Chapter 5- Twisted Christmas Part I
Hey Everyone…especially those faithful reviewers…I love the comments…it makes me feel loved. Just so you know the more reviews I get the faster I update. Mwahaha. A little blackmail never hurt anyone right? Anyway I also wanted to say that the next few chapters are all at the Christmas party….but there's a lot going on so I needed to break it up.
Disclaimer: Well would you believe a dog ate my papers saying that I owned Hannah Montana? No? Me either.
Jake and Sarah arrived at Miley's fashionably late. Jake had spent much of the time since getting off the phone with Miley talking Sarah out of different outfit choices. He silently thanked the lord that after promising to do her laundry for a month that she had given up trying to get him to go as an elf so that he would wear the green and red tights they had found at the store. After much debate and lots of Jake promising to do different bits of slave labor for Sarah they had finally compromised and wore slightly matching but subdued Christmas outfits. Jake wore a green t shirt with Naughty written on it over a green and white pin striped button up with a matching green satin Santa hat and Sarah wore a red t shirt with Nice written on it with a matching red satin Santa hat. They rang the doorbell. Jackson answered the door wearing a full body furry reindeer outfit complete with red nose.
"Miley…Jake's here." He yelled into the living room.
The room had been transformed. Most of the furniture had been removed and replaced by various forms of what would normally be outdoor Christmas decorations scattered around the room. There were several large inflatable Christmas characters and enormous snowglobes with penguins and Disney characters inside of them, a few animatronic reindeer that moved and lots of Christmas lights. To the side by the piano was music equipment and a mic stand and the middle of the floor was cleared for what looked like dancing later on.
In the back of the room was a curtain with a snow filled Christmas scene and several plastic elves and snowmen as props. A professional photographer was there with his lights taking pictures of the guests with their costumes. The house was very full of people dressed in all sorts of holiday fare. Most people were wearing different shades of red and green, with funny looking hats (elf hats seemed to be the most popular). A few people were dressed as Santa. Mr. Stewart was wearing a very tacky red Christmas sweater with a giant Santa face on it.
Jake loved how much fun the house was like this. He had always had such formal Christmas parties as a kid. He and Sarah hadn't even been allowed to rip open their Christmas presents on Christmas morning like most kids… instead they were instructed to neatly remove the paper and place it automatically in a trash bag nearby (as to control the mess so that everything would be in its place for Christmas dinner). It looked like no one had ever taken Christmas too seriously in this house. He couldn't believe how happy everyone looked. He could see why this was an annual event.
Suddenly Miley came into view. She was wearing a very form fitting Santa's helper outfit complete with short red satin skirt with black sparkling belt, satin no sleeved zip up hoodie, red and white stockings, and knee high black leather boots. She looked amazing.
"Jake!" "I'm so glad that you came!" she exclaimed as she came over and gave him a hug. Jake was sure that his heart had stopped when she pressed her body against his. God why did she have to look so wonderful all the time? Jake thought to himself. Jake shakily handed her the leftovers they had wrapped and she placed them on a nearby table.
"Miley…" his voice cracked slightly "Um…I'd like you to meet my sister Sarah. Sarah this is my friend Miley Stewart." Jake introduced.
"It's great to meet you. I didn't even know Jake had a sister." Miley replied.
"Ah yes. He's very proud of me." Sarah said giving Jake a sisterly look of disgust.
Sarah eyed Miley closely. Over the years her brother literally could have dated anyone he wanted. But in the past 2 he hadn't taken more than a passing interest in any of them. She really never understood this change in him….that is…until now. She knew her brother had feelings for the girl in front of them and you would probably have to be blind not to see why. She. Was. Breathtaking. Even in her Christmas costume Sarah could tell that this girl could hold the attention of any guy she chose. Jake would definitely have his work cut out for him here. She just hoped that this girl wasn't the type to use her looks to obtain the prize of going out with her brother the movie star. She had seen enough of those girls to last a lifetime and she wasn't going to let anyone hurt him again like that…at least not without a fight.
Just then they heard a high pitched squeal and a very loud "JAKE!" coming from behind them.
As Jake turned around he couldn't help smiling widely. There was Lilly Truscott running towards him wearing the swan dress that Miley had worn the night they broke up with a children's inner tube around the dress. As ridiculous as the dress had been on Miley the inner tube just took the cake.
Jake gave Lilly the best hug he could considering the girth of the dress.
Jake laughed again. "Lily…it's great to see you…but what on earth does this outfit have to do with Christmas?" Jake asked with a big grin on his face.
Lilly smiled. "Well I'm one of the seven swans a swimming of course." She said with a smirk and a twinkle in her eye.
Jake laughed again. "So…do you have the other six running around somewhere or is it just you tonight?" Jake asked sarcastically as he surveyed her costume.
"Well…" Lilly started as they looked over at Oliver who was walking in from the back door wearing jeans, a blue and white button up…. and a matching children's inner tube with six small stuffed swans glued to it.
The four of them laughed.
Miley leaned towards Jake and whispered. "It's their first Christmas as a couple….I think you could say that Oliver is pretty well WHIPPED." Miley said doing a fake cough as her eyes got big.
Jake laughed and found himself thinking that he probably wouldn't mind wearing something like that if Miley were the one asking him too. Jake shook his head slightly and brought himself back to reality.
Oliver came over to them trying to look as cool as possible in the inner tube in front of Jake. "Sup Jake?"
"Nice costume." Jake said sincerely.
Oliver looked at Jake cockily and smirked. "Well you know I have a title to defend," he said as he hoisted his inner tube up slightly. Oliver then looked back at Lilly.
