Beginnings • c.h

Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter Twenty Three

Anni POV

"Anni, get your lazy ass up, it's Christmas!" yells my younger brother Declan from behind my closed bedroom door. I let out a groan, and press my fists up to my eyes, still tired from the activities of last night.

I hear Aimee groan from her position on the mattress beside my bed, clearly feeling the same as I did. And in this case, we were both severely hungover. I slowly sit up, and place my head in my hands, attempting to stop the pounding in my head.

"You'd think that now he's older and all, that he would stop being an annoying twat, but no." Aimee groans throwing a pillow over her head as Declan continues to run rampant around the house. I chuckle lowly at her complaints,

"Hey at least you don't have to put up with him forever, I'm stuck with him!"

We both begin to laugh loudly, but both suddenly groan and clutch our heads tighter from the loud noises. I slowly stand up, and gingerly make my way towards the door.

"Come on, Aimee. We have Christmas presents to unwrap!"

---

"Can you pass the salad?" Aimee asks, pointing towards the extravagently over-sized bowl. As she leans over to grab the bowl from me, she whispers.

"So what's going on between you and Calum, at the moment? You guys seemed pretty tense last night."

Pretending to grab a bread roll from the basket across from Aimee I reply,

"Nothing is going on, that's the thing. I mean, you know we kissed and all but-"

"Hold up, hold up! You guys kissed!! When did that happen?!" Aimee interrupts, forgetting to lower her voice. In her outburst she manages to catch the attention of every single person sitting at the table.

It was now midday, and my immediate and extended family had gathered to have Christmas lunch together.

And now over ten pairs of eyes were staring at us, clearly confused by Aimee's outburst. I feel my face getting redder and redder from embarassment, I look over to Aimee, and see that she too is beet red. Sitting around the table, a large part of my extended family and Aimee's immediate family are gawping at us.

If the situation wasn't so embarrassing, I would have thought it comical the way everyone had suddenly frozen in place. My grandmother had a forkful of food halfway to her mouth, already forgotten. And Aimee's younger sister, Olivia, had her eyes wider than normal. Chris, Aimee's older brother, seemed to be the only one unfazed by the news, and had continued eating without pause.

My mother was the first to speak,

"What's this about kissing someone, Annika?" she says sternly, placing her knife and fork down on the plate. My brother looked at me, his face getting red with anger. My brain flicks into overdrive as I try to come up with a way of back-tracking.

"Uh, I-I-" I begin to explain, only to have Aimee quickly cut me off.

"Oh no, I didn't say Anni kissed someone, I said Euguise, you know, pronounced 'you guys'. He's a kid in our class, and Anni just told me that he finally kissed someone. Right Anni?"

Silently thanking her in my head, I nod and reply with the affirmitive. Satisified, yet still slightly suspicious, my parents return to their previous conversation with my grandparents. Once satisfied that they were distracted, I whack Aimee's leg underneath the table.

"Ow, what in the name was that for?!" She hisses, grabbing onto her thigh where I slapped it.

"You practically screamed to the entire world that I kissed Calum!" I hiss back. She glares back at me,