This Christmas (Mavi)

12

Avi turned off the engine and we sat in silence for a couple seconds. I took a deep breath, and Avi, seeming to notice my nervousness smiled at me reassuringly.

"It's fine, they're gonna love you."

I gave him a weak smile. It was going to be fine. These were the people Avi grew up around. He wouldn't be so nice today if they were terrible people.

"C'mon let's go!" Avi's voice pulled me out of my thinking and I forced my limbs to move and open the door. I stepped out onto the snow-covered ground and looked at Avi's grandparents' house. It looked very cozy.

"We'll get our stuff later, I want to say hi to my family first," Avi said, and he started walking towards the house, me following behind him.

We got to the front door and Avi knocked. After a couple seconds the door opened and revealed an elderly woman who I assumed to be Avi's grandmother.

"Avi!" She exclaimed, pulling him in for a hug. "Where have you been? We thought you would be arriving yesterday!" He hugged her back carefully, the content smile on his face making me smile too. They hugged for a few seconds in silence, until Avi's grandmother looked up and saw me standing awkwardly behind Avi.

"And who's this? You didn't tell me you were bringing a guest with you."

Avi stood upright again and turned around, pulling me forward by my arm so I stood next to him.

"This is Mitch, he's one of my band mates, he didn't have anywhere to go this Christmas so I let him tag along. I hope that's okay,"

I stuck out my hand but she pulled me in for a hug too and I stumbled forward, before awkwardly hugging her back.

"Of course that's okay, the more the merrier!"

She let go of me and looked me in the eyes.

"Nice to meet you, Mitch! I'm Anna, Avi's grandmother, but you can just call me grandma. Everyone does."

"Nice to meet you too," I answered. I loved her already.

She walked back into the house and we followed her, taking off our shoes and jackets before entering the rest of the house. We walked into the living room, where all of Avi's family, including Esther and Darien, were sitting and chatting. Everyone looked up when we entered the living room, and lots of "Avi!" 's were shouted. The smile on his face was big enough to light up the entire room.

I leaned against the doorpost while he made his way around the room, hugging all of his family members.

After he'd greeted most of them someone finally noticed me.
"I didn't know you were bringing a friend!" A man said, who looked like he was probably Avi's uncle.

Avi motioned me to come over, raising his voice to adress everyone in the room.

"Guys, listen up! This is Mitch, as some of you already know, he's one of my bandmates and he couldn't get home to his family so I invited him over here."

Everyone greeted me and Avi led me around his family, introducing me to everyone. Everyone was incredibly sweet and soon I found myself sitting between Esther and Avi's uncle, chatting to both of them about the past year and all the crazy stuff that had happened. It almost felt like I was actually home, with how nice and welcoming the family was being to me.

While I was sitting there chatting with all of Avi's family time flew by, and around six it was time for dinner, which was amazing. Avi's grandmother turned out to be a spectacular cook and I ate a lot more than I should have, but I didn't even care at that moment. All I cared about was how happy and at home I felt, and the amazing potatoes with rosemary grandma'd made. Especially those.

"So why couldn't you go home? What happened?" One of Avi's aunts asked. I tried to recall her name. I think it was Susan or something.

"There was a nation-wide strike so my flight to Texas got canceled, and there was no other way I could get there within two days so I was going to spend Christmas alone but then Avi showed up and after hearing my story he invited me over. And now I'm here!"

Suddenly I realized I hadn't called my family at all today. I made a mental note to do it after dinner.

-

After dinner everyone was making their way back to the living room and I tapped Avi on the shoulder.

"I'm going to Skype my family for a bit, could you help me with moving my suitcase upstairs?"

Avi pulled another unimpressed face at me. "To heavy for you, is it?" He followed me though, shaking his head while doing so. We brought our suitcases upstairs to the bedroom we had to share. Avi put away his stuff and went back downstairs and I got out my laptop and called Mike.

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A/N

Idk how I t's almost over, next chapter will probably be the last one. I'll try getting it up today.