Months Later. BPOV
It’s Christmas Eve in the Lehane household. Everyone thinks that Thanksgiving is the day that you should appreciate everything you have to be grateful for, but Christmas is really the day that you should count your blessings, and that’s kind of what I’m doing right now. I have a lot to be grateful for. The materialistic things don’t really matter to us. This house, and everything that’s in it is a great bonus, don’t get me wrong, and I am grateful that we have these nice things, but it’s not what’s really important. The important stuff is the fact that I’m married to the love of my life, and we have three beautiful children together who are happy and healthy, and even though it’s been a rocky path we’re both happy and healthy. Thinking about all of the Christmases we’ve spent together always makes me smile. And I have plenty of photo albums to help me remember.
“Hey, whatcha lookin at?” Faith asks and sits down next to me on the couch. She takes my glass out of my hand and sips at my wine a little bit but doesn’t give the glass back. Well we are married, we have to share everything now. Being married to Faith is kind of like being married to a three-year-old. They think that when you have something they want it’s nice to share, but when it’s the other way around they’ll throw a fit if you try to get them to share. I probably shouldn’t say that. Faith is very sweet, and loving and all of that other stuff. But would it kill her to not hog the nacho flavored chips? “I remember that.” She points to the picture of Dawn and she has a big chocolate stain on the front of her shirt. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen your sister so pissed before. Remind not to accidentally drop a piece of cake on her.” I smile a little and take my glass back and sip at the red liquid before I speak.
“In her defense you do eat like a slob.” She rolls her eyes and takes the glass away and takes a little sip of it. She puts her free arm across the back of the couch and I lean against her and use her shoulder as a pillow. The thing that a lot of people don’t know about Nevada is how cold it gets here at night in the winters. Right now outside it’s thirty degrees, and our heater isn’t working very well. We have the kids in sweats and under a lot of blankets so they’ll stay warm, but it’s still cold in the house, and I’m starting to feel like a Popsicle. Right now I have my favorite blanket wrapped around me and now Faith is here to keep me warm. “There’s the picture that Willow took.” I point to the one on the bottom of the page. I smile a little bit and run my fingertips over the cool plastic covering of the album.
It’s a picture of me and Faith. It was late that Christmas night and a lot of people had already gone back to their own apartments, but Willow and Kennedy stuck around. Faith and I fell asleep on the couch, me in her lap and she has her arms wrapped around me like I’ll disappear if she lets go. We’re both in our pajamas, we didn’t get dressed that day, we never do on Christmas. I was in my white pajamas with the long sleeved button up shirt, and drawstring pants. They had little candy canes all over them. Faith was in her green, drawstring, silk pajama pants with little Santas and reindeers all over them, and a black tank top. She had her hair back in a pony tail but a few strains fell out during the day and they were outlining her face. My hair was down and it covers up a lot of my face as I use Faith’s chest as a pillow.
Faith flips through the next few pages without even stopping to look. I guess she’s trying to find a certain year or something. It doesn’t take her long to find it. There are only a few pictures of this particular year in this album. The rest of them are in the light blue album that says ‘Matthew’s First Christmas’ in big gold letters. The ones in here are mostly of the scoobies, and some other people. Like the significant others of the scooby members. Well, the scooby members minus Dawn. This was when Kyle started taking her up to the cabin that his parents own so that they could spend Christmas alone together. I guess that isn’t going to be happening anymore. Dawn said she’d try to make it over tomorrow, but Alex was sneezing and coughing a lot two nights ago which means that Nick is going to be sneezing and coughing a lot and so Dawn might have her hands too full with two sick little boys.
“Look how happy they were,” Faith says and points to a picture of Willow and Kennedy. They’re both sitting on the floor by the tree. Kennedy is sitting behind Willow with her chin resting on her shoulder and her arms are wrapped around Willow and holding her close while she opens a present that I bought her. They look happy because they used to be really happy. I like to think that maybe if we had stayed somewhere else, that if we didn’t go to Angel’s then Kennedy never would have met Cordelia and they wouldn’t have fallen for each other, and Willow and Kennedy would still be happy. But deep down I know that isn’t true. They would have met eventually, and they would probably still have fallen for each other, and Willow would still have gotten hurt. But now she has Sky and the pain is finally going away for good. They’re even coming over tomorrow morning for breakfast and present opening.
“I hope her and Sky work out. They’re just so good together, and I don’t think Willow can survive another heartbreak.” It’s true, I really don’t think Willow will make it if she gets her heart broken again. My bad luck with relationship ended when I started dating Faith. Hopefully Sky will be the one to make Willow happy for the rest of their lives. They’ve gotten really close ever since the whole ‘me being abducted by the Ferreus demon’ thing, and I’m glad. They both still live in Ohio, but they’ve moved off the campus of the slayer school. They rent a small apartment together about five minutes away. Willow isn’t just living there anymore because she has nowhere else to go. She’s teaching full time, and when Giles retires she’s going to take over for him as headmaster. Or is it headmistress? Oh well, it doesn’t matter.
