Survivin' - [B.C.]

Chapter 21: Petit Arbre

A small smile came upon my face.

Yeah, welcome home.

========= SURVIVIN' =========

For the next few weeks to come, my life would be normal. I would just barely get through the day, clinging onto the structure that held our routines together, and then fall apart by nighttime. But I was getting through it. And although it had only been two weeks since my closest friend's death, I started to feel a little better about myself being alive.

And now it was Christmas Eve morning, and Ben and Sophie's families were on their way.

You know who else was?

Toby and his grandmother.

I had reconnected with my male friend and he was, to say the least, overjoyed to hear of my passing condition. He was yet to be disgusted by my continuous oxygen therapy.

Some time after I reached out to him, we began discussing our respective plans for the Christmas holiday. Toby expressed to me how since it was just him and his grandmother left in their family, that they would and have been simply letting the occasion pass by. I thought this was barbaric. And so I brought it up to my foster parents one night over dinner.

"He should come and celebrate with us!" Sophie had suggested eagerly. She had always been the biggest supporter of our friendship.

Ben was reluctant, however still managed to bring himself to agree; Toby and his grandmother would come to us on Christmas Eve and depart the day after the holiday itself. As would the adults' families.

Speaking of their arrival, I was particularly anxious in regards to such matters. But I was also a tinge excited.

On one hand, meeting the family was the global sign that you were, in fact, in a serious relationship. Not only that, but these people were highly spoken about.

Highly spoken about. These people were good human beings. They legitimately created the persons I get to live with today. They have the patent and I am simply a patent-pending project.

So sure, yes — I was to meet the immediate family of my foster parents (may I remind you that they are highly renowned celebrities), and on the same days I was to reunite with my male friend from New York. But it couldn't be too terrible, right?

Right.

Reaffirming the hopeful one last time as I looked in the mirror, I fixed my short brown hair, then turned on my heel and left my bathroom.

I was wearing a subtle red-and-green-plaid suit, courtesy of Sophie Hunter. "It totally epitomizes the Christmas spirit!" she had argued.

It looked tacky no matter how subtle it was. What is was doing was making me subtly hate the whole even more and more. But I was wearing the horror out of obligation, one that I was willing to fulfill all the way to the grave.

When I stepped through the doorway of my bedroom, Ben and Sophie were already waiting for me.

"Oh, you look just dashing!" Sophie said, snapping a picture with an Instax camera. I scowled at her.