Accidental Christmas Miracle

30.

Christi

The rest of us stood there in shock but Miracle's father just laughed.

"Honey, can I talk to you privately?" He looked skeptically at the rest of us. Even Meg.

She crossed her arms and huffed before going outside and closing the front door. "You have five minutes." I heard her say before the door was closed all the way.

"Well." Dot interrupted the unwavering silence.

"Miracle doesn't have the best relationship with her father." Meg explained although, in my opinion, that much was obvious. By her greeting to her father, I mean.

My mom frowned. "He didn't-?" She couldn't finish the sentence.

Meg managed to figure out what she was getting at and quickly shook her head. "No. No, nothing like that. They just don't see eye to eye on her future. He wants her to go into the company while she wants nothing to do with it." She explained.

I let out a small sigh of relief. At least he didn't physically hurt her. Although, if he mentally hurt her, it would be worse, I guess.

After Meg told us that, we were - well, mainly I was - told to clean up the kitchen and then actually clean the dishes.

About thirty minutes later, the kitchen and dishes were clean and Miracle came back after a loud shout came from the porch.

When she came in, her face was red and I could see that tears were in her eyes but she waved away our concerns saying that she was fine, just not feeling well. She then quickly excused herself upstairs.

A few minutes later, I snuck up after her while the others were busy doing something. Stopping in front of her door, I softly knocked.

Her crying paused for a moment and there was a small silence. Then in a weak voice, she asked, "Who is it?"

A part of my heart broke for her.

"Me." I answered.

There was another small pause before she finally said, "Come in."

Opening her door, I slipped in her room and closed the door again. Brushing away some tissues, I had a space where I could sit on her bed.

Biting my lip, I glanced over at her.

Her eyes were red and so was her nose. Tears were streaming down her face despite her best attempts to stop them.

"You alright?"

She gave the look of 'what do you think?' and then said sarcastically, "Yes. I'm just in a skipping-into-the-sunset mood."

I held my hands up in surrender. "It's just something someone is supposed to ask."

She blew her nose before answering. "Well, it shouldn't. If it's obvious that the person isn't 'alright', the other person should ask if they wanted to talk about it or something like that." She told me.

I nodded. "You're right, sorry. I'll restart." I paused and let out a deep breath. "Do you want to talk about it? You don't have to."

She seemed to think for a couple moments and then nodded. "I'll talk. I'm assuming that Meg told you about my relationship with my father?" She looked at me, waiting for an answer.

"Was she not supposed to?" I felt a small pang of panic, like I had been caught snooping around or something. Although, I hadn't. At least, I don't think I had.

She offered me a small smile which put my mind to ease. "No. It's fine. I just figured that she would do that. She's like that."

"Is that a bad thing?"

She shook her head. "No. It's just something she does."

"Ah. Anyways, please continue."

"She probably said this already but my father wants me to go into the business that he and my mother own but I don't want to. Now, I've told him this on multiple occasions-"

I interrupted her for a moment. "Why won't he let it be then?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. If I knew, I would've already gotten him to leave me alone."

"Oh. Yeah." I felt a bit dumb at that moment. "I'll stop talking. You can continue." At this point, her tears seemed to have stopped for the time being, which was good.

"Instead, I want to go into writing. Like being an author."

I nodded. "I remember Meg mentioning it when you saw her at Ferris Wheel."

She nodded to that. "Yeah. However," She started to cry again and I impulsively hugged her, holding her tight.

"However," She repeated. "He just thinks that it's a waste of time and that I'll never get anywhere with it. That it's just a hobby that will amount to nothing."

She started crying harder, continuing to break my heart in tiny pieces.

"And do you believe him?" I asked her, glancing at her.

She sighed and shrugged, swiping at her flowing tears. "Not really but-"

"No 'buts'. What he's saying isn't true. I haven't even read anything you've written other than a couple of those notes that we did with the twins and I can tell that you're a great writer." I interrupted her - this time with a good reason and then offered her a tissue.

"You're just saying that cause you're my friend." She said, taking the tissue and pulling back from my embrace to look at me.

I firmly shook my head. "No, I'm not. I'm saying that as a person who you're temporarily living with because you hit her truck."

That managed to get a laugh out of her.

I grinned at her but then slipped back to being more serious. "Honestly, you're amazing and you can't let anyone else tell you differently."

She smiled and wiped her face. "Thanks. You're the best." She then hugged me.

I smiled at her. "Anytime. And hey, if you need me to tell him off, you just tell me and I'll do it. Adults don't scare me. I mean, unless he's one of those scary adults that can make anyone feel like tiny little ants." I said honestly, giving her a worried look. "Is he?"

She laughed again but this time I was completely serious. Those adults scared me half to death and I went the longest lengths to avoid them.

"No. He isn't. But those people are scary." She agreed after reassuring me.

I stood up and walked over to the door. Before I opened it and left, I turned back to her. "Miracle, I-" I paused. "I know you're going to make it places that you wouldn't have imagined." With that, I left.

Shutting the door, I turned to head down the hall and ran straight into Meg.

"Oh my god. Sorry." I winced and apologized.

She smiled and shook it off. "It's fine but we need to talk."