If Only You Knew

Chapter 8

I wake up late on the 24th of December and I freshen up. When I told my parents that I was spending my Christmas with Charity they were not really happy. In our house Christmas is a huge thing. On that day nobody is allowed to get out of the house. Everybody comes over to our place. And by everybody I mean my grand parents, my cousins, my uncles and aunts.

It was pretty bad when I told them about what I was going to do on Christmas. My mom was like " Christmas takes place once a year and you want to celebrate it with somebody else?!" And I said " I want her to have a great Christmas this year." And my dad said " Son what has gone into you. You never do this." and I would sigh and say " Dad. Mom. I have no choice. I have already asked her. And I want to see her real smile. I'm sorry but I've got to do this." and I walked out of the room.

When I'm done I go down to have a late breakfast and I can feel all the stares that I'm getting from my family. They still haven't gotten over the fact that I'll be spending one Christmas away from home. ONE CHRISTMAS.

I quickly finish eating breakfast and I go to target to by a few things. I need to get new shoes cause my old ones got spoiled. Yes I'm buying new shoes on Christmas Eve. Heights of laziness.

I also need to get soap and gift wrapping paper as I haven't wrapping gifts. Yeah call me lazy.

I head over to the shoe section and try on some shoes. It takes a while for me to pick out the right shoes.

After I'm done I head to pick out some gift wrapping paper and I accidentally meet Mr.Hart. I say " Good Morning Mr.Hart." and he turns around saying " Oh good morning Jason." And continues saying " Buying wrapping paper now? It's Christmas Eve." I say " Yes Mr.Hart. I didn't finish wrapping a few gifts." He says " You can just call me Jim you know." and I say " Okay." He says " My daughter is still reluctant to go with you. Has something happened between you and her before?" I say " No. I just see her a lot in school and that's how we became umm..friends." He says " Oh okay. Mist be that other thing that had happened." I say " What thing?" curiously staring at him. He nervously laughs and says " Nothing."

We talk for a while and then we go our separate ways.

I drive back home and I wrap the gifts the moment I'm in my room. Then I go have lunch. Yeah it's a pretty boring day.

After lunch I do a few of my school assignments and then study for an hour. Then I sleep.

" Jay it's 7pm! Wake up or you'll be late!" says my sister Grace. "Wha? Just lemme sleep...." and I drift off to sleep again only to have Grace pull the blanket and pillow away from me. " What?!" I shout. She says " Are you going to go for that concert or not?! It's 7:05 now!" I shout saying " Shit. Not again." And I run to take a shower. Then I hurriedly put on my formals and I grab my keys and run to the car. But my sister stops me saying " You forgot the bracelet!" and I run all the way back to get the box. Why did I over sleep?!

I rush towards Charity's house and I reach exactly at 7:30pm. I sigh in relief and ring the door bell. Charity opens the door and says " I didn't expect you to be on time." And I reply saying " Me neither."

She looks pretty today as she has her hair down and has put on a bit of makeup. Her mom says " Enjoy yourselves but don't be late." She sighs and I say " Thank you Mrs.Hart" and I walk her to my car.

" You don't want to celebrate Christmas with me don't you?" I say. She says " No. I mean with you of all people. And my parents agreed to it. That's just surprising. My sister is lucky because she's going out with her boy friend and they have a great time on Christmas." I say " You have a sister?" She says " Yes. We're the same age. She's prettier and nicer. More friendly." I say " Oh. Wait you have a twin?" She says "umm......yeah....she's my twin sister." I say " Oh that's nice.So your parents are fine with her celebrating Christmas away from home?" She laughs and says " They think she's out with her friends. They don't know she has a boy friend and if they do find out they'll be furious. To be honest she's taking a huge risk." I say " Why can't she have a boy friend?" She says " Because they don't like it. They don't like the idea of being in a relationship and this dating stuff." I say " Oh."

After a while of silence I smile and say " You have a boy friend too? Like your sister? Secretly dating and stuff?" She says " Are you crazy? No. Why would anybody want me? I'm a loner at school who doesn't give a damn about looking good and all I care about is my grades and music. I'm a boring person. Why would somebody even want to be friends with me in the first place." I say " Well I'm your friend.....I think." and she says " Your an exception." I smile and say " You just told me a little about your self you know." and she says " Yeah it would be stupid if I just ignored you the entire time when it's just the two of us in the car."

She then finally says " So where are we going? You've been driving for the past 20 minutes." I say " You won't get to know till we reach so until then you can keep thinking about all the possibilities." She says " Well my mom forced me to wear formals so is it a party?" I say " No." " A family dinner?" She says and I reply saying " No." She then says " A dinner to a fancy restaurant?" I say " No." She says " I give up." I smile and continue driving.

When we reach I get out and open the door for her. Then we walk towards the entrance and she says " Why are we going for a music show?" I smile and say " Oh you'll find out soon." She says " Who's the musician anyways?" I say " You'll get to know that too."