Frozen Heart

Chapter 13 ~ "To Remember Our Star"

Nik

I wasn't always the biggest fan of Christmas. We had such a messed up family that it was never much of a celebration. Mom was the only person who liked it, she was holding onto the hope that our family could be salvaged. She bought mine and Alex's gifts to dad and vice versa. 

We were never perfect, but when we were younger it was certainly more fun than this. We'd actually all sit around the tree in the morning and open our things together. Now we were older, and none of us were really living in harmony anymore.

We'd all silently participate in the stuff mom wanted us to do, like our family dinner which was heavily ruined by dad following up on his threat to keep Sasha an extra hour training. She looked miserable when she came home, like she just wanted to go upstairs and be alone. I knew no one should feel like that on Christmas Eve.

The day wasn't much better, dad always wakes up at the crack of dawn. We all come down in staggered groups and open our presents casually. No one looks at each other and mom always looks so sad. She knows her family is fractured, I knew she just didn't want it to be.

For the last two days since Christmas, everything had been tense. Everyone was hiding in their preferred corners of the house. Sasha had gone back to training which I sensed she didn't want. She probably could have used a few days of rest.

I was in my room now, looking at the present I had for Grace. I didn't know what she'd want, I very rarely bought anyone anything, but Grace was sort of special. I was going to call her today and see if we could meet up. 

The past few days I'd left her alone so she could really spend some time with her mom and the rest of her family. I knew her mom worked nights and Grace definitely didn't see enough of her. On top of that, her dad was trying to Skype her as often as possible over those days. She missed him a lot, I knew it bothered her that he couldn't come home for the holiday, so I wanted to make sure she had lots of time to talk with him.

But we'd text or FaceTime most nights, we were back into our routine. She called me on Christmas which significantly elevated my mood. I was excited for our date, to really take her out and keep learning about her.

I feel my phone vibrate in my back pocket and I pull it out seeing Grace's name run over the screen. 

"Hello." I say, pressing the phone to my ear.

"Hi." She says and I can almost hear her smile over the other end. "You sound happy, what's up?"

"You called me." I tell her, laying back on my bed. "Of course I am."

"Are you up to anything tonight?" She asks and I shake my head.

"Nothing at all, why do you ask?" I say and she sighs.

"My mother wants to invite you to dinner, she wants to 'get to know the young man I'm spending so much time with'." She says in a very overdramatic voice. "I was wondering if you wanted to come tonight?"

"Sure, if she's cool with it and everything." I say with an easy shrug. I felt really excited that her mom seemed to get along with me. It relaxed me when I'm sure any other would hate me.

"She'll be excited." She says. "So will I." She adds making me laugh.

"Me too." I tell her. "So how was your Christmas?"

"A mess, one parent on the other side of the world and all, but I went to Josie's for dinner. I got some nice stuff and everything too. How was yours?" She asks and I shake my head.

"It was fine, nothing that great." I tell her, it was the truth after all. 

"Get anything cool?" She asks and I almost laugh.