A Kinky Christmas [18+ only]

You didn't expect it, did you?

CHAPTER 3 - YOU DIDN'T EXPECT IT,DID YOU?

CHRISTMAS EVE

Let me tell you our tradition. Every Christmas Eve, each of us buys something, we gather at someone's place, have dinner, play games and drink alcohol until 2 am. Then one of the guys plays Santa Claus, bringing us gifts, we open them. After having taken pictures of course, which I jealously keep, in case I need to blackmail somebody – read Liam. 

After gifts, we go back to drinking and playing games, then usually by 5-6 am we collapse wherever. By noon we get up, and even if wobbly and with a murderous migraine, we leave to see our families, well, some us of do, the others just rest. And by others I mean me, Liam and Ethan.

Melissa goes to see her parents in Argentina, Natasha travels back to Alaska, Caleb spends the last days of the year in Hawaii with his relatives. Liam and Ethan do have a family, but they never see their parents.

As for me ... well, I'm orphan, my parents passed away when I was 14. Car accident. A friend of my mother's took me in, but when I was 16 she moved to Europe. She'd have taken me with her, but ... I didn't want to go. I'd have had to leave soccer, my school, my friends, Liam in particular ... I couldn't. So she agreed to have me declared legally emancipated, which meant that, well, I was major at 16, therefore able to take care of myself and all.

Liam wanted to convince his parents to take me in, but I refused, first because I did not want to be a charity case, then because ... well, it would have been too weird, given my crush on Ethan. I mean, he'd have practically become my stepbrother, which would have spoiled my every nonexistent chance at dating him.

Yes, I was that crushed back then. Funny, huh? I've longed for Ethan for over a year, even while never truly admitting it, yet when I did start dating him, it didn't feel as fulfilling as teenage me thought. I guess it's because I'd grown out of that puppy crush.

Liam, Ethan and I usually spend the rest of the holidays together, lounging at their mansion or travelling to some expensive place when they manage to convince me to be their guest. My job is nice, but it doesn't really pay off enough for me to afford holidays in fancy beaches or things like those. Whenever I leave the State, it's always because either Liam or Ethan convince me to travel at their expenses.

It's a tough life, we all know it, but when you're the son of a US Senator and a high profile businessman, it doesn't matter if your own job is crappy, you can afford whatever you want ... including pay for everything your girlfriend would love but is too proud to ask you. 

I never asked anything, never wanted any unnecessary gift from Ethan, and we fought every time he tried to get me something that cost more than 20 dollars, but ... that didn't stop him from paying my rent when I couldn't.

When I found out, I wanted to kill him, I swear, and then I'd have killed his brother, because it turned out, they had a deal with my landlord: if I got problems to pay rent, he needn't fuss nor bother me, he just ought to go to them. 

Those overprotective idiots took turns in paying my rent and bills the period I was jobless, without telling me anything. It's luck that to enter college I got a scholarship that paid part of the fees, while the rest, I could pay it with what my parents left me – the account they'd opened purposely for college when I was born –, otherwise those jerks would have paid for those, too.

It's one thing we fight over often. I get it that we've grown up together, so we're practically family, but I don't need their charity. Back to when we dated, Ethan always put it as 'boyfriends normally take their girls places, why can't I?', and it didn't matter that I reminded him I was no kept woman, he wasn't my sugar daddy, so we got to an agreement: he would only buy me two gifts a year: Christmas and birthday, not even Valentine's Day, because I hate it.