Accidental Christmas Miracle

27.

Christi

I brought her home, telling the others that I'd come back to pick them up or if I couldn't, that Mom would pick them up.

Luckily, neither my mom nor either of the twins were anywhere to be seen so I didn't have to explain that Miracle was drunk because she really liked the punch that had been spiked and she was a lightweight.

Although, when I think about it, it doesn't sound too hard to explain.

Getting her upstairs was actually a bit more challenging than I originally thought it would be.

The reason being is because apparently when she's drunk, she's extremely giggly and the 'let's-go-off-into-the-sunset-after-skipping-through-a-field-of-daises' type of drunk, if that makes any sense whatsoever.

Basically, she wanted to try to skip up the stairs drunk which meant that she stumbled on multiple occasions.

When I did finally manage to get her upstairs, I led her back to her room.

She continuously giggled as I peeled back the covers to her bed and moved the pillow to a position so she could easily lay her head on it.

"What are you doing, silly? It's not time for bed yet." She told me.

"You're going to rest and sleep the alcohol off, remember?" I asked her.

"But I'm not tired yet. Tell me a bedtime story." She ordered me.

"You have to be in bed for me to tell you a bedtime story." I pointed out.

She nodded in agreement and quickly did just that before patting beside her for me to sit there.

I smiled and sat where she wanted me to before starting to tell her a story about Rudolph because that's the first thing that popped into my head when I was quickly searching my mind for a story.
You know, with Christmas and all that going on.

"No." She interrupted me.

"What?" I asked her, confused by the interruption.

"I wanna a story from you." When I gave her a confused look, she let out an exaggerated sigh. "A story from your..." She trailed off, waving her hand around lazily, not finding the right word.

"A story from my childhood?" I suggested, earning a fast head bobble from the girl next to me. I sighed. "But I can't think of anything interesting." I tried to say.

Miracle frowned. "Anything?" She asked, pouting with her eyes. "Please?"

As she gave me that look, I knew I wouldn't be able to say no. As it was, I wanted to wrap her up and tuck away from the world. In an endearing way, I swear. She was like a little bubble of joy that I didn't want anyone to pop.

"Fine." I gave in, sweeping some hair of her face without thinking. "What type of story do you want to hear?" I asked her kindly.

She thought for a moment and then said, "You chose." As I thought, she decided to trace shapes on the back of my hand, which made it decidedly harder to think.

"This was when we were about five, I think?"
Miracle hummed in acknowledgement, telling me to continue.

"It was Christmas time, like it is now but we were in the Nativty play, okay?" I started, not really asking the question.

Miracle nodded slowly and I continued with my story. "Now, I was Mary, which was the desired role for the girls back then. Either that or one of the many angels when they do that section with the "choir of heavenly hosts". I think that's the wording anyways." I paused, glancing down at Miracle.

She was still tracing shapes on my hand, leaving the ghost of her touch where she had traced, a small smile playing on her lips. When she noticed that I had paused the story, she looked at me.

Obviously she wasn't expecting me to be looking at her because she immediately blushed.

I glanced away, clearing my throat softly. "Sorry. Where was I? Oh, yeah: Mary." I fumbled. Taking a breath, I started again. "However, poor Dot was one of the sheep because apparently that was a cast member." I told her quietly.

She seemed to chuckle but I wasn't sure because I think she was getting tired.

"And of course, as siblings do, he got jealous that I got a better role than him. A speaking role at that. After all, if the sheep talked at all back then, the shepherds wouldn't have been able to understand the baas." I continued. "I immediately wanted to reasurre him that his part was important too, so I told him that I would trade him my part for his part because it was equally important." I smiled at the memory. "Now, being five-ish, I did in no way think this through. Little me--"

Miracle giggled, interrupting me. "Little Chrissymas." She giggled again. "I bet you that you were really cute when you were little."

"Oh? Why's that?" I asked, curiously.

"Cause the cutest kids are always the prettiest when they're older." She told me matter-of-factly.

I grinned at her. "I did not know that."
"Yep." She said, popping the 'p'. "It's a proven fact."

"I'll have to remember that." I told her.

She nodded. "Yeah. You do that." She paused. "Can you continue the story?" She asked.

"You're the one that interrupted me." I pointed out.

She seemed surprised by that. "Oh," Was all she said.

I quietly laughed and then continued my story.

"Little me -- who was actually pretty darn cute, in case you were wondering -- thought that that would be enough and he would be like, 'Oh, cool. Guess my part is pretty nice too.' and that would be that. I would be Mary and he would be sheep #3. However, it was the exact opposite. He called my bluff and forced me to be sheep #3 instead of him." I started wrapping the story up.

"He was Mary?"

"He was Mary. My mother got a lot of pictures during that play." I grinned. "That was the first and last time we had a male play the part of Mary in the Nativity play." I said the finishing sentence.

Miracle yawned really big, showing me how tired she was.

"Okay, time for you to get to sleep." I told her. I started getting up but she latched onto my hand quickly.

I turned towards her. "Yeah?"

"Don't leave. Please." She said the question.

"Miracle, honey, I need to get sleep to. Currently I'm so tired that I could fall over any minute. Was I exaggerating? Yeah, to an extent.

"Then don't fall over. Sleep here." She tiredly patted where I had been sitting before. "Please." She added before I could protest, giving me those eyes again.

I nodded, caving in almost immediately. I was pretty tired.

Though, I think that part of the decision was fueled more by my liking her and therefore not wanting her to get upset than the fact that I was tired.

I got myself comfortable and quickly shot a text to Jules that she would have to have my mom pick them up and then turned the light off, flipping my phone over so the screen would not show.

I shifted my leg slightly because it was starting to fall asleep, much like me.

I was trying to stay awake for some reason that I can't even remember but was definitely losing the battle with sleep. I blame it on Miracle.

She was fast asleep, her steady breathing lulling me to sleep.

As I was drifting off, I thought of how we were still in the clothes we wore to the party and how badly it was going to be wrinkled when we woke up.