“I hope so too,” Faith says and takes another sip of the wine. I give her a little pout and she gives it back and I smile. She doesn’t even try to deny that she’s whipped. She knows it and she’s not embarrassed to admit it anymore. “‘Cause when they have kids and ask us to babysit we’ll hop the kids up on sugar and see how much she likes it.” Is she ever going to let that go? When Matthew was two we had Willow babysit for us, and she thought it would be a good idea to give him a massive amount of chocolate. The sugar rush didn’t quite kick in until the ride home, and after that he was like a hell spawn on crack. He destroyed a lot of the house, furniture, picture frames, some of our CDs, DVDs, the glass door of the entertainment center, and he terrorized Tucker for a couple of hours. But the things that really pissed Faith off was when Matthew took a Sharpie marker to her favorite leather jacket. She’s wanted vengeance on Willow ever since that day, and she’s determined to get it.
“Babe, that was eight years ago, alright, eight. That’s almost a decade. Just let it go. She didn’t know what she was doing.” At least I’d like to believe that. I do think Willow giving Matthew all of that chocolate was revenge because when she and Kennedy went away on a little trip to the Oregon coast we forgot to go over to their house and feed their fish and they all died. Faith just sighs and takes the glass away from me again and takes another little sip. Great, now it’s all gone. I wasn’t done with that. At least she didn’t leave me the last little bit because everybody knows that the last little bit is mostly backwash. She tightens her grip on my shoulders a little bit and I smile. I look up at her and she’s smiling too. I rest my head on her shoulder again only this time I’m facing her. I leave a couple of kisses on her collarbone and she holds onto my hand. She puts the glass on the coffee table, closes the photo album and puts it on the coffee table next to the other two I have out.
“Remember what we did our first Christmas night?” she asks with a little bit of mischief in her voice. I think back all those years ago until the memory is running around in my head. I nod a little bit and I smile gets a little bigger. “You think maybe we can do that again for old time’s sake?” I look up at her and she has this little gleam in her eyes and it reminds me of all the times in high school when we’d be patrolling together, and she’d suggest going to the Bronze and picking up a couple studs, and she’d have this exact look in her eyes. It’s a look that says she wants fun, and mischief and maybe even some trouble, but with lots and lots of fun. I give her a little kiss on her lips but pull back before she has the chance to respond.
“I don’t know. We had a different bed back then. Do you think the headboard will hold?” I ask and gently run my fingertips along the collar of her shirt. She leans down the very short distance and kisses me. It isn’t much of a kiss at first. I don’t think it even qualifies. Our lips are pressed against each other but there’s no movement, but the sounds of our hard breathing through our noses. But now our lips are moving, and so are our bodies. I rotate so my whole body is facing her and I wrap my arms around her neck. I lean back until I’m laying down on the couch and Faith doesn’t fight it at all. I lift my legs up until my thighs are around her hips, and we’re gently grinding against each other. I break the kiss so I can breathe, and she rests her forehead against my shoulder.
“Sit up for a second.” She gets off of me and I sit up too. I take the blanket that was wrapped around me earlier, and I drape it over her. I lean back again until I’m laying down, and I gently pull on the blanket until Faith is on top of me. The blanket is shielding our bodies from the rest of the room, and it’s containing the heat that’s coming off of our bodies. Like I said earlier, Faith is here to keep me warm. We kiss again, and this time our tongues come out to play one of their favorite games. She dominates the kiss right away and I sigh a little bit against her. We start to slowly grind against each other again, and I’m getting really worked up really fast. I have no idea why I’m getting this turned on this quickly, but I don’t really care. I just want some release. I just want Faith. Her hand slips in between our bodies and she starts massaging my breast over my shirt. My already hard nipple gets harder and I start moaning.
“Shh. Babe, you have to be quiet,” Faith whispers and I nod my head a little. She starts kissing my collarbone and I have to bite back the moans and groans that want to come out. My hands roam down her back, and I’m careful not to pull the blanket down. You never know when one of the kids is going to wake up and come out here to see why the lights are still on. I grab Faith’s ass and squeeze really hard. She moans a little against my skin and starts sucking on the hot flesh. I push on her ass so she’s grinding harder against me, and it causes more friction and the friction causes more pleasure. Her hands leaves my breast and works it way down. She focuses on my stomach, and I’m starting to get a little frustrated. She’s gently nipping at my neck, and it’s driving me crazy. With every little nip of teeth on skin I get a little shockwave that goes straight to my throbbing clit.
My hands leave her ass. One of them stays on the small of her back and the other creeps around until it’s in between our grinding bodies. I slide it under her pajama bottoms, and passed the elastic of her underwear. I run my fingernails through the short pubic hair on her mound and she shivers a little. It makes me smile just a tad, and I move my fingers lower until they come into contact with the warm fluid waiting for me in the juncture between her legs. Then she’s the one who has to bite back a moan when my middle finger gently brushes up against her engorged clitoris. I see something move out of the corner of my eye and I look over to see what it is. Tucker has walked into the living room and is sitting on the other side of the coffee table staring at us. I stop moving and just look at him, and he’s staring right back at me. Faith notices my lack of movement and looks over to see what the problem is and she sighs.
