Somehow I must have moved in the middle of the night because I'm being woken up by Sam and I'm in my bed. It almost doesn't seem real at first. "Dean I got you a necklace." He jumps into the bed with me and hands me a present wrapped in the funnies.
"You couldn't wait for me to open it could you."
"I got it for dad but then I thought you needed it more." I carefully undo the tape on the page because I know Sam picked out this page to wrap it in because he wanted me to read it, like he does every year. The necklace is on a leather string and there's some sort of horned man for the pendent. "Missouri says it's for protection."
"Thanks Sam, I love it. Should we wake up mom and dad now?"
Sam kind of shifts on the bed, "I don't think so." I give him the, 'you better tell me whatever it is your hiding' look and he caves. "It may or may not be 5:30."
"In the morning?" he nods and I roll over away from him, "Where does the day go."
"You fell asleep at like six last night, that's almost twelve hours, get over it."
"It was not six."
"You snored."
"I hadn't slept in like two days bitch."
"Jerk,"
"I'm going back to sleep." Sam sighs and I bet he's pulling off yet another version of his bitch-face, but he leaves the room and I was asleep again.
Something heavy lands on me and it feels like I'm going to die. I open my eyes and Sam's right there, "What the fuck."
"It's nine and mom said to get up Santa."
"Santa's tired." He doesn't move, "Santa couldn't even get up if I tried because there's a fat ass sitting on my chest!"
"Dean!" Dad yells from the living room.
"You better come in here before I keep the presents I got you." Mom yells.
"If it's girly I don't want it." Sam and I say at the same time. We laugh hysterically.
"Get your asses in here and be merry."
I look over at Sam and try to repress more laughter, "Now it feels like Christmas." He gets up and leaves and I pull off my shirt from yesterday, I avoid looking at the bandage on my arm, and put on a pair of sweat pants and another cleaner shirt.
When I get into the living room dad's nursing a cup of coffee and mom's smiling at me, but Sam's eyeing the presents, "Are you going to start anytime soon?"
"Who says you were even good enough to get anything?"
But I throw two of the books I got him. He looks at the titles and thanks me, next mom opens mine to her and she says she loves it. Dad likes his book and then I show mom and dad what Sam already gave me. Sam got mom a gift card to some department store and dad a gift card to the record shop, which I assume was meant for me at first.
Mom and dad never give each other something; instead they go out to dinner and a movie on New Year's Eve and call it good.
Mom and dad got Sam a gift card to Barnes and Noble, another book case, and a phone. How nerdy can Christmas presents be?
"Dean." Mom and dad stood up and went to the kitchen, when they came back mom was carrying a pie and dad was holding some papers. The pie I was happy about, but what could be written in those papers?
He handed it to me and I almost dropped them immediately, "No." Dad looks happy and slaps me on the shoulder, "Are you serious?"
"Completely, she's all yours, just don't be stupid and hurt the old gal."
"What is it?" Sam said from the recliner.
"Woo!" I jump in the air and hug dad. Then I realize what I was doing and let go of him, "Sorry about that."
But he just pulls me back in for another hug and I'm too happy to be weirded out.
"Sorry but can someone tell me why the world's ending?" Sam called.
Dad and I let go of each other and I go over to Sam and show him the title for the impala, with my name under owner.
"Oh yeah," I get up and bring back the other two books I bought Sam and return to staring at the title.
Later dad gets up and fry's up bacon and eggs for a kind of brunch and we just mill around all day doing nothing, until around five thirty when mom's, all of a sudden, urging everyone to get dressed and leave her alone in the living room.
I come out of my room dressed like I normally am; I give Sam a questioning look and he just shrugs. When we get into the living room it's been turned into a dining area. "What's going on?"
"We're having Christmas dinner." Mom comes back into the room wearing a nice dress and I look down at myself, "Dean you should put on a nice shirt."
"Why? And this is a nice shirt, I work in a garage."
