SiCela EstNoël
AnniKay

Sam/Mercedes/Puck

Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them

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Special thanks to Isis Aurora Tomoe who is my current Beta rock star
Summary: Winter Break for the College Sophomores of the Learning French Series.
A time to reconnect with family and friends.

Santa Baby

Simeon Drakkar PoV

I hadn't gone home for Christmas, or for anything else, since the day I'd left home. I made sure to call my mother once a week to let her know I was alive and well, but most of the time, I called on Wednesday evenings when she was at bible study. That allowed me to ease her mind without having to hear the hypocrisy that she loved to spew. I had talked with her in February and let her know I had a full time gig. "Oh, Simmy, I've been praying that you'd get something more stable than moving from video to video." She said happily. "You know the Lord really does answer prayers."

I agreed with her. I knew that to be true. Even if I also knew that the Lord of whom she spoke would not like her actions. During the months after the summer tour, I worked a few other videos and gigs around Manhattan and even took a short term job at Disney World doing one of their shows while the usual guy, an old boyfriend of mine, was laid up with a broken leg. I was the most flush of funds I'd been since I was too little to understand what the things I wanted cost. Even then it had simply been an illusion because I didn't know any better. I was also back to regular church attendance. While Mercedes, Sam and Puck went to either Methodist or Catholic Churches or even Jewish Synagogues when available, I still preferred Black Baptist churches. So I looked around until I found a church near my apartment called Trinity Baptist Church and I found myself going at least twice a month. It really reminded me of the ideals I'd been raised with and I realized that just because my mother had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…that didn't mean that my reaction and the fact that I'd let it chase me from what I knew to be right, wasn't wrong too. That started to lead me back to Christ. Christ said that His Father was a God of forgiveness. That to be like Him and like our Savior, we had to forgive, not seven times…but seventy-seven times.

So, that year, when my mother asked, as she had every year since I left, if I was coming home for Christmas, I finally said that I would. I made the arrangements to arrive back in St. Louis one full week before Christmas day. I knew that my mother and I needed to have a very long overdue discussion and I hoped that we could have it and have time to repair our relationship before the actual holiday. During the time between the employee Christmas party and the day of my flight, I passed the time by helping a friend in his dance studio. He taught ballroom and ballet, but with me available, he was able to offer classes in jazz and hip=hop dance as well. It was a great way to spend the two weeks and it kept me limber and in shape. I knew that starting later February or early March, I'd be dancing full time again. I couldn't afford to let inactivity become my friend.

I also made time to go shopping. For the last several years, I'd sent my family gift cards or cash in funny holiday themed greeting cards. That Christmas, I would get to see them and I wanted to give them more than just an 'I'm alive and have no imagination' gift. It wasn't like there were a lot of people to buy for. I had my mother, her mom and two sisters and three cousins on that side. My father hadn't had any siblings that lived longer than he had. He'd been the youngest of three, but his eldest sister had gotten into drugs and prostitution…she'd been a Jane Doe in the morgue for almost six months before one of his brothers had been killed in a gang related shooting. If the two of them hadn't looked enough alike to spark the coroner's memory…who knew if his mom would have ever known what happened to her daughter. My grandmother had passed out when the military told her about my father's death. Thye had rushed her to the hospital when they couldn't immediately revive her, but she never left the hospital. The doctors said my forty-four-year-old paternal grandmother had had a stroke. Momma always said that she'd died because she had buried her other two kids and just couldn't face burying the third.

As I shopped for Christmas gifts that year, I started with my surviving grandmother. Eula-Mae Maines had attained the ripe old age of sixty-seven years young and she was a strong, determined woman. When her husband had blamed her for the fact that they could only seem to have daughters and left her, she raised her girls to be just as strong and determined…for the most part. MamMaw had retired two years before from forty-four years working for the United States Postal Service. She loved creature comforts and over the years, I'd sent her different things when I found them to help my own tired muscles, like the Dr. Teal line of Epson salts and bubble baths. MamMaw was probably the only one of my family members who knew what had caused me to change so drastically more than a decade before. I knew for the fact that she was the only one that I actually sent real gifts to at any time of the year. On Mother's Day, my mother got a gift card…my grandmother got a dozen roses and a brand new terry cloth bathrobe and a small bottle of Estee Lauder Beautiful. For Christmas, I usually sent her a framed picture of me and whatever new thing was out that I thought she'd like. The previous year, it had been a large screen e-reader, stocked with a whole bunch of crap fiction from her romance novels to those Hamilton, Patterson and Koontz novels she loved so much. So a few days before my flight, I walked through Macy's and tried to find something that just looked like she would enjoy it.