“Babe, he’s just a dog,” she whispers and sucks on my earlobe. I close my eyes and moan just a little. I arch my neck a little towards her so she has better access to it. She nibbles her way from my ear to my pulse point and she starts sucking, and biting at it. I start moaning and grinding against her again. I stop though when I hear the jingling of Tucker’s licenses. I open my eyes and watch him walk around the coffee table and sit in front of the couch. He’s just watching us and it’s bugging the hell out of me. I guess Faith knows I’m looking at him again because I feel her finger under my chin and she pulls my face to the side so I’m looking at her and before I can say anything she’s kissing me. I ignore the feel of that dumb dog’s eyes on me and focus on Faith’s lips, and hand. Her hand is now in my pajama pants and her magical fingers are slowly working over my clit. Then all of a sudden I feel a cold, wet nose tough my arm. I pull back from the kiss and take my hand out of Faith’s pants.
“Get him out of here. I can’t do this with him in here.” She knows that I can’t have sex with the dog watching. I grunt out my displeasure when her hand leaves my pants and she gets up and grabs onto Tucker’s collar and leads him out of the room. Now that the moment’s been broken I don’t know if I can get back into it or not. I swear one of these days I’m going to kill that dog and make it look like an accident. Ok, so I won’t, but he’s still a pest. He’s been a pest since the day Faith brought him home. When he passes away I don’t think we’re going to get another dog. Having three kids is hard enough without having to worry about taking care of another living creature. I look up when I hear Faith walk back into the room. She’s smiling a little bit and it makes me smile a little. She lifts up the blanket and crawls on top of me, and lets the blanket fall over our bodies so we’re shielded again.
“So, where were we?” she asks, her voice is husky and just the sound of it makes my clit quiver a little more. She starts kissing me, and her hand goes straight for my pants. She starts rubbing my clit again and I moan into her mouth. She breaks the kiss and she’s panting a little and so am I. I slowly massage her breast and she moans a little bit but tries to bite it back. We do have to be super quiet or one of the kids might wake up. It’s hard to remember that in the heat of the moment though. She starts kissing my neck, and slowly sucks on my pulse point. She’s going to leave a hickie but it’ll be gone in a couple hours. I slowly work my way down her body from her breast, to her stomach, to her abdomen, and then to the waistband of her pajama bottoms. I slowly run my fingers through the short hair on her mound, but instead of teasing her clit like I did earlier I go straight for her entrance and thrust two fingers deep inside her.
“Uggh, oh God,” she moans and her fingers start moving faster against my clit. I bite back a loud moan, and keep slowly pumping in and out of her. The grinding of our bodies is doing nothing but causing my fingers to go in deeper and I’m sure she’s loving it. It’s also causing her fingers to work harder against my clit and trust me I’m almost in heaven. Give me about five more minutes and I’ll probably be there. “B, that’s so fuckin good.” She really does have a way with words, doesn’t she? I moan in response, and add another finger. She finally moves her touching from my clit to my entrance, but she’s teasing me. Her middle finger is slowly circling my dripping hole and I don’t think I can take much more of it. I thrust towards her hand a little bit but it’s hard because I’m pined beneath her.
“Faithy, please stop teasing,” I moan out and start pumping in and out of her harder. Maybe if I give her more she’ll give me some. And she does. She enters me with just her middle finger and I grunt in frustration. “More, baby please. I need more.” She loves it when I beg. She nips at my neck a little bit and it makes me shiver. Out of nowhere I start making this weird whimpering noise. It sounds so strange to me, but I can’t make it stop. Even when she gives me more I can’t make the noise go away. She gives me two more fingers, and starts pumping into me in a slow but hard rhythm. And every time her fingertips brush against my g-spot I whimper. I need her attention there, and she knows it, but she’s not giving it to me. She likes to tease because it gives her power, and Faith still does have some control issues. They’re no where near as bad as they were when we first started dating, or when we first started sleeping together, but they are still there.
She gives in to my pleas and presses her fingers firmly against my g-spot. She covers my mouth with hers to help me quiet the loud moan. At first her fingers don’t move, they just stay pressed against me, but then she starts to slowly but firmly rub against that little pleasure spot. I do the same to her and she bites my bottom lip to stop herself from saying whatever it is her vocal cords want to yell out. I don’t focus on that little bit of pain, all I focus on are her fingers buried deep inside me and all of the pleasure coursing through my body. I can feel my orgasm building and I start thrusting against her hand the best I can, but it’s kind of hard when her body is pinning me to the couch. She finally lets go of my lip, and her head limp against my shoulder. She’s panting really hard, and moaning, and trying so hard to be quiet.
