They Don't Know (BOOK TWO)

Chapter 5

When Aubrey went to sleep last night she felt the energetic buzz of anticipation for the next morning to rise. She's never felt this excited for Christmas to come since she was eight. But when she woke up to the smell of sizzling bacon, her stomach grumbled in response and she quickly brushed her teeth, washed her face and went downstairs. The Christmas tree is overflowing with color wrapped gifts in various shapes and sizes, Aubrey's fingers itch to just tear them open right.

"Merry Christmas!" She sings walking into the kitchen.

"Someone's in a happy mood." Her sister says from where she's sitting at the table drinking orange juice.

"It's Christmas! Everyone should be in a happy mood." She exclaims. Her aunt laughs and continues to stir the pancake mix in a bowl before pouring some in the pan and let it sizzle for a moment before flipping it over. Aubrey steals a piece of bacon off the plate and sits across from her sister.

"So, what did you buy me?" She asks with a smirk.

Victoria shakes her head, "I'm not tellin you anything. You'll see when you open it."

"Fine," Aubrey pouts, picking up the remote and turning on the tv. She changes it to the news channel to watch the Christmas Day parade. "I've always wanted to go to one of those."

"We should all go next year for baby Chanel aka Nelly's first Christmas." Victoria replies, reaching over to touch Aubrey's protruding stomach.

"You mean baby Lauren," Their aunt says over her shoulder as she places pancakes on the plate.

Aubrey rolls her eyes, these two have been fighting over the baby name since they found out she was having a girl last month. They've thrown more names at her than she's even cared to discuss about with Keenan yet. "Ok first of all I'm not naming my baby Chanel, like the brand. That's ghetto. And second of all I'm not naming my baby Lauren either, that's my moms middle name, ew."

"Chanel is not ghetto, it's really pretty." Victoria argues.

"Yeah whatever," Aubrey says looking back at the tv as a colorful float goes by. Soon her aunt places the plates of bacon, pancakes and toast in the middle of the table and they begin piling food onto their plates. Aubrey eats quicker than she meant to, not realizing just how hungry she really was. It seemed like the food just disappeared from her plate and soon she's reaching for more.

By the time they're done eating the parade has gone off and Aubrey is completely full. They put their dishes away and head into the living room to sit around the tree.

"Wait, let me go get my camera." Their aunt says, turning and heading back upstairs.

Aubrey slowly lowers herself to the ground, holding her belly in order to protect it. She looks at all the gifts under the tree feeling like its her first Christmas. "Remember last Christmas when granddad got us Barbie dolls and five dollars."

Victoria laughs, "That man never remembers our ages I swear. He's either a year or ten years off." They both laugh thinking about all the times their grandfather has forgotten either their names or their ages. He's the wisest person they've ever met but when it comes to putting faces to names and ages he's clueless. Victoria sighs, "It sucks that I have to go back to Florida in a few days."

"Yeah, I'm gonna miss you." Aubrey says honestly. She's thought about how Victoria will be leaving soon and then it's just gonna be her and her aunt. Victoria showed up in her desperate time of need and if it wasn't for her she would probably still be hanging with Carson instead of fixing up her life. It's gonna be hard without Victoria being here.

"You know...you could always move back to Florida. Leave with me when I go." Victoria looks her in the eye and Aubrey can feel her mentally begging her to agree.