wildflower | cth

11.1 - Christmas

"Lia thank God that you are home!" Steph said as soon as I walked inside, "We've been trying to reach you since last night and I swear Emily was about to file a missing person report."

"Yeah, turns out your phone battery dies if you don't charge it." I said calmly while I kicked off my heels before picking them up again to carry them upstairs.

"Where are you going?" She asked when I put a first step on the stairs, I stopped and turned to look at her. "Don't you think we deserve an explanation of where you went?"

"No, you don't." I replied shortly before walking upstairs. I don't owe them anything, I'm old enough to make my own decisions. When I entered my bedroom, I dropped the heels beside the door on my side before walking over to sit down on the bed.

I was exhausted, had a killer head ache and still just wanted to cry. But it didn't take long until my door opened and someone walked in.

"I just want to be alone for a while." I told her but she just watched me without leaving.

"You're wearing a fancy dress and very expensive jewellery so I'm assuming you went to see your family yesterday, and judging by your mood, it didn't go well." Emily said softly before walking over and sitting down with me on my bed. "I also saw you on the driveway last night with a bottle of tequila before you left again, so you drove around drunk."

"Yeah that was a stupid thing to do." I replied but she looked honestly worried for me.

"You were there for me all through the proces of finding out my biological father, so let me be there for you now." She said without really looking at me.

"It was my grandfather's birthday, I was obligated to go there and my parents were there too. All night they acted like we were one happy family and like they still were madly in love with each other but I knew it was just a lie. They probably hadn't seen each other in months and I hadn't spoken with them since the summer. We left together but they just each rushed to their car without a goodbye or anything." I explained her and she just listened. "It just feels so awful because this is the most interested they had been in my life in years and it was all to put up an act for my grandfather. And then I drove home but I wanted to get drunk and just forget everything for a while. There were no parties last night so I just drank in my car, until everything started to feel a lot less heavy."

"Where did you go after?"

"To a guy, I just wanted to fully forget for a night." I replied and she let out a soft sigh.

"Your family sounds pretty rude." She said so simply and I just laughed, "are rich families always like that?" She asked and I know she was just trying to make a joke but it was working.

"Every rich family always pretends they're a happy family but I barely know any that are actually happy. I grew up with nannies, I barely even know my parents." I said with a soft smile on my face and she wrapped her arm around me to hug me.

"We'll be your family, because we love you for who you are and respect your choices. You can talk to us when you had a bad day or when your fake family is being a pain in the ass again." She whispered and I smiled widely while hugging her back.

"Thank you Emily."

"You should come celebrate Christmas eve with me. It's just going to be my mom, her boyfriend and I. You shouldn't be alone here again this year, I don't live that far from campus so you can just come over and leave again when you want."

"Don't you have to ask your mom if that's okay first?" I said with a chuckle, she looked at me for a second before shaking her head.

"If I tell her that you're spending Christmas alone, she'd be pissed off at me if I didn't invite you." She reassured me with a kind smile, I looked at her before looking around at the room. My roommate's side was filled with picture frames with her family and friends from home, while mine only had a single picture frame on my desk with a picture of Sam, Valerie and I last year.