“Baby, I’m gonna come,” she whispers into my ear. I can feel her hot breath against my skin and it’s driving me a little crazy. It feels like all of my nerves are exposed and screaming out for attention. But it’s the way Faith said that little statement, and the sound of her voice that drives me over the edge. Her voice was husky, and deep, and she sounded a little desperate. Almost like she was begging me to let her come. My fingers hit her g-spot very hard and I feel the outpour of her orgasm gush all over my hand. She squeaks that high pitch little girly squeak that she hates so much, and two seconds after I have to bite my lips to keep from yelling. I’m shoved over the edge and thrown into my climax and all I can do is just lie here and let the waves of pleasure take me for a ride. I don’t know how long it takes me to finally calm down. It feels like hours, but it was probably only a couple of minutes.
“We should probably get cleaned up,” Faith says and kisses my neck a little. I nod my head but we don’t move. We just lay here, breathing hard and try to fully recover from what just happened. It’s been a long time since I’ve come that hard and I don’t think I’m going to be able to walk for another…half hour maybe longer. And either Faith’s orgasm wasn’t as intense or she just has a quicker recovery time, either way she slowly gets to her feet and takes the empty wine glass into the kitchen. I hear the faucet running so I know she’s rinsing the glass out, and now she’s putting it in the dishwasher. She used to not do that. She’d just leave the dirty dishes in the sink and wait for me to load the dishwasher, but that was a long time ago. She knows better then to do that now. I watch her when she comes back into the living room and she just looks at me. She smiles a little bit and it makes me a little self-conscious. I ask her what she’s smiling at and she just rolls her eyes.
“Nothing, you just look cute all wrapped up in that blanket. Want me to carry you?” And Dawn said I’d never be able to tame her. I nod my head a little bit and she picks me up off the couch and carries me bridal style into the bedroom. She leaves though, but just to turn out all the lights that were left on in the other rooms. I shiver a little bit ‘cause it’s fucking cold in here. When Faith walks into the room and shuts the door I ask her to check on Joseph. She walks over to the crib and stands there looking at him for a few minutes. I would ask if there was anything wrong but I know there’s not. She does this sometimes. I used to think it was kind of creepy when I’d wake up in the middle of the night and see my mom watching me sleep from my bedroom doorway, but now I know why she did it, and I don’t think it’s creepy.
See when your kids are awake everything is crazy ‘cause little kids want a lot of attention and you’re trying to do everything at once. You try to clean up the house and do the laundry and play a game with them, or look at the picture they drew, or fix them lunch or whatever, and they’re being loud ‘cause that’s just what little kids do. But all you really want to do is sit down and have some peace and quiet. They’re like little devils when they’re awake, but when they’re sleeping they look like little angels because they’re finally staying in one place for longer then three minutes, and they’re quiet. I’m pulled back to reality when I feel something jump up on the bed. I look down towards my feet and roll my eyes when I see Tucker on his stomach and slowly crawling his way up the bed.
“What time are Red and Sky getting here?” Faith asks and crawls under the covers. She lays on her side so she’s facing me and Tucker rests his head on her thigh. I tell her around nine and she smiles a little bit. “You do know the kids aren’t gonna be able to wait that long, right?” I smile and nod my head a little. “We should let them open up one present to hold ‘em off until after breakfast. “Dad should be here ‘round seven so we should let them open something he got ‘em.” I nod my head a little but I’m not really paying attention to what she’s saying. I’m too tired. “I can’t wait ‘til Joey’s two, ‘cause that’s when they get really excited about it. All three of ‘em will be sneaking in here to wake us up so they can open presents. Sometimes I can’t believe this is real, ya know?” I can’t believe Faith is actually talking after sex. I slowly close my eyes and listen to the sound of her husky, tired voice as I drift off to sleep.
FPOV
I woke up a couple minutes ago, but I haven’t moved yet. I’m not pretending to be asleep, I have my eyes open, but I don’t want to move because if I do I might wake Buffy up. She’s on of the lightest sleepers ever. The reason I don’t wanna move is because she’s in my arms right now. We fall asleep in each other’s arms a lot, but we move around a lot when we sleep so it’s pretty rare that we wake up spooning or holding each other. But right now is different. Her head’s on my shoulder, one arm is over my stomach, and the other is under the pillow. She’s snoring a little bit, but it doesn’t bug me. I’ve always thought it’s kinda cute. She swears on her life that she doesn’t snore, but it’s not like she can hear herself do it. I give her a little kiss on her hairline and her eyebrows scrunch up and she looks so adorable right now.
I look over at the door when I hear it creak open. It doesn’t open all the way, just enough for Mattie to stick his head through. I hold my index finger up to my lips and he nods his head. He whispers something to Addy, probably telling her to stay quiet. They tip-toe their way over to my side of the bed and they carefully climb up. I smile a little bit and gently run my hand up and down Buffy’s side. She wiggles around a little bit but she doesn’t wake up. She’s a light sleeper but not that light. So I kiss her forehead a couple of times. Her eyebrows wrinkle up again and she looks just as adorable as before. I kiss her temple, then right next to her eye, and I slowly kiss my way down to her cheek. She wiggles around and lets out a grunt and I can’t help but laugh a little bit.
