Fallen

40. Holly Jolly

Christmas eve was a blur, besides Harper being on a five hour call with her friends, secretly telling them everything that went down last night. When she hung up the phone, she felt a little guilty for telling her friends without her brother's permission, but it didn't matter; the damage was done, and besides, it wasn't like the whole school would find out..Hopefully. Harper tried to convince herself that no one at school would find out. How would they? Yes, rumors spread like wildfires at Higgs and Truham, but Acacia wasn't in school, and Ossy could keep a secret. 

On Christmas morning, Harper awoke at the ripe time of 6am. Her family had a rule that there was no opening gifts until at least 7am. Younger Harper thought it was bullshit, but teenage Harper understood the need for a few more resting hours. Since there was no point in going back to sleep for 30 minutes, she grabbed sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt, shivering as she went to the restroom to change. It was winter, obviously, so that meant Harper got to freeze her ass off every morning before she got dressed in warm clothes. By the time Harper got dressed, did her makeup, and had a mini concert to some Christmas music, it was 7am. Though she didn't even glance at a clock, she knew it was that time by the sound of Oscar knocking, no, probably slamming his whole body weight on the door. For a pretty miserable fuck like Ossy could be, he sure did like waking up early on Christmas. 

"Wake up, sis!!" 

"I am!" Harper called, opening her door. Oscar must have been getting ready to pound the door again, because when it opened, he fell onto the floor of Harper's room. 

"Fuck.." He cursed, rubbing his forehead. 

Harper stepped over him as if he was some bug, and then she ran downstairs. 

Oscar got a hold of himself and was quickly dashing behind Harper. 

"Santa did really well this year." Oscar teased as he eyed a bunch of the gifts under the tree. 

Harper nodded in response and sat on the floor, waiting for Nick and Charlie. A few minutes went by and it was now 7:10. 

"If they're not down here in five minutes, we'll go wake them up, deal?" Oscar suggested, holding out his hand for his sister to shake. 

Harper took his hand and gave it a firm tug. "Deal." 

_______________________________________________________________________________

Nick and Charlie were in fact not sleeping. 

"Charles, get dressed!" Nick whisper-shouted. 

"I'm trying!" Charlie giggled, hopping out of bed to get his clothes. 

Nick gave Charlie's ass a small slap. "Do it faster." 

Charlie huffed and threw a pair of underwear at his husband. 

"These mine?" Nick asked himself. Once he confirmed they were his, he slipped them on, along with checked Christmas pants. Nick put a shirt on and looked for his love. "..Char?" 

No answer. 

Nick pouted and called again. "Charlie?" Nick sighed as there was still no answer. "Charrrr." He whined, then smiled when the bathroom door opened. 

There stood Charlie, messy hair and wall. He wore matching checked pants like Nick, this was rare that Charlie wasn't wearing skinny jeans. That was one thing Nick never understood about his husband; skinny jeans? Why would you want to wear pants that make you feel like you can't walk? 

"Nick? I asked how I looked.." Charlie said softly. 

Nick blushed. "Oh." He smiled, then picked Charlie up and spun him around. "So good!"