This Christmas

Omar Nixon tossed his girlfriend Adrian a smile as he pulled up at the driveway of his parents house. This Christmas they decided that they would spend Christmas Eve with Omar's parents and Christmas day with Adrian's. Adrian agreed but she wasn't exactly looking forward to the idea. She wasn't one to sit and talk with the parents of someone that she was in a relationship with. She felt weird and out of place and she didn't know if she could go through with it.

"Adrian are you ready?"

She pouted, "Do I really need to go? We could just spend the night together and have a little fun. I'm sure we'd have a pretty good time."

He noticed that tone in her voice right away and he laughed, "As much I'd love to have a little fun Adrian, I think we should spend Christmas Eve with other people. Don't you want to get to know my family?"

She crossed her arms over her chest, "Not really."

This only made him laugh harder, "I have a feeling you do and you just feel awkward about it. Adrian I think it would be good for us to meet each other's families. Besides, I want to show my parents how lucky I am to be with a beautiful girl like you."

Adrian couldn't help the smile that spread across her face, "Ugh! You're lucky you're cute."

The two of them got out of the car and Omar held her hand gently as they made their way inside his parents house. She could feel the tiny butterflies swarming around in her stomach and the stupid insecure thoughts that roamed her head. She wondered if his parents would like her or just see her as another slut.


The two walked inside the house hand in hand. Omar was wearing a black suite and shoes to match and Adrian was wearing a red knee length dress with fancy heels. The family consisted of Omar's parents, his grandparents, Dante, and his sister Janey. Adrian felt a little awkward knowing that Dante was here. After all, she was with him for a short period of time before he took off and left her without a warning. He glanced her way and smiled to try and ease the tension that seemed to already be building up. Before the two could say anything Omar's parents made their way over to the couple.

"Omar boy! Don't you have any manners? Introduce us to this beautiful girl," his mother scolded and Adrian found herself smiling. She had barely seen Omar's mother and already she liked her.

Omar cleared his throat and Adrian had to stop herself from chuckling at how nervous he seemed, "Right, mom, dad, this is Adrian Lee, my girlfriend and hopefully my wife one day."

Adrian felt herself blushing but she tried to hide it. She hadn't expected him to say that to her, "It's nice to meet you Mrs. Nixon."

She extended her hand out to the friendly mother and she smiled, "Mrs. Nixon was my mother honey, please call me Amber."

Adrian smiled, "Nice to meet you Amber."

Mrs. Nixon nudged his husband and he cleared his throat, "Right, and I'm Aaron. It's really nice to meet you."

After the two chatted mindlessly for a few minutes, Omar introduced Adrian to his sister, "Adrian this is Janey."

"Nice to meet you Janey."

The girl crossed her arms over her chest as she eyed Adrian from head to toe, "Well you're definitely as pretty as I heard you were. But I also heard you were with Dante too. So what's so different about my older brother?"

Adrian and Omar completely froze for a second, until Omar glared at his sister, "Janey!"

Adrian faked a smile, "It's ok Omar really."

"Don't disrespect my girlfriend like that," Omar started but Adrian interrupted him before he could say anything more.

"Omar I said it's fine. Don't cause a scene." She turned her attention to Janey now. Janey was pretty, with brown skin and curly shoulder length hair. You could tell that she was still young and she had dark brown eyes that were staring at Adrian intently at the moment, "To tell you the truth Janey, the difference is that I love Omar. Omar didn't just take off after he got what he wanted. Omar has respect for me."

Before she could continue Mrs. Nixon made her way over towards them, completely unaware of the argument that they had just gotten into, "Janey I need you to go upstairs and get the presents, and Ms. Adrian, mind helping me finish up some last minute cooking?"

"Um yeah sure, of course." Adrian turned towards Omar for a minute giving him a knowing look. Adrian wasn't exactly the best cook in the world. Omar smiled at her and gave her a reassuring nod, telling her that it would be ok.


As Adrian and Mrs. Nixon finished up the last minute dinner, everyone else got ready. The music was playing, and everyone was talking and enjoying themselves. It was like the Christmas that Adrian never really had. As she put the food in the oven, she turned to see Mrs. Nixon smiling at her. Mrs. Nixon wore her hair in a tight bun and she wore black pants and a green red shirt. On top of her head was a Santa Clause hat to show some Christmas spirit.

"So what are your Christmas' usually like Adrian?" she asked as she looked around and started cleaning up some parts of the kitchen.

Adrian managed to help her get it done as she responded, "Well...they certainly weren't anything like this." She looked around at the house again. Everything just screamed Christmas. The beautiful Christmas tree, the decorations, the holiday music. Somehow it managed to lift her spirits.

"My dad wasn't exactly in my life for all those Christmas' when I was younger, and my mother usually had to work so we would always try to find a way to do something. She bought me all the toys she could manage no matter how much they cost. That probably wasn't the wisest idea but I guess she wanted to show me that she loved me. The toys didn't mean anything though. All I wanted to do was spend time with her, but I guess she was never really around."

Mrs. Nixon looked at her with a soft expression as she took the washcloth from her hand and put it near the sink.

"It's hard when you're constantly working and you're trying to make time for a child. Omar's Christmas' weren't exactly rainbows and sunshine's either."

Adrian felt herself chuckling, "Well if they were anything like this then I bet he was ok."