“Baby,” I whisper and give her a little kiss on the lips. “Babe, the kids are up.” She whines a little and rolls over so her back is facing me. She’s not getting away that easy. Christmas is probably a bigger deal for me then it is for the kids. They don’t know what it’s like to have an alcoholic for a mother who’s too busy drowning in self-pity to care about anything around her. And if I get my way they never will. I always spilt them on Christmas because after my dad went to prison I didn’t have happy holidays, and Christmas was the worst. Anyway, I scoot closer to Buffy and I hear Addy start giggling for whatever reason. I wrap my arms around my beautiful wife and start kissing her neck. “Buffy, it’s Christmas. Now wake up.” I shake her shoulder a little and it does the trick.
“Alright, I’m up. Stop shaking me I’m getting nauseous.” The kids start laughing a little and she rolls over and gives them a look. “You won’t think it’s funny when I throw u all over the bed.” They stop laughing and she smiles. “That’s what I thought.” She yawns really wide and holds onto one of my hands. “Why don’t you guys let Tucker outside, and me and Mama will get up, and you two can open one present each?” They practically leap off the bed and run for the bedroom door. They call Tucker’s name as they run like hell beasts down the hall. The old guy lazily gets down from the bed and trots after them. Buffy yawns really wide and I can’t help but smile a little bit. I don’t know why but this morning she just looks so damn cute. “It’s only five-thirty.” She lets go of my hand, pulls her pillow out form under her, rolls onto her back, and covers her face with her pillow. “The sun won’t be up for another half hour.” I laugh a little and snuggle up to her. She doesn’t get as excited about Christmas as I do, which surprises a lot of people.
“I know baby,” I tell her and she grumbles a little bit. I can’t help but laugh out loud at that. I give her a little kiss on the arm and I hear her sigh. “But we better get in there before they tear through all the presents.” She pulls the pillow away from her face and gives me an irritated look. “Hey, you’re the one who said they could open one.” I rip the covers off of her and she instantly starts shivering. “Come on, I’ll make some coffee.” I get up and ignore her bitching and go into the kitchen. Mattie and Addy are in the living room and they’re fighting. Addy wants to open her present now and Mattie is telling her to wait. “Addy, you wanna come help me make some coffee?” I yell and she runs into the kitchen and she looks all excited. I pick her up and wrap my arm around her waist and her butt is pressed against my abdomen. Damn this kid has a boney ass. Takes after her mother on that one. My butt isn’t very big but it’s more then just skin and bone.
“First you put the filter liner in here.” I put one of the paper liners in front of her and pull the filter out of the machine and put it on the counter. She puts the liner in, and waits for more instructions. People forget kids want to learn and if you take the time to show them how to do stuff they’re more then happy to help. That and lots of positive reinforcement. I’m trying to work it just right so that when Addy is a little older her and Mattie can do all the chores and all me and B will have to do is cook the meals. “Now put in two scoops.” I pull the coffee can over and take the lid off. She finishes doing that and puts the lid on the can. “Good job. Now put this back in the slot here.” I help her put the filter back, then help her fill the pot with water and pour it in the slots at the top of the coffeemaker. I put the pot back on the burner and put her down. “Good job, toots. Now go get Mommy out of bed. Sing her the Tigger song.” She literally squeals with joy and books it out of the room.
I take out two mugs from the cupboard and set them down on the counter. I chuckle a little when I hear Addy singing that damn song at the top of her lungs. B yells at her to stop and I wince ‘cause I know what’s coming next. Joey starts crying ‘cause the girls woke him up. He normally doesn’t wake up until six thirty, sometimes it’s closer to seven. I sigh and start making a bottle. He probably won’t stop crying though ‘cause he hates being woken up too soon. He has a schedule that he likes to keep. He’s way more difficult then his brother and sister were at his age. Mattie was a blessing, ‘cause he was so easy going. He never fought sleep, and he didn’t cry a lot. The only time he ever really cried was when he was hungry, and even then it wasn’t real loud. Addy was a little fussier but I think that’s ‘cause she’s a girl.
“Thank God, you already made one,” B says and takes the bottle from me. I just got done makin sure it wasn’t too hot, but she’s testing it too. When she feels that the formula is just right she holds the nipple up to Joey’s mouth but he doesn’t clamp down. “Come on, baby boy. I know you’re hungry.” She’s using her baby-talk voice and it’s a little irritating. He’s a baby but he’s a person too, ya know. Besides he isn’t hungry, he’s pissed off. “I know, sweetheart, I’m sorry I woke you up. I didn’t mean to.” I smile a little bit and walk over to them. He’s screaming his fuckin head off. His face is bright red and he has tears rolling out the corners of his eyes. I take him from Buffy and hold him up to my shoulder like I used to do whenever I’d burp him. His hot little cheek is rubbing against mine, and he’s crying right in my ear, but it doesn’t bother me.
