Butterfly

30. Merry Christmas, Mum.

Chapter Thirty: Merry Christmas, Mum.

♡ Jessica Washington ♡

After a weekend of scattering Christmas decorations around the house and late Christmas shocking, we are finally prepared for Christmas Day. I wake up early that morning and I can practically smell Christmas in the air. The faint familiar tune of I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday fills the house, along with the sound of my dad clattering around downstairs, preparing for the family to arrive.

I climb out of bed and have a quick shower, before getting dressed. I wear a red dress, which comes down to around mid-thigh. It's tight at the top but loose from the waist down, with a red lacy material covering the red material underneath. We always dress up smart for Christmas, and this year is no different. I wear red heels with this, and do my makeup to match, with red lipstick. I loosely curl my brown hair, before opening my curtains.

Directly opposite my window, I see River sat in his room. He is wearing a dark red Christmas jumper which has a green Christmas tree in the centre. I open my window, and the sound makes him look up, making him smile, walking over to his window and opening his.

"Merry Christmas, book boy," I smile, picking up his present from my desk and walking to the window, where I throw the present across the gap and into his room.

"Merry Christmas, Jessica Washington," River replies, throwing his present for me over. His wrapping could use some improvement, for a start. It's got a lot of unnecessary tape stuck everywhere, and the edges are all crumpled and are overhanging the present by quite a lot. I almost laugh at his attempt, but he made an effort.

"Thank you," I say, before starting to unwrap the present. I open it to reveal a black jewellery box, and I stare at it in surprise.

"How much did you spend?" I ask, shocked at the jewellery box.

"Don't worry, it didn't cost much," River assures me, and I frown, before opening the box to see a silver anklet. It's very pretty, with a small heart pendant attached to it.

"It's beautiful, thank you," I tell him, taking the delicate chain out the box and putting it around my ankle. My present for River was awful compared to this, fucking hell.

"You're welcome," River says, opening the present from me. Again, I got a lot of different things to make up for how bad they are. I got him a new pair of Vans as his old ones are falling apart, a new grey hoodie because he said he needed a new one, one of those long necklaces boys sometimes wear which have a silver pendant at the end, this one has a small silver arrow on it, like the arrows for bows and arrows.

"Wow, thank you so much, Jessica," River grins, and I smile, happy that he is at least pretending that he likes them.

"No problem," I shrug, when in reality it was actually the biggest problem I had. Everyone else was easy to buy for, but buying for someone who you like is surprisingly difficult.

"Jessica! Jasmine, Joe and Blake are here!" my dad shouts from downstairs, and I grin, excitedly.

"I better go, I'll come over a bit later because I got something for Rachel and Ashley," I tell River, who nods.

"Okay, have a good day," River smiles, before I close my window and hop down the stairs two at a time. I'm surprised I don't fall, as the heels I'm wearing are a bit too high for jumping.