"Hey guys sorry to cut this little reunion short but Lilly I think that we need to go help your dad with the grill…I think he was having WAY too much fun with the lighter fluid." Oliver said raising his eyebrows and they went to help outside.
Jackson had come over to talk to Jake and Sarah as more guests entered that Miley needed to talk to. Jackson and Sarah seemed to hit it off immediately comparing embarrassing younger sibling stories. Within a half an hour most people had arrived and were mingling inside and enjoying themselves completely. Jackson and Sarah had left to go look at the video Jackson had of Miley chasing Jake with a sausage as he tried to run down their driveway dressed in a suit of armor. Jake had found himself with Lilly and Oliver catching up on the latest gossip from Seaview High. After awhile Jake noticed that Miley wasn't anywhere to be seen and excused himself to try and find her.
Jake found Miley out on the porch looking out at the water with tears in her eyes. He had never seen her so vulnerable or so beautiful. He knew it probably wasn't his place to try and comfort her but he would do anything he could to make this girl smile again. He approach slowly as not to scare her. He coughed slightly making his presence known.
"Miley? Are you all right?" he asked softly.
"Ah…. Jake." Miley said wiping her eyes and turning towards him.
"Yeah I'm fine. It's just… every time we have this party I tend to lose it for about 10 minutes and you just happened to find me during that time I guess." She said still trying to dry her eyes completely.
"Is there something the matter?" He asked sitting on the railing next to her.
"Oh. It's ok. Don't worry yourself about it. It's nothing important." Miley said trying to put on a smile.
Jake looked her in the eyes. "Miley…please don't do that. I know something is wrong. Maybe it would help to talk about it." Jake said as reassuringly as he could.
After a minute of no response Jake continued. "Come on I promise it will feel better after you get it out."
"Argh." Miley got out. She turned to look at him with a small smile on her face. "You're still impossible, you know?" "You're not going to give up until I tell you are you?" She asked with a slight smile.
Jake shrugged. "Probably not….but I'd blame my day job on that one. I mean I've had to slay some of the Zombies on my show 10 times before they finally go through the portal to the underworld." Jake said with a completely serious face.
Miley really laughed at this. "Do you always talk about slaying Zombies when you find a girl crying on the porch?"
"Only with the special one's," he replied with a smirk.
"Now… tell the Zombie slayer what's bugging you."
Miley laughed again as he referred to himself as "The Zombie Slayer."
"Alright. I mean it's really nothing. It's just that… we only started having these parties the year my mom passed away from Cancer." She said quietly.
"My Aunt Dolly was the one who first started them back in Tennessee. I think she knew that Christmas would be really hard on our family that year. So…she decided to throw us a party. She had all of the people who really loved us come around brining food and presents and we played lots of silly games and sang songs." "I guess she didn't want us kids to start thinking of Christmas as a sad thing just because mom wasn't there… so she filled our house with as much joy and happiness as she could." Miley shrugged "Since then it kind of stuck. We've changed it around a bit but the premise is always the same."
"And…sometimes…I don't know. I always just wish she were here to see all of this. She was always so filled with excitement, and happiness and she had this spirit for life that was just incredible. I know that she really would have enjoyed being here and meeting all these people who care so much about me and our family." Miley finished looking out at the ocean from the porch as a small tear made its way down her cheek.
Jake was astonished and very happy that Miley had shared all of that with him. He knew that it meant that he could tell her of his own troubles when the time was right. He looked at the beautiful girl that sat next to him and realized that he was more in awe of her than he had ever been before.
The image of her singing Christmas carols to the kids at the Cancer center flooded back to his mind. It was so much more meaningful and so much more heart wrenching now that he realized how hard it must have been for her to sit there in the hospital and be reminded of her own mother passing away from the disease. The fact that she had been so strong amazed him. He ached to hold her and relieve her of every pain she had ever had.
He wished there was something he could do or say that would make the pain go away but he knew there was nothing to say or do that could change the situation.
So he did the only thing that he could think of. He told her the truth.
He looked at her seriously and took her hand in his.
Jake looked at her and slowly brought her face around to look at him. "Miley. I know it's got to be hard that she's not here in the flesh to see this but trust me…She IS here." He said with conviction.
Miley shrugged not completely satisfied with his answer, "Yeah I know Jake. If there is a heaven she's up there watching down on me." She answered softly.
He looked back into her eyes. "No….I mean..yes…she probably is…but that's not quite what I mean. I mean I may have never met your mom, but, I didn't have to meet her to recognize that spirit for life that you were describing... because ….well because I see it every time I look at you." Jake was blushing slightly at this but continued.
"I mean you're an amazing singer and we all know that you're funny and smart and beautiful but…. it's that spark that you have that makes everyone fall in love with you …and I have to believe that your mom helped give you that."
Miley looked into his eyes and realized probably for the first time that Jake was one of the few people on the planet who really saw her. It wasn't like everyone else who saw her as either Hannah or Miley. It wasn't like it was with Lilly and Oliver who saw her as their strong and funny celebrity friend who could handle just about anything. With her dad and Jackson she could be more vulnerable but….there was always a big exception. She never really felt like she could be vulnerable about her mom in front of them. She hated seeing their eyes fall when they talked about her so Miley had kept her thoughts mostly to herself. But with Jake she didn't have to be the strong celebrity or the strong daughter that her friends and family had come to depend on…she could just be Miley…the girl who was all of those things as well as a girl who sometimes needed a hand to hold when she talked about the mom that she missed deeply.
Miley sat there stunned not knowing how to tell Jake what his words had meant to her. "Jake….I just don't know what to say….that's the single nicest…I mean…no one…I mean….well…."
"Thanks." She finally managed. Miley gave him the one thing that she had that was truly hers…she gave him a real smile.
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