Reconstructing Amelia (unedited)

Chapter 105

December 25th, 2019

"Okay, ready?" Voices were whispering above me excitedly. "One . . . two . . . three! Mia! Wake up, wake up, wake up!"

I forced my eyes open, blinking sleepily as someone was shaking my shoulder. I swatted their hands away. "I'm awake, I'm awake," I grumbled.

Javi and two of the triplets were on top of my bed, bright grins plastered on their faces.

"Merry Christmas!" Calvin shouted enthusiastically.

I wanted to hit him with a pillow. "What are you guys doing?" I asked tiredly, glancing between the three of them. "And where's Colton?" He was the only triplet missing from the bunch.

"He's hungover," Calvin told me at the same time Cayden said,

"He's asleep," Cayden elbowed his brother.

I rolled my eyes, checking the time. "It's barely seven o'clock," I protested. "We went to bed almost two hours ago!"

"But we want to open presents," Calvin whined, shaking my shoulder again.

"You two, out. Now," Cato demanded from the doorway, looking half-asleep and very pissed off. "Amelia, you can go back to sleep,"

"But Cato-!" Cayden argued.

Cato smiled dryly. "Get out before I break your other hand,"

Both of them quickly got off the bed and scurried into the hall, laughing the entire way out.

Cato rolled his eyes before closing the door as Javi snuggled down beside me.

"So we're not celebrating?" he asked sadly.

I hugged him. "No no, we are," I promised. "We're just doing it later, when we're all awake enough,"

He nodded as I settled back down into my blankets. Hopefully, we'd all be able to get a few more hours of sleep in before the Christmas crazy started.

***

I made my way into the kitchen around eleven, stifling another yawn. Most of my brothers were seated around the counter, looking equally as tired.

"Good morning, again," Cato offered up a smile. "Coffee?" He handed me a hot mug at my nod, and I sat down between Xander and Alan, pouring the tiniest bit of creamer in my coffee.

"I hear you were woken up this morning too?" Xander mused.

I nodded. "Unfortunately,"

"Remind me to kill the triplets," Alan muttered.

"Hey, I wasn't involved with any of that," Colton reminded, his voice still thick with sleep. He looked somewhat sick and was wincing at the noise.

"Because you were hungover," Calvin said smugly.

Colton glared at him, sticking out his middle finger.

Cato tossed him a bottle of aspirin. "That's your own damn fault,"

"I know, I know," Colton grumbled, dry-swallowing a pill and proceeding to sit on top of Cayden on his stool, who surprisingly didn't mind.

"Can we open presents now?" Calvin begged eagerly.

Xander squinted at him. "We're still waiting for your brother,"

"Colton's already here,"

"We're waiting for Eli, dumbass," Alan quipped, rolling his eyes.

I nudged him. "Hey, be nice,"

"Yeah," Cato agreed with a nod, flashing him a pointed look. "What she said,"

"Well can we go wake him up?" Calvin asked, his eyes glinting mischievously.

"No need," Eli mumbled, ambling into the kitchen with the rest of us. "I'm here," He looked a little better than he had last night but his expression was still pale and glassy.

Javi cried out in delight upon seeing him, speeding over and hugging his waist, almost knocking him over in the process.

Eli patted his head gently. "Merry Christmas little dude,"

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Just peachy," He swiped the bottle of aspirin off the table and downed two with a stolen sip of Xander's mocha.

"You're lucky you're sick," Xander muttered, but he slid the mug away from him, refusing to drink any more of it.

"Now can we open presents?" Calvin asked for the millionth time.

I was almost certain that one of the boys would slap him, and sure enough, Alan did, a little too eagerly.

"Eli, are you up for it?" Cato glanced quizzically towards our middle brother, who only shrugged.

"I suppose so," he answered, running a tired hand through his mop of blond curls.

Javi and the triplets sped off towards the living room, all laughing and shouting at us to hurry.

"Guess we better get in there," Cato said with a soft chuckle. "Before they make a mess of things,"

"Then we definitely should go,"