I finished wrapping Michelle's present and admired my handiwork. I had three neatly wrapped presents and four boxes all tied with a different coloured ribbon and a homemade gift label.
"Nice," I whirled around.
Bradie was standing in the doorway. "Hey Bradie!"
"Hey," he said. "Merry Christmas."
I looked around at him; he was eyeing his box curiously. "No," I said. "Not until tomorrow."
"Aw, you're such a Scrooge."
"No, I'm not because Mr Scrooge wouldn't have even bought presents."
"Who's Mr Scrooge anyway?"
"You don't read much, do you Bradie?"
"I read!" He said indignantly.
I scoffed. "Yeah, Spider Man comics."
"They count!"
"Sure, whatever."
"Um, anyway, I just er- wanted to tell you that Shaun said-
"What? He can't speak for himself?"
"Gem, listen," Bradie told me, "Shaun said that her wasn't coming to Christmas dinner tomorrow. He's going to Brooke's house."
"Oh," I said coldly. "And why do I need to know."
"Well, didn't he tell you he broke up with her?"
I dawned on me, "Yeah, he did. At that club. He wanted to get back together remember?"
Bradie just looked at me.
"So, why would he say that."
"One of two things," Bradie said, "Either he wants to cause trouble, therefore making you look bad or-
"He wants to make sure I can't have you,"
Andy was standing in the doorway behind Bradie. "I came to say the same thing."
"What do you mean Andy?"
"He doesn't want us to be together because he still loves you."
"I don't understand."
Bradie spoke now, "He's hurt, Gem. People think Shaun's all tough and crap, you know, he's got a reputation to protect."
"So?"
"So," said Andy, "Being with Brooke is a cover-up. He's trying to make it come across like he doesn't care about you anymore and he's already got a new girlfriend."
"Yeah," Bradie chuckled, "Big, tough Shaun. He hasn't got us fooled. He wants you Gem, badly."
"And he thinks that he's gonna lose you to me." A smile spread across Andy's face.
"That's ridiculous." I said.
"Ridiculous," Bradie echoed, "But true."
"Andy doesn't feel that way about me," I just couldn't bring myself to lie about my feelings for Andy so I said nothing on my behalf.
"Yeah," said Andy icily staring at me as though he was going to cry, "I don't love you at all." And he turned to leave through the still open doorway.

I felt really guilty about saying that to Andy, so later that night I went around to Kylie's house and placed the presents under the tree (we always had our Christmas party there) and then I set off towards Andy's uncles house where their Danish Christmas party was in full swing. I wanted, no, needed, to see Andy.

Upon approaching the door I heard many happy voices and a lot of laughter. I hoped Andy was alright. I knocked loudly so I could be heard and after a brief wait, Yvonne opened the door.
"Hello," she said looking at me as though I were dirt.
"Can I come in please." I asked, ignoring this rudeness.
"Why? You haven't been invited have you?"
"No, but I need to see Andy?"
"Oh, do you then?"
"Yes,"
"Well, I suppose you can come in,"

I stepped inside. A massive Christmas tree stood in large open living space that encompassed a kitchen, dining room and lounge room. It was decorated with brilliant sparkling decorations and red tinsel. The Danish flag hung on the wall dividing the kitchen and lounge room.

All over Andy's family were seated around the dining table except for a few little kids playing marbles in the lounge. On the wall behind the table was a banner that read: Glædelig Jul.
My Danish wasn't brilliant but I guessed this meant merry christmas. I scanned the people at the table. Most of them had the same wavy blonde hair and most of them had Andy's soft green eyes. Andy was sitting at the far end near a woman I assumed to be his Grandmother and a girl his age with long hair, presumably one of his cousins. Nobody seemed to notice me.
"Andrew, you're wanted." Said Yvonne curtly.
Andy scowled at being called his full name and stood up.
"Undskyld mig," He murmered to his grandmother. She shifted her chair and Andy got up and came towards us.
Yvonne took her place at the table and Andy said to me in a low voice. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to er- say sorry for before. I seemed to have upset you."
"Oh, don't worry about that, I took it badly I'm sorr-
"Andrew," We both turned. A woman had turned to face us. She had long brown hair and Andy's green eyes. She spoke good english but had a thick Danish accent. "Does your girlfriend want something to eat."
"Oh, she's not-er- we're not together,"
"Oh, really," said his grandmother, she also had an accent though not quite as thick. "Shame. She seems nice."
"Come on," said the first woman. "Have a seat."
"Er-
I looked up at Andy who sighed defeatedly. "Come on."

So I sat, feeling very awkward, among them and dinner with them. They were all very friendly but the language barrier was driving me insane. The girl next to Andy kept saying. " Hej, mit navn er Rochelle, hvordan har du det?" But I had no idea what that meant so I said hey and turned to Andy.

After dinner I made to leave but Andy insisted I stay, so I sat in the lounge with some other kids our age and we all chatted (As best we could). One girl was listening to her iPod and singing; Bare er ligeglad, håber du drop dead gorgeous. I recognised the tune as Short Stack's Drop Dead Gorgeous but it sounded very different in Danish. I ended up staying for a while and made friends with a boy named Nicolai, who was Andy's cousin and spoke rather poor english. He gave me his email adress and after giving up on English said, "Skriv til mig," Andy said this meant he wanted me to write to him. I said I would and Andy told him, "Gemma siger hun vil, men hun er min hører du?" Nicolai laughed and said."Ja," this, I understood.

It was very late when I went home with Andy, to his place.