Finally, I remembered that she had started walking for her health when her doctor told her that her blood pressure was getting on up there. That made up my mind for me and I got her a FitBit with two regular rubber bands and a cool gold Tory Burch bracelet to wear it in if she wanted to dress it up or something. Since I was rolling pretty deep, I also got her a nice digital picture frame rather than just another regular silver one. That seemed like such a good idea that I also got one for my mother and each of my aunts. For Momma and my aunts, I also grabbed pretty winter shawls, one that looked like it might have been the Burberry plaid for Momma, a reversible ivory and gray one for her sister Jannia and a baby blue one for Aunt Synt'ia. I hit the gift wrap table and waited patiently in the line because I sure as hell wasn't wrapping those things myself. But by the time I took care of the women who'd raised me, I was tired as hell and didn't care if my younger cousins wanted a fucking gift card or not. They each got a hundred bucks to spend at Amazon. I ultimately figured out that maybe I could get them something better in St. Louis.

I must have talked myself out of canceling my flight a hundred times as I packed and unpacked and repacked. I debated getting a hotel room a thousand times, but never booked one because I knew my mother would be ridiculously insulted if I did that. Finally, I had no choice but to catch the train and make my way to LaGuardia. The flight wasn't too bad. I had to pay the stupid five bucks for the headphones that only worked on the airplanes of that particular airline…but the movie was pretty good. When I got off the plane I headed to the baggage claim. I was carrying a backpack and my carry on. I didn't actually have any checked luggage, but that was also the way to the taxi stand, so I followed the masses. I almost didn't recognize my cousin Jakeem where he stood waiting for me. The little, skinny midget I'd left behind was just a hair under six feet tall and was certainly standing on the line of grown ass manhood. "Yo, Simmy, move your ass…Mom has the car running in loading, but we been there 'bout a minute."

We did the bro hug thing. Then I hauled ass out to the curb and Keem dragged me to Aunt Synt'ia's cute little Rav4. I got in and immediately thanked them for picking me up. "I could have caught a taxi…besides…shouldn't Keem be in school?" I asked even as I was texting Momma's phone to let her know I'd arrived safely.

They both laughed in my face. "It's Christmas break, fool." Keem shot back.

"Either we came and got you, or Momma was coming to get you. You're lucky that your mom had to work today since she is off all next week. Or she would have had herself here. And something tells me that you aren't quite ready for that yet." Synt'ia smirked at me. "So tell me all about New York and your oh so scandalous bosses."

I laughed at her. "If the world knew how boring those three really are…they would be so disappointed. Like Sam may look like Abdonis the All-American manly man…but that guy is a total nerd. I mean, he knows more about comic books and sci-fi than Tyrique." I said honestly. And my aunt, Jannia's, eldest son was seriously, seriously, like Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons level nerd. "Puck's pretty much what you see on TV, but he is religious…like temple or church every weekend they can manage it…religious. Mercedes is too…and so is Sam, but they aren't proclaiming themselves to be bad asses every other day and then going out of their way to back it up, so it's a trip to see. But the simple truth of it is that they care so much about each other, it is just beautiful."

"Wow…that's cool. I like knowing that you're working for really good people." Synt'ia said with a smile. "Your grandmother sat your mother down last night and finally told her what you saw." She said in a conversational tone that didn't really match the import of her words. But then I realized that when JaKeem had realized that there wouldn't be any dirt on the famous people I worked for, he'd put in his headphones and was in his own world.

I sighed. "Why on earth…why would she go and do that for, huh?"

Synt'ia shrugged. "Probably, she thought that she was making it easier on both of you. She assumed that since you were finally coming home, you had finally realized that you weren't a thirteen-year-old kid anymore and you were ready to talk things through with your mom like a man."

"Damn, does e'ery body know?" I groaned.