The front door closes and Bobby comes in dressed like me so I don't feel that underdressed, "Damn right you do, and you have a lot of work lined up for you tomorrow."
"Hush your mouth, hello Marry and you two boys." Ellen takes off her coat and drags out Jo who's absorbed into anything but the fact that Bobby just kissed her mom.
Mom takes their coats and I follow her to the hall closet, "What's going on?"
She doesn't look at me, but I hear her voice over the ruffling of heavy coats, "Your father and I thought it would be a good idea to invite our friends over for dinner, since we don't have any other family."
"That's never bothered you before."
She finishes in the closet and shuts the door, "Do you want them to leave?" she doesn't ask me like she normally would, instead she's really asking.
"What? No. Wait is this for me?"
She doesn't answer me; instead she walks back into the living room and announces that we'll eat when Missouri and Jessica's family get's here.
But what the fuck I don't even know Jessica's family.
Dinner is horrible, the food it great, the way everyone is acting around me makes me want to just run screaming. Thankfully Jo is sitting next to me and is keeping me from just slamming my face in my plate. Missouri keeps throwing me angry glances and I'm afraid to just think to myself.
My dad and Jessica's are talking about hunting but I'm not listening anymore. Beside me Jo asks Jessica a question and I have never felt so out of place in my own house. It feels like forever since I've seen Cas. I wonder how he's spending his Christmas.
"Dean are you alright?" Ellen touches my arm and I shake the memories out.
"Peachy." Jo slaps my leg under the table, but I ignore her. Now everyone's looking at me like I'm a ticking time bomb (which I basically am because if everyone doesn't stop staring at me I'm going to start throwing punches) I can't deal with all of them looking at me. "Bathroom." I say and just sort of run away.
I splash cold water on my face and realize why everyone kept staring. The green shirt I'm wearing really brings out the green in my face and neck. It's not like I expected the bruises to be gone in two days. I just thought that I wouldn't have to show it off to everyone I knew. Maybe I should just use the pity card and skip out on the rest of the night.
When I open the door Jo is standing against the wall with her hands in her pockets, "Peachy?"
"Let's just get back to the table before reinforcements arrive."
"Well I didn't in fact come to rescue you so control your ego. I actually have to go to the bathroom." She brushes past me and I smile, sometimes you just have to love her.
Everyone is done eating when I get back, Sam and Jessica are sitting on the love seat and all the adults are at the table still.
I choose the kiddy room.
"Hey I'm Dean." I reach my hand out to Sam's 'what seems like' girlfriend. She smiles and introduces herself, "Oh don't worry I know all about you. Sam won't shut up about you. Both of them blush so deep I think I might have broken them, but Sam just assures her that he talks about her in the right amount.
The couch sinks down next to me and Jo joins in on our conversation, which is to make Sam super embarrassed. "Do you want to know how I first met Sam?" Sam says no the same time Jessica says yes and I laugh. "Well I was hanging out with Dean at the time, about four years ago, and we were outback throwing knives (Dean lost by the way) and Sam comes around the corner and a knife gets stuck in the tree trunk right next to his head. Guess what Sam did."
Jessica shrugs and Sam tries to change the topic but let's be honest, there was never a chance that could possibly happen. I answer Jo's question, "Well didn't Sammy scream in such a high pitch that he scared off the birds in the trees for a mile around?"
"In fact I think he did."
Jessica laughs but covers her mouth with a small hand, "I would have screamed too." She tells him, he smiles back at her and they hold hands. It's almost too sweet.
Jo sees me roll my eyes and hits my arm, "I didn't lose by the way."
"Yes you did Dean!" Jo tries to hit me again but this time I catch her arm and she glares at me, "It was a tie."
Jessica's family leaves about an hour later, and I don't miss the kiss that she and Sam share. Missouri follows them out the door saying something strange and creepy. Bobby and Ellen sit down on the couch and mom and dad sit down on the love seat and they flip to some Christmas movie that looks suspiciously like a romance.