Fluctuat nec Mergitur

Chapter 6

*Max's POV*

Michael was getting married in three weeks. He'd been engaged for a year and a half, so says Lauren. In the meantime, it's Christmas Eve. I would be excited if Christmas had ever mattered to me, and being born a Christian certainly couldn't have hurt.

I sat on the floor next to Christian, leaning against the base of the sofa. They were watching a movie about some ugly ass green dude that kept talking down Christmas decorations. That's what some people see me as around the holidays. National warning: Christ-killer on the loose. Watch your kids and your decorations.

Christian yelled something in my ear, like I'd gotten in the way of him taking to someone else. I shoved his shoulder. He, in return, kinda pushed me over into the carpet and leaned his elbow on me while still talking to whoever it was. I sighed. His scratchy sweater was quite uncomfortable, and I wasn't even the one wearing it.

I laid on the floor while all these people moved around me. I'd probably still be on the floor at Christmas, more or less ready to deal with all the commercial bullshit that gets thrown around.

Kath and Michael were baking cookies, Lynne at the piano practicing some songs, Mike doing who-knows-what that dads do behind the scenes, and everyone else watching this weird movie. It was getting late and I was ready to quit, but everyone else was still going. Seasonal holidays, not even my own, aren't really my thing. They're too overwhelming.

When the movie ended, I went straight down to the basement. All of my papers were laid out on the table my the sofa. I took one look at them, sat down and decided to ignore it all for a few days.

*

"The business is fine, hon." I heard Mike say through the floorboards. "It'll come back up. You'll see."

I couldn't hear anything past that, and it's not like I could understand it, past "is", "come", and "it". Well, it can't be my problem. I put on a pair of jeans and a black Queen shirt tiredly, dragging my worn leather jacket up the stairs by the sleeve like Christopher Robin and Pooh Bear.

"Max!" Lynne clasped her hands together with excitement as soon as she saw me.

"Yeah?" I looked around the kitchen. I don't know what she sounds all excited for. I guess it's Christmas, but it doesn't feel any different from yesterday. I sat at the counter, mostly disinterested.

She looked like she was about to say something but figured it wasn't a good idea. "Are you hungry?"

Poor woman. I don't have as good a grasp on English as she thinks. "What?" Am I what? I'm not even totally sure how to use are and am.

She smiled. "You're so cute."

I tilted my head. "I what?"

She just smiled again. Okay, that's helpful. I put my head down on the counter, watching Lynne waltz about the kitchen, stirring something here and pouring something there and taking something out of the oven. She's awful busy for so early in the morning.

*Alex's POV*

I swung into the kitchen to help my mom, picking up Max's jacket and throwing it over my shoulder for the sake of preventing it from getting stepped on. She drags that thing around. And if I do say so myself, it needs a wash. A deep clean, if you can do that to leather.

"How's it going?" I asked Mom, who was chopping fruit, bananas, strawberries, watermelon and grapes in a bowl.

"It's coming along." She grinned. My parents don't act better than any of their kids when comes to Christmas. "Little miss energetic over there looks like she's having the time of her life."