Messy by Choice

Mess 19 (Ally)

Christmas morning is with the girls. And spiked eggnog. And Vee's amazing cranberry stollen bread. This was a tradition four years running and later the day would be spent with our families, but for now, we ware the checkered Christmas onesie Aur got us two years ago.

Sharon in her festive spirit has her Christmas theme witch hat on styled as a fluffy leaning Christmas tree.

After that breakfast of champions, we litter crumbs of cookies around our Charlie Brown tree and light the hearth's fire. And Sharon, tipsy on eggnog, chases Aur around the living room for a kiss under the mistletoe that dangles off the end of her pointy hat. The stooge Aur is, won't let her and I kiss Sharon's puffed pout cheek as consolation.

I wouldn't let last night ruin a sliver of this perfection. And Vee's courteous enough not to either when she noticed the white rims of my eyes were a pale red in the early morning. They are completely remedied after one bit of her buttered stollen and then glittering with joy at Sharon's scream of pure elation when opening my present for her.

One was a cauldron planter and the other a mini Harry Potter great hall terrarium for all the herbs she'd been propagating. She loves it. I always nail all their presents. And Aur nails another one of Sharon's gifts. A smoke infuser gun so her drinks could now bellow out a witchyness fog.

Sharon gets all of us cauldron squadron bejeweled on four different robes in the colors and styles of the Hogwarts houses she's determined each of us belonged to. Vee was yellow and black in Hufflepuff, Sharon green and silver in Slytherin, Aur blue and brown in Ravenclaw, and my crowning achievement and pride was being green and gold, the Gryffindor representative. Which was so very Gryffindor of me to think.

They were also secondarily paired with matching shot glasses of mini cauldrons with the same logo. Peppermint schnapps with wood chip smoke cascading down their sides were their first christening on Christ's birthday.

"To the man that put Christ in Christmas. Thank you, Jesus, for being born! Happy Birthday!" Aur says for the toast. It goes down burning hot and Vee is the only one who manages not to show a post shot reaction. Sometimes she's not human.

"I might be the witch here, but you'll be going to Hell for that one day," Sharon says to Aur.

"Hey! Jesus turned water into wine for a reason," Aur claps back, already tipsy since her research keeps her from enjoying a break long enough to imbibe.

I smile. It's the perfect segway into my gift for her. It's a wine glass that says, Jesus water on it.

Aur hugs it into her chest and gasps out. "I love it!"

Vee gives the best gifts every year. She's custom made each of us all our favorite one of her desserts. I get two loaves of her orgasmic inducing pistachio break. Sharon gets a bucket of pizzelle cookies pressed with witches and brooms inlayed into their vanilla sweetness and Aur's is brownie brittle.

Vee and Sharon also went halfsies on the new easel I've been wanting for months.

See? Soul mates. All of us together.

"Girlies," Sharon says cheerily distributing three congruent bright red bow tied boxes to each of us. "Since you've all been so nice this year, I thought I'd spoil you goodies with a little naughtiness."

I unwrap mine. It's a sex toy.

"It's my favorite wand yet," she says giggling.

Vee laughs. "You can put it to good use the next time Ally has Lenox over."

I blush but my eyes drain of their jovial mood for a second. Vee picks up on it of course.

"What happened?" She asks.

"Nothing," I say but I haven't masked fast enough. They all latch onto the fact there is something I haven't shared with them.

I sigh, forced to relent to their unrelenting faces. "I had to get real about things. I don't know if we'll be seeing each other again."

Aur clicks her tongue down while her eyebrows dart up. "Fuck girl Christmas it is."

"No!" I rush to say in my defiance. "He knew what this was! I was very clear with that from the start."

"Uh huh," Sharon hums savagely. "Look at this feminist fuck girl!" She speaks almost like she's proud of me as she parcels out another round of mini cauldrons brimming with schnapps and smoke. "We truly are in the age of Aquarius."

Vee looks at me like she has more to say and shoves a gingerbread man with a well-endowed dick of frosting into my mouth.

I bit both its heads off.

"Are you going to your moms?" She asks me.

"Christmas is at grandma's house," I answer before downing my cauldron's peppermint poison.

"But she'll be there?" Vee asks.

I nod and don't have much of a reaction to the schnapps aftertaste suddenly.

Vee looks more over concerningly. "Do you want me to come with you?" 

I shake my head no. Vee has her own family to see. She can't be a servant protecting me from the one member of mine who is going to Grinch out my Christmas.

"Don't worry," I say, lying her head into the crock of her neck. "She can ruin my later, but not my now."

Vee doesn't look happy with me but lays her head against mine. "One day you should stop letting her ruin your later too."

"There's nothing to do about her," I say dismissively. "She can't change."

Vee doesn't relent. Even on Christmas this bitch will well-meaningly choose brutality. "But it might help you change."

I unwind out of her shoulder and squint my annoyance up at her as I aggressively take hostage another one of her gingerbread men.

"You have your issues too, ya know," I remind her as I break him in half. She rolls her eyes.

This really isn't a subject I want to broach. It's not one I can brooch without having my now ruined. But no, my mom ruined too many of my nows, but not this one. I could enjoy this and not feel bad because someone was staring hate at me in the corner of the room. And even when she did that, I could survive because she wasn't that bad. Nothing was that bad. Not my childhood. Not my future. Not Lenox. None of that was serious. It was all easy to brush off. So easy...