Megan and Mom both came home on Christmas Eve, and my sister didn't have her roommate with her this time, thank goodness.
"It's a time for family," she had said.
For a second I thought about our father, but banished that thought right after, he didn't deserve pity for leaving us.
Like, it was weird enough having Mom home acting like everything was fine when she had just been discharged from hospital after stressing herself out too much.
But at least she was okay, that was something I was eternally grateful for.
I obviously couldn't sleep that night; too excited and impatient to see exactly what my delightful dysfunctional family had gotten me for Christmas this year.
Also it was weird being under the same roof with both Trent and Megan again, like we were thirteen again.
Oh god were we problematic at that age.
Our poor mother, having to put up with not one but three little devils.
The next morning I woke up to Trent shaking me awake because "IT'S CHRISTMAS MORNING!"
Megan groaned loudly from her bedroom.
For T, I got a rainbow hair clip which he had been looking at the day before but pretended not to.
"Seriously!? I hate you- just kidding. Oh thanks, sis!"
For Mom, I got a heart shaped necklace with a small message on the back saying 'we love you, mom'.
"Oh my god, it's perfect." She may or may not have cried while she said this.
For Megan, I got a tablet. She had broken her old one and had always been too modest to ask for a new one.
"Wow. Okay, Isa, this is too much. I mean obviously I'm keeping it, but still..." She laughed.
From Trent I got a pack of small rainbow flags and he also passed me another, saying it was from Jake.
My best friend got me a scarf and a huge bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk.
There was also a label which read 'Merry Xmas, bestie! Lots of love, J xx'.
My happy mood was short lived, however, when I got the wrapping paper off the gift Megan had pushed at me, trying to act subtle and failing.
There was a necklace. The label said 'Merry Christmas, sweetheart. Love, Dad'.
And Megan was wearing a necklace just like it.
I got up and walked out of the room.
"Wait, Isa, please," Megan called after me, knowing it was smart not to try and follow.
T followed instead, and I let him.
We sat on my bed in silence. I was still holding the necklace in my hand, tightly.
"Do you think he deserves a second chance?" I asked at last.
"Nope," Trent replied instantly. "He left us, our mother was so broken-hearted and had three kids to feed and clothe and look after. She overworked because of him, it's his fault she ended up in hospital."
"So you've finally realised it's not your fault?"
T nodded. "I'm not giving him another chance, but if it's what you want I'm not going to stop you."
I looked down at the necklace in my hand, and I thought of my dad. Of how we walked out like it was the hardest thing in the world, of how we never saw him again, of how our mother was broken and tried to keep it all together for so long before ending up in hospital because she overworked herself.
And I threw that stupid necklace at the wall.
"He doesn't deserve it," I said, pulling Trent into a hug.
He sighed in relief and hugged me back.
"Great because no offence, you might have been put down in second place as my favourite person in the world."
"So I would no longer be joint first with Jake?" I asked, grinning.
"Nope, but thank god that stays the same."
"Yay."
