Under the Stars

43. Family

Chapter 43: Family

Mia's POV

*****

Sitting around the dining table for Christmas lunch surrounded by my family was one of the best feelings ever. I was the type of person to constantly overthink everything, including about the future. I often wonder, against my will, what life would be like once I lose somebody from my family.

It seems like quite a sombre thought to have, but I couldn't help it sometimes. The more I try to get my mind off of it, the more I end up thinking it. We're all just borrowed on this planet, and we all have to leave it eventually. Yet Christmas is the only day of the year where all of those terrible thoughts just ebb away.

It's a day filled with love and laughter, and every year, I thank God for allowing me to spend another Christmas with everyone, from my parents to my aunts and uncles, all the way to my grandparents. It's a day where I can make the most of my time with them, and never would I stop being grateful for that. One of my greatest fears was, and will always be, losing one of my parents. Christmas gives me the chance to enjoy their presence, because at the end of the day, that's what Christmas is all about.

"So, Mia, I got you a little present," Sophie whispered as the grown ups were caught up in a heated debate on politics.

"Sophie," I sighed. "I told you that you didn't have to get me anything this year and to save up for the school trip next summer."

Every summer, our school organises a summer trip to everybody in their last year. Unlike in other countries, we finished school at age sixteen, so that we could then go to a higher secondary school before heading off to University. In a way, I wished that we didn't graduate so early. I was not ready to leave the school system I had known since I was in kindergarten. But I was also excited to take the next step in my life.

Sophie and I had been talking about the summer trip for the longest time. Those who pass their exams get to go on the trip, and neither one of us had any doubt that the other would pass. I also knew that Sophie had been having trouble saving up money for the trip, which was why I had begged her to not get me anything for Christmas, and to simply save up the money she was going to spend on my gift for the trip.

"I know, but I haven't been the best cousin to you in the past. I constantly asked you to change so you could fit in and I didn't realise that I could have been hurting you with what I was doing," she softly said.

"I was never mad at you about that, Soph," I told her honestly. "You just wanted what was best for me."

"I did," Sophie nodded. "But I went about it in all the wrong ways. That's why I wanted to get you something which will show you how I really feel about you."

I sat silently as she reached for her bag beneath the table, fishing out a rectangular, thin looking wrapped gift and handing it to me.

"I promise you, it wasn't expensive," she said as she noticed my hesitation to take it.

I smiled at Sophie, grateful that she had gone through so much trouble to get me a gift. Gently, I unwrapped the paper, taking out the object inside. My eyes teared up as I looked at a gorgeous framed painting of me in my glasses, which I often refused to wear after having been picked on because of them. A smile formed on my face as I noticed a book hugged against my chest. But it wasn't the painting itself which got me emotional. What got me emotional was the writing on the picture.

This is the real you, and you've never looked more beautiful.

"Did you draw this?" I asked Sophie, looking at her in awe.