The Christmas Olympics

Reindeer Games

I woke up to the strangest sound.

I rolled over on my air mattress, the loud groans of the material protesting, and found my mom inside my room—the gym, I amended—on her stationary bike, pedaling. The machine hummed with power and every time my mom's feet rotated on the pedals, her shoes gave a little squeak.

"Mom, what are you doing?" I asked. She didn't hear me. I realized headphones were jammed in her ears. I sat up and said her name louder.

She plucked a headphone out of her ear but didn't stop pedaling. "Good morning, Honey!"

"What are you doing?" I asked, unable to hide the irritation in my voice. I snatched my phone, dismayed to see both the time and lack of any texts from Sarah.

"I'm working out."

"Obviously. Why are you in here? It's 6 am."

"The ride I wanted to do started at six."

"You couldn't do it later? Like after I woke up?"

"No, Honey. The class is live."

"It's the day after Thanksgiving. You didn't want to sleep in a little?"

"If I didn't wake up and do it first thing I wouldn't have done it, Sweetie."

I stared at my mom for a moment. When I didn't say anything, she put her headphone back in her ear and focused on her screen. I wanted to scream into my pillow and throw it at my mom. Six am? The day after Thanksgiving?

I snatched my pillow and blanket and trudged into the living room to sleep a few more hours on the couch. Unfortunately my father was on the couch, sipping coffee and watching the news on full blast.

"Morning, Honey."

"Hi, Dad."

"Going somewhere?"

"No."

I turned around and threw my stuff back onto the air mattress. I glanced at my brother's closed door and contemplated kicking him out of bed so I could sleep a few more hours, but realized I wasn't going to fall back asleep.

I slipped back into my room-slash-gym and grabbed a few things and hopped in the shower. I hoped the warm water would sooth my aching back, but I didn't think any amount of home remedies would heal the damage being done sleeping on that thing.

After my shower, I fixed myself a cup of coffee and joined my dad on the couch. I didn't know what else to do with myself, so I sipped my coffee, tuned out the news, and stared at my phone, clicking the screen every few minutes as if that would magically make a text from Sarah appear.

I still couldn't believe she'd dumped me. I thought maybe she just wanted some space and going home to her family without me for the first time in two years would give her some perspective and she would text me, begging me to come home. It was still radio silence.

"Your mother tells me your girlfriend and you broke up," my father said through his large mustache.

I glanced at my dad, who was a man of few words.

"Yeah," I said.

"Sorry."

"It's fine."

"I'm glad you're home."

"Me too," I lied."

"I hear you didn't get the job in Maryland that you wanted."

"No."

"Sorry."

"It's fine."

"You can stay here as long as you need."