Mrs. Nixon smiled sadly at the dark haired girl, "They weren't. When Omar was younger I was constantly working, and his father wasn't around. His father went to rehab to get over his drug addiction and just recently came into his life. Their relationship isn't exactly the best."

Adrian was shocked to hear this. It made her realize just how much she didn't know about Omar, "He never told me."

Omar's mother sighed, "He doesn't like to talk about it much. He doesn't like to talk about a lot of things actually. He doesn't have the best relationship with his father, and it's surprising that we get along so well. On some Christmas' I couldn't be home until late and Omar had to take care of his brother and sister alone. He would make up all these fun things for them to do on Christmas. I guess that's why he feels like he always needs to take control of something to be happy. He's so used to being the one to have to take care of other people and figure out what to do."

Talking to Adrian's mother helped her understand Omar way better than she ever had. She wished that Omar had been the one to tell her himself but she could understand why he didn't want to talk about it.

"He's been through a lot," Mrs. Nixon continued, "But being with you well, this is the happiest that I've ever seen him. He's brought a few other girls home, but they all ended quickly. I've never seen him look so...in love though. So just don't break my sons heart ok?"

Adrian felt herself nodding at this as she turned and looked at Omar who was talking with his brother and laughing. Adrian smiled as she watched the two of them.


Dinner seemed to go by almost too quickly. Adrian was practically stuffed. The Nixon's definitely knew how to cook. Turkey, collar greens, mac and cheese, mash potatoes and so much more seemed to be passed around the table as they all shared laughs and talked. Adrian felt happy for the first time in a while, and she hadn't expected to feel so comfortable around the family. She had even gotten used to Dante's presence even though it was still awkward, and Janey's too even though Janey hadn't taken a liking to Adrian.

After the food settled down, Mr. and Mrs. Nixon got up and started dancing. Adrian watched the couple in awe. They were so happy and so in love and that's something that Adrian had always craved. Dante and Janey shared an innocent dance between siblings as well and then Omar politely smiled and extended a hand out to Adrian, "Care to dance?"

Adrian felt herself giggling, "Sure."

Mariah Carey's popular song All I want for Christmas is You began playing and Omar and Adrian danced and had a good time. Adrian couldn't remember the last time that she had felt so free and so happy. For once she could just relax and be herself.

"Thanks for coming Adrian. I know you didn't really want to but it means a lot to me," Omar told her.

Adrian smiled, "I'm glad I came. Your parents are really nice."

He laughed, "Yeah they're the best."

"Your mom's really sweet too. She told me some things."

He raised an eyebrow as they continued dancing, "Oh?"

"Yeah...she told me, about everything that happened. You know with your dad and stuff," she said as she looked up at him nervously.

He sighed as they continued dancing, the song almost coming to an end, "Oh...that stuff."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

"It's not typically something that girls want to hear. I just didn't want you to look at me like I wasn't-"

"Good enough?"

He didn't answer but Adrian could tell by the look in his eyes that the answer would have been a yes.

She found herself laughing at this and he looked at her curiously, "Omar come on! You know how crazy I am, how much I've been through with my family. I would never look at you like you weren't good enough. I just wish you would have told me."

"I'm sorry Adrian, I just didn't think you'd be interested in knowing that."

"I'm interested in knowing you Omar. I've never really been in a stable relationship and I realized that it's because we never really communicated. If this is going to work out I want us to really know each other. I don't want to to just jump into something because I've made that mistake in the past, and it doesn't end very well. So no more secrets?"

He smiled as he stared into Adrian's eyes. She was beautiful, confident, and sexy. She was everything that he wanted in a girl, and he was determined not to mess that up. He pulled her into a kiss and when they let go he grinned again, "Alright, no more secrets."

"Alright everyone! Time to open the gifts!" Mrs. Nixon exclaimed excitedly and everyone laughed.


As everyone took a seat around the Christmas tree, gifts were being passed to everyone quickly. They laughed and talked and smiled as they opened their gifts and Adrian noticed all of the thought that was put into it. There were a lot of things that were hand made and if they were store bought they held all of the meaning in the world. Adrian could definitely get use to being a part of this family. Mrs. Nixon handed Adrian a box and Adrian raised an eyebrow, "For me?"

Janey rolled her eyes, ready to protest but Mrs. Nixon started talking again, "Of course, just a little something for the holidays. Besides anyone that Omar is with is like family to us."

Adrian opened the gift up and looked at the sweater. In big bold letters were the words NIXON and she found herself laughing.

Mr. Nixon smiled, "To welcome you into the family."

Adrian held it close to her. She had never really felt welcomed in places, so this was something different to her, "Thank you."

Omar smiled and nudged her a little, "I got you something too."

He handed her a small box and Adrian looked at it in excitement, "What is it?"

"Open it," he laughed.

She opened the box carefully, trying to guess what it was in her head. She picked the gift up daintily and she smiled, it was a beautiful silver necklace with a tiny heart. The heart opened and in the tiny frame was a picture of Omar and Adrian.

"Merry Christmas Adrian."

Overwhelmed she pulled him in for a kiss without thinking and the family laughed. This was a Christmas Eve that Adrian would never forget.


A/N: I always wondered about Omar and his family and so I tried my best to give him a little back-story to explain why he is the way he is. Thanks for reading!