Forever and Always, In my heart

Chapter 58:

Ch. 58

~Peyton POV~

“Merry Christmas, Peyton!” I was woken up instantly by a shout and someone jumping on the bed.

“Hunter!” I gasped, sitting straight up in bed. “What on earth are you doing here?” Honestly, it confused me and for a second I thought I was still in David’s room. I thought maybe I fell asleep there until I realized I was, in fact, in my own bed, in our apartment.

He smirked and sat beside me on my bed, on his knees, still bouncing up and down. “I wanted to say Merry Christmas to you on the actual day and not just on the night before. Come on and let’s see what Santa has for us downstairs!”

“Umm….Okay?” I said and still utterly confused of why he was here and jumping on my bed.

As soon as we made it downstairs, I saw the rest of his family. David and Will were in some heated debate over something and Linda and mom were gabbing away in the kitchen. Hunter ran over and jumped onto the couch by David and smiled up at him. “Okay, my job is done. Where’s my candy?”

“What?!” David gasped. “You’re the one that wanted to do that!”

“No, I just wanted to tell Peyton Merry Christmas. You’re the one who said to go wake her up!” Hunter explained. “Candy! Now!” He held his hand out, waiting for David to hand some candy over.

I rolled my eyes as I walked over to the recliner that was vacant and plopped down on it. “What time is it?” I asked, closing my eyes and leaning back in the chair.

“Time for you to get up.” David replied.

I opened my eyes to glare at him. “Ha. Ha. You’re so funny.”

“A little after nine.” Will chimed in, letting me know. “Would you like me to smack my ignorant son for you?”

“Gladly!” I smirked.

I busted out laughing when Will got David in the back of the head. “Ow!” David groaned, rubbing his head. “Did you have to get me that hard?”

“Yeah.” Will shrugged.

“Oh good, you’re up now.” Mom smirked. “Wasn’t this a fantastic surprise?” She smiled at me as she sat down on the floor next to the coffee table, sitting her cup of eggnog on the table. “I thought it’d be fun to have a little Christmas get together.”

“Here Audry, have my spot. You don’t have to sit on the floor.” David said, getting up from where he was sitting. Linda was perched on Wills lap at the moment.

Mom waved him off, “No, no, go ahead and sit back down. I’m good down here.”

David sat back down as I finally answered my mom. “Yeah, it was definitely shocking being woken up by Hunter.” I smiled over to Hunter, who was now chowing down on an airhead.

“Well, how about we open up gifts?” Mom said happily.

I haven’t seen her this happy in a while and it was nice to see. She needed to be happy after everything that has happened. What better time to be happy than now, with family and the fact that Tim can’t bother us for a very long time. After everything that happened a few weeks ago, they had mom and I go in and tell our stories to the cops and thankfully this time they believed us. They locked Tim away on the counts of breaking and entering, domestic abuse, and child abuse, seeing as I’m still underage. Needless to say, he’s gone for a long time. I couldn’t be happier than this moment right here, and seeing my mom smile and being genuinely happy warms my heart so much.