Toothpaste Kisses

Chapter 30

~~ Hello Munchkins!! I am back!! I know, I know it has been very long but I finally got some sort of a break in school life and I could put it up. I hope you like it and I made it extra long so yeaaah...
Okay, so I also wanted to put out there that my cousin had a baby last week and have a guess what she called him? NOAH! I was totally furious haha! I want to call my child Noah... anyways!! Enjoy... ~~

CHAPTER 30

The service was mundane and full of jumping up and down from the sing-songs. But I couldn’t think about dumb things; like the number of bricks that made up the building or whether that musty smell was the churches own scent or if it had anything to do with the old man in front of me. All I could think about was Noah and I; what we were and what we definitely weren’t.

Soon we were in the car; all us kids again sitting in awkward silence as some started to fall asleep and the others just stared out of the window and I? I sat there, squished between Kevin who was fondly making my shoulder his pillow and Noah who was staring – like I – adamantly ahead not saying a word.

It was awkward, and it stayed awkward all the way back to his home-slash-mansion. It was awkward as we were handed a small present each – ending up to be a sachet of hot chocolate which I used straight away and when the two of us walked up to our rooms we stood there in front of my door  with blank expressions and rocking on heels before mumbling a goodnight and slumping off into our own rooms.

“JODIIII!” a girl’s high pitch scream cut through the soft, woolly, cosy air that smelt like hot milk and hot chocolate and camomile tea. And Danny was wrecking this, she was so wrecking this. “Jodi, get out of bed lazy ass, Santa’s come!!!”

“Dirty Santa,” I grumbled into my sheets, trying to crawl away from her piercing voice.

“No, Jodi, Santa’s left presents!” She was talking like she was five, not eighteen and pulling my face away from the warm cocoon I found her kneeling on the corner of my bed with rounded eyes and a massive smile making her look like a manic brunette Barbie doll. “Come on!” she squealed. With a nod I pulled the sheets away, letting her have full access of my hand which she yanked to get me on my feet and towards the door.

My feet were stumbling over the fluffy carpet when she finally stopped. She stopped in her tracks actually. Her eyes were still rounded but they glittered with horror and her full lips were no longer spread in a smile but were parted slightly in horror.

“What?” I asked looking down at myself.

“What is that you’re wearing?” her voice was thick with disgust. I looked down at myself again, instinctively but no, it was the baggy t-shirt that I had crawled into last night. “Honey, I gave you PJs, silk, satin, VICTORIA SECRETS! And you wear that thing!” She sighed and shaking her head a knowing smile slid into place. “You can’t go down in that; Mom’ll think the worst and so will the others.” Without another word Danny padded across the floor and opening up the chest of drawers she chucked something shiny into my face. I pulled it away and it ran like water through my hands; satin.

I went to the corner of the room and with my back to her, I swapped slips. It was as cold and felt like water, the feel took me back to last spring when Nick came up for the weekend and took me to Aber Falls. He threw me into the water and with the mix of the unusual heat and the freezing water it was nice.

Turning back around I looked down at myself and snorted. “I can’t go down like this.” Instead of saying anything Danny glared and threw something cosy and soft and something that smelt familiar. It was my onesie. It was soon on and with a roll of her un-mascara-d, un-eyeliner-d eyes she took my hand and dragged me out the door, down the stairwell and into the living room.