Forever and Always, Olive

Chapter 14: The Unrequited Hug

Chapter 14

When we arrive at the house, I'm the one who has to drag in my bags because my father runs ahead of me childishly. My mother greets me with a hug and a gift bag. It seems like forever since I last saw her, even though it's only been a month. In the gift bag, there's a necklace in the box and a few gift cards for stores that I like. Dylan gives me a hug as well and explains that he's on a college kid budget and doesn't have money for things like gifts and that I should be grateful for his existence. Charlie, the cutie that he is, made me a heart on construction paper. In his sloppy handwriting, he wrote my name and a picture of me. I also notice something crossed out across from my nickname. I can faintly see the letters 'M' and 'A'.

"What's that?" I ask him when I crouch down and point to the two abandoned letters. The rest of the word is covered well by black crayon.

My two brothers look at each other and Dylan starts snickering. He starts laughing so loud that he has to leave the living room. "I wrote Olive plus Maddox," my little brother answers.

I grimace and nod as I try to make out Maddox's name. "Did you?" I trail quietly.

"Yeah, Dylan told me to," he excuses and I simply sigh and stare at the paper.

"It's okay, I love it anyway," I concur with a small smile.

The teasing of Maddox doesn't stop there. It continues on throughout the week. It's especially bad on Christmas, however. My mother even joins in a few times. Whenever the topic of Maddox comes up, my father just sits there with this annoyed look on his face; sometimes, he'll offer a few grunts. On the morning of Christmas, I'm awoken by my little brother, who takes it upon himself to run from room to room shouting that Santa has come. We all get up, despite the fact that it's barely seven in the morning.

Charlie digs around under the tree like a mole, searching for presents with his name on them. Every time he finds one, he shoves it to the side into a pile he's created. He'll occasionally hand a gift back to me and Dylan, which we take upon ourselves to separate. I get clothes, perfume, jewelry, and a few other things. My older brother will say slick comments whenever I unwrap a gift, like: "Ah, she wants to look good for Maddox with those new clothes." I simply glare at him and resist the urge to kick him. The highlight of Christmas, however, is watching my little brother open his gifts and thank Santa with a large grin on his face.

We also visit Grandma Ortega, who speaks only Spanish. Seeing as I haven't spoken the language in a while, mainly because I haven't been around many Spanish speakers aside from my Spanish class (which is definitely not your average Spanish 4 class); it takes me a moment to grasp what the older woman is saying. My father notices this and makes a comment that my aunt is rubbing off on me, seeing as Aunt Genevieve can't speak Spanish to save her life. Then again, it isn't her first language like it is my father's. In fact, it isn't one of her languages at all. My aunt is Italian and German, like my mother. My father is Spanish; his mother's straight from Spain.

For the majority of the time at my grandmother's house, I'm hunched over in a chair at the kitchen table, explaining that I don't want any more food. She keeps refilling my plate whenever I manage to scarf down what she put on it previously. I'm grateful when we leave. I feel like I've gained twenty pounds. Dylan, however, takes a to-go plate.

I spend a lot of time with my brothers, doing what we used to do, like play video games and just hang out in general. I didn't realize how much I missed Dylan until I spent time with him. He'd been at college for so long that I grew used to his absence. That's another thing I'll miss when I leave: my older brother. And I'll definitely miss Charlie, because he's Charlie. How could you not miss him?