Strawberry Stains (A One-shot Christmas Special)

Caelum Warrington was a bitter child.

If someone would say, “People will learn how to appreciate the littlest of things in times of mayhem and turmoil”, he would most probably just scoff in derision, laugh scornfully, or maybe roll his eyes and say “Utter bollocks. Mental, the lot of you!”

For the umpteenth time of his entire life, Caelum had hated his miserable and pathetic excuse for a life. And the reason why? Well, there are quite a lot.

First, his family had to move from Surrey, his hometown, and stayed in Suffolk with his Aunt Karen in the mean time since there’s only a year left before he would finally attend the university and his parents wanted to look for “greener pastures”. Well, actually, they just wanted to avoid his grandparents as much as possible after a huge row they had a few months back before the term began. Caelum’s mum and dad had no idea how he found that out.

Second, he was new in this high school and he didn’t know how to cope with the environment and make any friends. Perhaps it was partially his fault, he thought, because he didn’t like talking to anybody. Caelum had no idea why, but he just didn’t feel like to, and he was quite certain of that.

And third, and maybe the actual reason why he hated his life, was when he found out that his parents wanted to file a divorce. It all started when his dad caught his mum committing adultery behind his back with this man who was actually his dad’s best friend during this one, unfortunate night. They ended up shouting at each other when they got home and decided that they should get divorced. It was quite a long story and Caelum didn’t like talking much about it.

And the really bad thing was that, since he was the only child, he was caught in between.

*

On the first Christmas Caelum spent with his Aunt Karen’s family, he decided to lock himself in his room for isolation. He frowned when the merrymaking from downstairs had distracted him from his thoughts. The book that he was supposed to be reading was left opened on his lap, lying there and utterly forgotten. He couldn’t even remember what he was reading about anymore. He could hear the loud laughter of his Uncle Frank, the snaps of crackers and some of his younger cousins singing Christmas songs. Unlike the previous years, he hadn’t felt the happy Christmas spirit this year, as if all the happiness had been strangled out from him, in the same way when winter comes and strangles the life from the earth.

Caelum was sitting on his bed with his head turned to the side as he listened to the faint chattering and ruckus from downstairs and watched as the snow fell outside his window. Then, there was a quick knock on his bedroom door before it gently flung open, revealing his Aunt Karen. He didn’t even bother turning to face her.

“Caelum?” said his aunt in a soft voice, watching him on the bed as she stepped inside the room.

“What is it?” he mumbled, never taking his eyes away from the window.

“Your cousin, Hillary, is here,” the older woman told him, her tone a bit sad. “And young man, you have to get out of your room some time—”

“No,” he answered curtly, cutting her off. “I don’t want to go outside.”

Aunt Karen sighed sadly, closing the door behind her gently and walked towards his bed. “You’ve got to socialize, Caelum. Make friends, meet people. Your cousins are downstairs, and Hillary even brought some of her friends with her.” His blonde aunt sat at the edge of the bed and stared at him for a moment. “I know that it’s hard for you, knowing that your parents aren’t in very good terms—”

“Why’re you telling me all these?” he asked, getting irritated and turned to face her.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m trying to understand your situation—”