“I know, Moose, you’re really, really mad.” I know I got a little irritated when B talked baby-talk to him but I can’t help it. It just happens. “Tell me all about it.” I rub his back and he just keeps on crying. That’s the plan. Sometimes a baby just needs to cry. And I get pissed off when people wake me up before I have to be awake, so I understand what he’s going through. Buffy puts the bottle on the counter and goes into the living room with the kids. I guess she’s gonna let them open a present now. I know she’s only going to let them pick something small that we bought ‘em. We always save the presents from other people for later, that’s just one of our rules. I hear Tucker whining and scratching at the back door so I let him in. He’s wagging his tail and lookin up at Joey. Tucker’s always loved being around babies, but I gotta tell ya it’s a mystery why. Babies are great, but they can be very abusive to animals ‘cause they don’t know any better. And Tucker is a Golden Retriever which means he’s got a lot of hair for a baby to pull.
“Mama look what Santa got me!” Addy yells as she runs into the room. Me and B buy a few gifts for the kids and label them ‘from Santa’. I think Addy is really going to love the other present that ‘Santa’ got her, but that won’t get here until a little later. “It’s new clothes for my Barbie.” She holds up the box and I glance at it and tell her it’s cool even though I probably couldn’t care less. What? They’re just clothes. She puts the cherry sucker back in her mouth and leaves the room. I take it they got into their stockings too. Christmas is the only day of the year that they get candy before breakfast. And even then they only get a little bit. Joey stops crying and finally calms down, and he rests his head on my shoulder. I gently rub his back and grab the bottle and walk into the living room. Addy’s sitting with her back pressed against the entertainment center. She has her Barbie out and is already playing dress up with the new clothes.
“Mattie what did Santa get you?” I ask and sit down on the couch next to B. He doesn’t believe in Santa anymore, hasn’t since he was eight, but he’s willing to pretend because of Addy. He holds up the video game and says the name out loud and I tense up a little bit. “No frickin way.” Buffy really got him that game? She didn’t tell me she was getting it. I plop Joey into B’s lap and sit down next to Mattie on the floor. I take the game from him and read the description on the back. Yep, this really is it. I still can’t believe she bought this. “Come on, whatta waiting for?” I jump up and we book it for his bedroom. I take off the plastic wrap and turn on the playstation and put the game in. I pick up the controllers and toss one to him, turn on the TV, and sit down next to h im on the bed. Buffy got him what I would consider a must have. Combat Warriors V.
“I am so gonna kick your butt. Just lettin you know,” I tell him as we select our characters. After we do that I pick the environment to fight in and we wait for it to load. Damn this is taking forever. “Better break me off a switch, boy, ‘cause there’s about to be a whoopin.” On the count of three we start fighting. It’s mostly just button mashing ‘cause neither of us have played this before so we don’t’ know all of the controls. I figure out that the square button makes the guy punch and I deliver three solid hits to Mattie’s guy’s face. His health goes down a lot and I chuckle a little bit. “Looks like you’re low on life. Ya might wanna start making funeral arrangements.” I try to punch again, but he presses something that makes his guy jump in the air, spin in circle, and kick mine right in the face. My guy goes flying to the other side of the screen and half of his face is drained.
“You were saying?” Mattie says and he’s trying not to laugh. What a little smart ass. I’m actually surprised he said that. See Mattie doesn’t smack talk when doing anything competitive, never has. It doesn’t matter if he’s play a sport, a video game, or sparring he just doesn’t partake in the playful banter like me and B. He’s too busy focusing on his next move to try and come up with a witty comeback. But when he does they’re usually pretty funny. It doesn’t take us long to figure out what all the buttons do, and now we’re trying different button combos. I have Mattie pretty much beat. He only has about half an inch of life left and a couple more kicks should take him down. I know this probably isn’t too good for his ego but he needs to learn that you can’t win at everything. When it comes to video games I’m just too good. At least in theory.
He does some weird combo, I have no idea what, but it makes his guy jump in the air and howl out a blood curdling scream. The environment changes from the jungle scene we were just in, to a dark red background, and we’re standing on a black platform. Blue lightening bolts strike him from the sky and all of that electric energy sparks from his chest out to his right fist. The character is still screaming and this is possibly one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in a video game before, and I have played a lot of video games. The character’s hand gets bigger, and bigger until it’s about ten times it’s normal size. It’s glowing, and pulsating with the blue electricity of death. I try to make my guy run away but I can’t. Mattie’s guy punches mine right in the chest and it kills me on the spot.
“And that’s what you get for talkin shit,” Mattie says and turns the game off. I tell him to watch his mouth but I only half mean it. I cussed like a sailor when I was his age. Never in front of my mom or dad ‘cause spankings from your parents are just no fun. Anyway, we got back into the living room just in time to see the drama unfold. Addy’s still playin with her Barbie and minding her own business for once. I don’t know where B is but she’s not in here ‘cause Joey’s on the floor all by himself. He crawls over to Addy and grabs her doll by the hair and snatches it out of her hand. She grabs onto the ankles and yells at Joey to let go while she tries to pull it away from him. But he’s a slayer too so instead of ripping it from his hand like she would have with another other ten-month-old, the head of this doll gets decapitated from its body, and I have to bite my lips and prey to God that I don’t start laughing.
