Smile

Chapter 12: Nightmare Before Christmas

Too. Many. People.

Those were the only three words I could think of when my father would speak of Christmas—which, according to him, started on the morning on the 24th and lasted until the evening of the 26th.

My father always insisted on inviting the whole family over during Christmas time, which included my grandparents, my three aunts and uncles, and my seven cousins. To make it worse, all of my cousins were between four and eleven years of age, leaving my brother and I with nothing to do but hide in our rooms or hang out with the teasing adults.

"I wouldn't complain, if I were you," Logan told me over Skype the night before everyone was scheduled to arrive. "Frankly, anything would be better than what my Christmas Eve is going to look like."

"Which is?" I prompted.

"Playing video games in my room while my dad gets himself drunk at a bar in the hopes to forget that it's his first Christmas without his only daughter and his eldest son," he said bluntly. I had noticed over the past few weeks I had known Logan that he spoke of things that hurt him as emotionlessly as possible. I guessed it was to make it easier, but I didn't see how ignoring the pain made it any less difficult. I was dreading the day when he'd finally explose from all the feelings he was keeping bottled up.

"Guys, I'm home!" I heard my father call from the front door. I shouted a greeting in response before taking a bite of my salad. "Eating late, are we?" my dad asked when he came in the kitchen to see me sitting at the table with my laptop set infront of me. "What's with the computer?"

I nodded at the screen, where Logan could be seen silently eating spaghetti. "Talking to Logan."

My dad frowned. "Who?" Rolling my eyes at my father's awful memory, I turned my laptop toward him so that he could see my boyfriend. "Oh, hey, Logan! Sorry, I'm quite horrible with names."

I heard Logan chuckle. "It's alright, Mr. Mallark. How are you doing?"

My father nodded, seeming impressed with Logan's polite bahavior, though I couldn't say I blamed him. He'd gotten used to Noah and Thomas usually greeting him with something like, "Hey, Larry, don't you have any chips around here?"

"I'm fine, thank you for asking," was my father's equally polite reply to Logan's question as he grabbed himself a beer from the fridge. "How about you?"

"I'm good," Logan said, and I took that as my cue to turn my laptop back to me. This didn't seem to phase my dad, whom just sat beside me and rearranged it so that Logan could see the both of us.

"So, what are you doing for Christmas, Logan?" my father kept the conversation going like he and my boyfriend were good friends catching up on each other's lives. "Any plans?"

"Uh, no. My family has been dealing with some issues lately, so I'm probably just going to stay here by myself."

My dad immediately shook his head. "No, absolutely not! Tell you what, come over for Christmas." He turned to me. "You two are a couple, aren't you?" I nodded slowly and he clapped his hands together. "Great! Then it'll be the perfect opportunity to get to know my daughter's boyfriend!"

Logan's hesitance was clear on his face. "Oh no, I wouldn't want to intrude..."

"Nonsense! We have plenty of food; one more person won't make much difference. Plus, the more the merrier, as they say!" My father was too enthusiastic. There was no way Logan could refuse now, and I could tell he had come to the same conclusion.

"Alright, then. I guess I could drop by for a few hours..."

"Great! Then I will see you here tomorrow morning at eleven!" By the look on Logan's face, my dad's definition of a few hours wasn't the same as his, but he smiled and nodded anyway.