constellations - jerrie thirlwards

twenty-two.

.
     .
.

nervous - the neighbourhood
             .
     .
.

twenty-two
CHRISTMAS - 10:23AM

The sun shone through Perrie's old bedroom window, immediately blinding her through her closed eyes as she slowly woke up. The sound of someone knocking on her door rudely awakened her, making her slowly sit up from her spot in bed. Without her saying anything, the door swung open, revealing two of her younger cousins barging into her room and then jumping on her bed.

"C'mon, Perrie! It's Christmas! Father Christmas came and he's brought us some presents!" one of them shouted, jumping up and down on her bed with so much excitement and energy flowing through her. Perrie couldn't help but smile even if she was still very much tired. So, she got up from her bed and headed down the stairs with them.

As she made her way down the stairs, she noticed how majority of her family was already in the living room, sitting and talking with mugs of coffee clasped in their hands. Her mom noticed her first and smiled wide before getting up and giving her a huge hug. "Good morning, sleepy head," she joked as she pat her back. "You were always the last one awake on Christmas - nothing has changed."

Perrie let out a laugh and shook her head because yeah, even as a kid, she would be the one to be awake after all of the hype was dying down over the presents. Everyone knew not to wake her up since she would give them a grumpy reply and fall back to sleep anyways. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy Christmas, she just enjoyed sleeping.

The younger cousins went along and opened up their presents, all of them getting the toys they've been asking and begging for on their lists. It brightened up Perrie's mood watching the joy on their faces as they realized what was behind the neatly wrapped paper around it and the warm feeling of the fireplace blazing beside them all. She knew that she wouldn't be getting anything too crazy considering she was so much older and a college student now, but she wasn't looking for any presents for herself. All she could ever ask for was to feel better about everything and spend time with everyone in this room.

"Well, that's it for the kids," Debbie announced as all of the kids were happily opening up their toys and playing with them already. "Now, it's your turn." She faced Perrie now, who was sitting at the end of the couch about to take a sip of her coffee. All of her family members on the couch with her looked over at her as well, a look in their eyes that Perrie couldn't quite figure out.

"You didn't have to get me anything," Perrie began, putting down her coffee mug in her lap and shaking her head. "I already have so much–"

"It was a surprise for us as well," her granddad states, letting out a deep laugh. This confused Perrie even more.

But before she could ask anymore questions, a figure emerged from behind the wall that separated the hallway from the living room, and to her surprise, it was the face of the star girl. Jade had a small smile on her lips as she looked at her, wearing a huge green parka and leggings with some snow boots still on. A part of her felt a bubbling anger entering her body as she saw her – how could she just barge into her family's Christmas to make this all about their issues? But, there was also a part of her that had missed seeing her face, missed seeing that smile. "Hi," she said softly from the end of the room. All of Perrie's family was staring at her, as if they were waiting to see what was about to go down in front of them.