Rory's Christmas

Chapter 9

Happy new year!

Please note that I wrote this chapter at the airport during an 8-hour flight delay, and that airports in general make me cranky and nauseated and just not very happy, so this might not be very good. And yes, the ending is supposed to be a little messy :)

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Chapter 9

Matthew Vellocutt lived in a two-storey (Andy informed them that there was a basement) bungalow with red-shingles on the roof, whitewashed walls, broken shutters and a wooden porch that creaked and groaned in protest as soon as Drew put one big foot on the first step. He looked at Andy questioningly, but the boy had already bounded up to the front door and was calling for Matt.



They had had a rather interesting conversation along the way here. He felt a little bad for kind of cutting Ro out, but he had made it his mission to understand the young boy and steer him away from the could-be-dangerous path he was nearing; after all, Drew wasn’t particularly inclined to seeing a remake of his own best friend.



“All these houses look the same.”



Drew looked at Ro. She was playing with the zipper of her jacket distractedly, studying Matthew Vellocutt’s humble abode with an appraising eye.



“It seems homely though...could be nice and cozy...just needs a little bit of fixing-up, some paintwork here...white and yellow? Bright, sunny, topaz, mandarin...gold? No, something more vivid..maybe orange…if we just take...and...hmm...no, maybe…”

His amusement was growing with every one of Ro’s abstract mumbles as he watched her walk around the front of the house, tapping and stroking the wood and dreaming up what was sounding a lot to him like a whole new renovation plan for the place. He had to admit that it was actually kind of cute.



But speaking of plans—he had one of his own, and it was practically all prepared [in his head]. He had made a short mental list of things he wanted to show Rory, and by the end of it, he was sure, the girl would be another fan of Christmas. Just like that. Ta-da!

“Who’s there and what do you want?"

“Let us in already!” Andy hollered at the figure by the window, who stuck up his middle finger and then disappeared. Drew grinned. He remembered the days when he used to be just like that. Ah...those were the good times...


A few seconds later, the front door opened and a shirtless teenager, around Andy’s age, stepped out. His black curls were tousled in away that Drew might’ve guessed was from sleep, but when a feminine voice from inside the house called “Mattie?”, and then was followed by a leggy girl with equally-disheveled curls and swollen lips in the same shade of red as the imprints on the boy’s neck, he changed his mind.



“Just a sec, Dee!” yelled ‘Mattie’, and then the boy pulled the screen door shut and the girl sashayed away inside the house without so much as a backwards glance. Drew got the idea that neither of them would’ve cared much either way. 



Matthew Vellocutt squinted at them all for a second, then his countenance brightened considerably when his eyes landed on Andy. “That you, Keelis?” A broad grin spread across his face and he thumped the other boy loudly on his back. “Finally come to give me those forty bucks you owe me, heh?”



Drew wanted to laugh when he saw Andy’s jaw drop open with horror at the thought of telling his peer that he, in fact, had forgotten about those forty bucks once again. But to his surprise, Ro stepped up. 


“Of course he has,” she said, so sweetly that Drew nearly dropped dead with shock. Why didn’t she ever speak like that with him? She was always growling and being all mad but now she meets a complete stranger and turns into an actual girl? What is this world?! “He’s got the money in his pockets, right, Andy?”