Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Mix Tapes Or How We Celebrated Christmas

Hi everyone, I really hope you enjoy this chapter because I really enjoyed writing it. Please feel free to comment on how you like the chapter, and especially the mix tapes if you find some time to listen to them. All the love, Summer xxx

The rest of the day was spent in hospital where my dad underwent multiple tests to figure out what had caused his collapse in the kitchen earlier that day. The diagnosis was shattering. According to the doctors, my dad's heart muscles had stopped working for a few seconds, so minimal that my dad hadn't felt it coming like you would if you had a heart attack. That had caused him too faint and these interruptions seemed to have carried on for the next few minutes which is why he was out for so long. No one knew if something like that would happen again, but because of my dad's already advanced stages of his disease there wasn't much they could do about that as an operation would be too much for his body to take.

As they couldn't really do anything for my dad, they sent us home at the end of the day, leaving me to drive my exhausted parents back home to Hunstanton. It was a quiet drive, with Christmas songs playing quietly in the background, occasionally interrupted by a radio moderator. It was already quite late when we arrived back home and so everyone went to bed, trying to come to terms with what had happened today, with what would inevitably happen in the near future and the fact that it was Christmas Day tomorrow.

I woke up really early the next morning and quietly climbed downstairs in my pyjamas to prepare a nice breakfast with our special Christmas food for everyone to enjoy. I was determined to make this the best Christmas ever, so I spent an hour in the kitchen preparing loads of food before I gently woke up my parents. They were both happily surprised when they saw the prepared breakfast and my mum lit the candles on the tree, before we all sat down to enjoy our breakfast. We laughed and joked around, completely ignoring everything that had happened the day before, and had one of the best mornings in a while.

After breakfast, my mum and I quickly did the dishes before we returned to the living room to unwrap our presents. I had gotten my dad an audiobook which he could listen to when he was too exhausted to read. It was his favourite book and he nearly cried with happiness when he had unwrapped it. My mum received a relax box from lush cosmetics which she was also very happy about. I thought that she needed something to help her relax when she was taking care of my dad while handling working from home at the same time.

My parents had gotten me a vintage record player with my three favourite albums in vinyl as well. I looked lovingly down at my new possessions and then got up to give each of parents a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love them!" I told them happily and they exchanged and amused look. Then we moved on to the presents from friends and other relatives. My hands were shaking a bit when I opened Louis' present. I didn't know what to expect at all. I carefully unwrapped the present, both of my parents watching me with interest. A photo album fell into my lap with a small Christmas card attached to it.

"Dear Claire, Merry Christmas and a very happy new year. I know how much you love photos, so I got you a photo album which I already started for you. Love you, Louis xxx" I put the card down and slowly opened the book, careful not to break anything. The first page said "Claire's memories" in Louis' handwriting with his typical smile which he had also tattooed on his wrist. A big smile spread across my face and I moved onto the next page. It was filled with photos of him and me, me and Lily, me and Harry, me and Niall and Liam, me and Ed, just me, the whole double page was covered with photos put together in a very beautiful montage. My eyes were tearing up and I quickly wiped my eyes before I continued looking at the photos. My favourite one was a photo that someone must have taken without me noticing it.

I was dancing with Louis, my arms wrapped around his neck, his hands on my waist, while we smiled at each other, completely lost in our own world. It must have been taken at the album release party, like most of the photos on the page. Another favourite of mine was a photo of me and Harry, both widely grinning into the camera, both obviously drunk. He had put his arm around my waist and my head was leaning against his chest. I giggled when I realised that Harry was holding a green toothbrush in his other hand.