SWIM // MITCHEL CAVE

26- home for the holidays

Mitchel's POV

It was the next day and Jaz and I were sitting in an outside table of a quiet restaurant enjoying some lunch. It was a nice day so we chose to sit outside and make the most of the weather, it may be December but somehow that never translated in LA where it was permanently sweltering hot.

Despite the issues that occurred before I ended up blurting out my adoration for the girl in front of me, last night had been great. Not only had the album gone down well, the party was amazing and I got to share it all with the beautiful angel opposite me tucking into her pasta unknowing to my reminiscence of the night before.

She had been slightly taken aback by my declaration, at a crowded party no less. She regained her words and repeated them back to me letting me breathe a sigh of relief and overwhelming love for her. I had truly never felt so strongly for anyone, despite our short time together; we had only been dating a few days short of 3 months which to anyone else would be far too soon to introduce the 'L' word but with her it just felt completely right.

I was going to miss her when I went home for Christmas and when she went home to hers. I wasn't actually sure of when she was leaving, it had never been a point of discussion.

"Hey Jaz?" I ask softly.

My words catch her attention, her eyes tearing away from the dog she had been cooing at for the past few minutes.

"Yes?" She hums happily.

"What day do you go home for the holidays?" I ask.

Her smile fades quickly and she twirls the spaghetti on her plate around instead of answering, her eyes looking down.

"I'm not" She replies quietly.

"Why not?" I ask confused.

Why wouldn't she be going home? I always looked forward to back home to Australia at Christmas time where it was summer time and the nights were light again unlike here.

"There's no point, since moving here I've never gone home for Christmas" She explains.

"Really?" I ask softly.

"I love it back home but it's too hard to go back at times when everyone is surrounded by family when you don't have one" She replies quietly.

My eyebrows furrowed at her words. I rack my brain for recollection of her mentioning her family and it draws a blank. I remember know that whenever I would bring it up she always avoided the question and changed the subject, I always figured she just didn't get along with them.

"Baby what do you mean?" I ask taking her hand in mine.

"My mom died a few years ago not long before I moved out here and my dad was never around, he pretty much walked out when I was still little" She explains "It was always just my mom and I so when she passed I was left with nothing"

She looked sad now and I felt bad for making her feel like this and for never actually talking about this stuff before. I loved this girl and yet I realised in this moment just how little I knew about her.

"Jaz I'm so sorry I didn't know" I say softly.

"It's okay I mean I don't talk about it much so" She replies trailing off.

"So you just stay here alone at Christmas?" I ask feeling a deep feeling of sadness at the thought.

"Pretty much, I sometimes go over to Cat's for a while but even then I don't wanna intrude too much" She shrugs.

She digs back into her pasta obviously uncomfortable with the conversation but there's no way I can just drop it now.

"Come to Australia with me" I say without hesitation.