“No!” Addy screams out and starts crying, which makes it so much harder not to laugh. It is kind of sad though. I mean, it’s just a stupid doll and she’ll get over it, but that was her last one. All the others have been destroyed one way or another. She gets up off the floor and spots me. Crap, now the drama is really going to be high. She runs over to me and lifts her arms up. I reach down and pick her up, and prop her on my hip. She calms down enough to talk and holds up the headless body of her beloved doll. “Look what stupid little brother did.” She hiccups a little bit and starts sobbing like the doll was a real person and was just brutally murdered. Well, I guess in the mind of a four-year-old it just was. I wipe away her tears but they just keep coming. Man this kid can cry when she really wants to.
“Addy, please stop crying baby. I’m sure someone bought you a new doll for Christmas.” That only calms her down a little bit. The sobs are almost non-existent but the tears are still falling freely. I’m going to go ahead and say it, well only to you ‘cause I don’t want to get my ass kicked. But being a drama queen is a genetic thing in the Summers bloodline. Come on, you totally have to agree with me on this. Both B and Dawnie can be major drama queens. I sit Addy down on the couch and take the doll head away from Joey, and he starts crying. I roll my eyes and grab a toy out of the little toy box in the corner of the room and hand it to him and the crying instantly stops. I have Addy put all of the Barbie clothes back in the box and I throw the doll away. I don’t know why they make ‘em different ‘cause when I was a kid the heads just popped back on.
“Jeez, what’s all the crying about?” B asks when she walks into the room. She must’ve been in the bathroom. Only reason she would’ve left Joey alone for so long. I give her a little run down of all the drama and she chuckles a little but until Addy gives her a death glare that’s mean enough to skin a cat. Good thing we don’t have a cat. If Buffy got her way we would but Tucker would just chase it off like he did the last one. B sits down next to Addy and gives her a little hug, but Addy’s still pissed at her. “Angel girl, I’m sorry I laughed. It wasn’t nice, and I won’t do it again.” Addy accepts her apology and gives her a big hug. Now that all the drama has been settled I can start making breakfast. I promised my dad a home cooked meal and he’ll be here soon.
I’m about halfway through making breakfast when the doorbell rings. I look up at the clock on the stove. Fuck, he’s early! He wasn’t supposed to be here for another half an hour. Wait…false alarm, it’s just one of the neighbors. Apparently they made a bunch of Christmas cookies and they saw our lights on and thought they’d go ahead and bring ‘em over. It is a very nice gesture, especially ‘cause I get free cookies, but it’s bad at the same time ‘cause now Buffy is gonna bitch that she didn’t get the idea to make the neighbors some type of holiday treat. She does it every year, it’s like a tradition at this point. She bitches, I only half listen, and then burn myself on the stove to distract her from that annoying topic. But this year she doesn’t get the chance to bitch at me ‘cause Joey just tried to rip open a present so she had to keep him distracted until breakfast.
“Mama, when is Grampa gonna get here?” Addy asks in a whiney tone that instantly get me irritated. I stay calm and start flippin the bacon over. I tell her ‘any minute now’ and she grumbles and leaves the room. She loves being around her grampa Chris ‘cause he treats her like a fuckin princess. I don’t’ think he treated me that good when I was little and I’m his fucking daughter. Then again if Joyce was still alive Buffy would probably complain that she treats the kids better then she treated her. I think it’s like an unwritten law that grandparents spoil their grandbabies rotten as payback for all the shit tha their own kids put them through. But I could be wrong. I hear the doorbell ring again and my blood goes cold. Fuck! I never got the chance to talk to Buffy about the present my dad’s bringing over for Addy. Sure we’re gonna say it’s from Santa, we’ve been planning it for weeks. And last night I was going to talk to Buffy about it, but I got distracted. Damn my libido!
“Hey Addison, look what Santa forgot at my house.” As soon as he says that I turn all the burners on the stove off. Mostly because the bacon and sausage is done, partly because Buffy plus fire will equal third degree burns on my face. But it’s worth all the fear when I hear my baby girl scream out with joy. And damn she has a good set of lungs on her. I knew she would be happy. This is something she’s been asking for since she was two and a half. We told her no so many times that she stopped asking for it, which only makes the moment I’m not seeing so much better. It feels good knowing that my little girl’s happiness is because of something I did. But it’s scary as fuck thinking about all the different ways Buffy could react. I’m getting little flashbacks of the night she stabbed me up on the roof and hopefully she’ll show that kind of mercy. Yeah, that’s mercy compared to what she might do now.
