The Beautiful You

Twenty-nine ~ Nobody Gets Me (Like You)

"Christmas is in less than a week, and my parents haven't figured out if we're flying out to New York or not," April said. She started slowly making her way back into my life a few days ago, and it's been awkward, to say the least.

We broke up months ago, but we didn't really break up until that day in October. She's been keeping away from us since then, but mostly from me. Mei had mentioned something about her parents going through a rough patch in their marriage, so April's been acting a little closed off.

"Well, there's always the Perez Christmas Party." Mei wiggled her eyebrows as she smirked at me.

"PCP!" Lee gasped. It was Lee's idea to create an acronym for my family's annual Christmas party, and he landed on PCP.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "My mom said you guys misbehaved at last year's party, and she also said to stop calling it that since it might give people the wrong idea."

Mei covered her mouth as she gasped in disbelief. "Firstly, the name is perfect!" She cried. Lee nodded in agreement. "Secondly, your cousin was the one who drank all the punch, and then framed us!"

"When did this happen?" Lee asked.

Mei turned to him and shouted, "You were there!"

"But why is it so bad that the punch was gone?" Lee asked in confusion.

April shook her head and slapped his arm. He winced, rubbed it over with his hand, and groaned. "What did I do?"

"It was the alcohol punch!" April reminded him.

"An alcoholic punch that we did not drink," Mei said, motioning towards the group.

I shook my head in response. "It doesn't matter anyway," I said. "My uncle is hosting this year, so I can only bring one person."

Lee nodded and began, "So it's gonna be—"

"Me," Mei interrupted as she pushed Lee out of his seat. His hands flailed up, failing to grip the table as he fell out of my view. "It's me. Right, Apollo?"

Lee stood up and shoved Mei out of her seat and said, "No, he's taking me!"

"Don't be dumb! You don't even like going to Christmas parties!" Mei muttered, pushing Lee's face away with her hand.

"So? It'll be better than taking you," Lee said.

Mei stuck her tongue out at Lee as she sat back down. April glanced at me, nodding her head towards the pair. She was probably wondering why those two seemed more tense than usual. I shrugged in response. Lee and Mei always had that type of relationship, but lately I get the sense that there was some type of fight that happened without us knowing.

April shook her head disapprovingly and said, "Guys he's probably gonna take—"

April paused and jerked her head toward me. I stared at her and shook my head as a warning sign. Mei and Lee were still in the dark about my relationship with Amory, much like everyone else in my life.

"...none of us," she finished.

Mei and Lee snapped their heads toward her. "Why?" They both chimed.

"Because..." her voice wavered as she tried to find an answer. "Apollo, is a fair person. It's either all of us or none of us. He wouldn't want anyone to feel left out," she said, nodding her head, convinced by her own lie.

"Yeah," I agreed. "I'm probably just gonna go with my parents."

Mei frowned and nodded reluctantly. "So, Christmas Eve is a no go. What about New Years?" Mei mumbled.