“It’s a lady dog!” Addy screams and I hear her jump up and run over to my dad. From the sound of it I’d guess she’s jumping up and down and clapping her hands together. “Mommy look! It’s a lady dog! Santa got me a lady dog!” I don’t think anybody, including all of the little kids in the entire world, has ever wished that Santa was real more then me in this moment. I hear B say something but I can’t understand the words. I put the bacon and sausage on separate platters and then put them on the table. I take the huge bowl of scrambled eggs out of the microwave and put ‘em with the rest of the food. I get one of the plastic kid plates out of the cupboard and put it on the tray on the highchair. I start to butter up a piece of toast when I hear my dad say ‘Faith didn’t tell you?’ Fuck. I’m in trouble.
“No she didn’t tell me.” I gotta hand it to her she’s controlling her anger very well. She stomps into the kitchen and I try to play dumb. I finish buttering the toast and put some jelly on it; strawberry not grape ‘cause the little man doesn’t like grape like the rest of us. I start ripping it up into little pieces and she’s just fuckin starin at me, using her entire body to hate me. Ok, she doesn’t hate me. At least I hope not, but she’s really fuckin pissed at me. “Why didn’t you tell me you were getting Addison a dog? I thought we agreed no more dogs?” We did but then I changed my mind. I could tell her the truth. Tell her that I left it until last minute so she wouldn’t be able to say no and then forgot because I was horny. I could tell her that, or I could make something up and hopefully sleep in y own bed tonight.
“Because I knew you’d make me take her back to the breeder.” There, plain and simple. I have to come up with more or she’ll be mad all day. “Look, B, I know we came up with that ‘one dog at a time’ rule, but Tucker probably only has a couple of years left, and it’s going to be really hard on the kids.” I make my eyes well up with tears. Addy isn’t the only one in this family who knows how to put on a good show. “I just thought it would be a little easier if we already have another dog. This way it won’t seem like we’re replacing him.” I let a few of those tears fall and I sniffle a little bit, and put the tiny pieces of toast down on Joey’s plate. And just like that all of B’s anger melts away. She can say she hates Tucker all she wants but when he passes away she’s going to be bawling like the rest of us.
“You’re right,” she says in a soft voice. She puts Joey in his highchair and he instantly starts picking at the toast. B walks over to me and wraps me up in a big hug. I hug her back and keep the tears up. I’ll keep ‘em comin for another minute or two, and then ‘recover’ from this display of emotion. “I know it’s going to be hard on you when Tucker dies. He’s more your dog then anyone else’s.” She gently rubs my back and I can’t help but feel like I’m being trapped. I feel her grip tighten and I gulp a little. Damn, I’m so dumb sometimes. B never gets over anger that fast, ever. “But you should have told me about this, and explained it to me and I would’ve gone through with it. And I had something very special planned for tonight, but now you are so not getting any.” Dammit! She probably got a new outfit or something that she was going to wear for the first time! Son of a bitch!
“Mama look!” Addy screams and comes running into the kitchen. B lets go of me and sits down at the table. Now that she’s done being mad at me she’s watching how happy our little girl is now, and she’s smiling a little. Addy comes barreling into the kitchen with the puppy in her arms and it looks a little freaked out. “Santa got me a lady dog!” I get down on my knees so I’m eye level with her and she’s just so fuckin happy. I never thought a human being could be that happy, but I guess I was wrong. “Santa left it at gramps Chris’ house. And grampa Chris brought it here.” I take the puppy from my little girl and the thing looks relieved to be away from her. She starts wiggling around in my arms and licking my face, and Addy giggles. “My lady dog likes you, Mama.” I smile a little bit and put the puppy down on the floor, and she tries to climb up in my lap. Addy scoops her up in my arms and holds the puppy nice and tight, but not tight enough to hurt her.
“Your lady dog is a girl, and it’s time for breakfast so your puppy has to stay out of the kitchen.” Addy starts to pout but I give her a warning look and she stops. She knows fighting this rule is useless ‘cause I’ve never budged on it before. I take the puppy from Addy and go into the living room. My dad already brought the rest of the stuff in. I went all out ‘cause I didn’t want Buffy to bitch at me that the new dog is going to cost us money. I already spent the money so she has nothing to complain about. I got a crate, water bowl, food bowl, toys, a dog bed, a leash, a collar, puppy food, and an appointment next week at the vet’s office to get all of her shots and to get her spayed. Anyway, I put the little Cocker Spaniel in her crate and lock the door. Tucker is instantly all over it, wagging his tail and trying to smell her. He seems to like her. Lets hope it stays that way.
I go back into the kitchen and everyone is already sitting at the table and they’re making their plates with all the food I cooked. I don’t care that they didn’t wait for me. I’m actually glad that they didn’t. I take my seat and give Buffy a little kiss on the lips and an apologetic look but she’s determined to hold onto that anger. I’m sure I’ve said this before, probably many times, but nobody holds onto their anger quite like a Summers woman. And from the little glare Addy just sent my way ‘cause I locked her dog up I can tell that my kid has just enough of that gene inside her to be a problem. I really hope she doesn’t have it or the teenage years are going to be hell. But lets not think about that right now. Right now I just want to be happy because it’s Christmas morning and I have the best thing a person can ever have: a loving family.