She just shrugged again. "I know because I figured it out when you left and spent the next six months only calling on Wednesdays when you knew she wasn't home. At first I thought that her religiousity and the stupid bullshit she likes to preach about your gayness had been it…but even after I finally got her head out of her ass on that, you still stayed away. So I started paying her ass more attention. She ain't as slick as she thinks she is. If I'd cared before she ran you away, I'd have known about her little adultery years ago. I didn't know how long it had been going on until she told me so herself after her talk with Momma…but…she's my sister and your mother. She may do some seriously shady shit…but we love her anyway."

"I know." I said thoughtfully. "I do love her. I just…"

"You need her to acknowledge that her sin isn't any better than yours. Not that I think you loving men is sinful. The way I figure it…if God didn't want there to be gay people…there wouldn't be any gay people." I'd never realized how often Synt'ia shrugged when she talked. That shit was contagious too, I found myself shrugging more often too. "You could have come to me. If it became too hard to deal with her…I had a spare room. Wasn't much, but you could have had it and maybe finished school with decent enough grades to go to college."

I shook my head. "More school after high school was never in the cards for me. Oh, but remind me to tell Ty about the scholarship my bosses are sponsoring at Columbia." She gave me a look that said she wasn't going to let me change the subject. "I knew…but as mad at her as I was, I couldn't leave her alone then."

She gave me a side eye, "no, you just emotionally deserted her then and you left her all alone five years later."

I nodded. "I needed to get out. By the time I left, it wasn't even about her being that asshole's side chick. It was about the look on her face every time I headed out on a date and she knew that I was meeting a guy and not some broad. It was about hearing her pray for me…but she wasn't worried about the fact that I was skipping school and hanging out with guys who were clubbing like it was their jobs. I started using some ill shit, Aunt Syn. I just thank God that none of that shit struck hard. But she wasn't worried about any of that shit…she just wanted God to take away my deviant and sick predilection. A child molester…that's a sick and deviant predilection…I'm just gay."

She nodded. "And there is nothing wrong with being gay. I'm not the only one who knows that for the truth either. You know, your mom's church got a new pastor year before last. He's a totally different character from the Reverend Long. Pastor Yeoman is a happily married man. His first lady holds his heart. I don't know if your mother continued seeing Reverend Long after he left the church…but he moved to Florida six months after they got Pastor Yeoman in the pulpit."

I just nodded. "He was a homophobic, hypocritical bastard. Florida seems like a pretty good place for him."

Syn and I shared a long laugh. I loved both of my mother's sisters, but Syn was my favorite of the two. Jannia reminded me a little too much of my mother. Or maybe what Momma may have been like if she and my father had gotten their happily ever after. Not that Jannia had a traditional happily ever after either. But I was more than eighty percent sure that she'd had her two children out of wedlock and never even told their fathers not because 'they were just niggas from the block with no future and no possibility at having one either' but because she wanted kids and didn't want to deal with in-laws or anyone telling her how to raise them. The rest of the drive to MamMaw's condo, me and Aunt Syn just talked and caught up. MamMaw had sold her house and brought a nice condo in the gentrified part of the hood. It was nice and just big enough for her and one grand kid at a time. I realized that my Facebook stalking of my aunts and cousins and the cards I exchanged with my grandmother had kept me way more in the familial loop than I'd have believed.

As soon as I saw my grandmother face to face for the first time in over four years, I couldn't stop the tears from flowing. She was thinner than I'd ever known her. At five foot two, she had never been tall, but as far back as I could remember she been a size sixteen or thereabouts. Looking at her that day, she looked like she was probably down to a size eight or ten. Her hair was still really thick, and flowed down her shoulders in its natural salt and pepper curls and waves. The weight loss worried me a little bit, and I realized that my own stupidity and stubbornness could have seen me lose the wonderful woman who'd had a major hand in raising me without having seen her face to face in entirely too long. That was the true embodiment of how revenge often hurts the one seeking it as much as it does the one it is being visited upon. I hugged her so tight that she popped me to get released. "Well if it isn't the prodigal knucklehead?" Her laugh was merry and bright and damn it all if I wasn't home.

"Yeah, MamMaw…the knucklehead is home."

"Good…are you finally done punishing all of us for your momma, and yeah, I'm including you in the all." She chided. I just nodded. "You better be. I love all my grandchildren…but you're my oldest and this heart of mine has been missing your face something fierce. Now come on…I've made you some chitlin's. I know you love them and won't eat anyone else's. They're just waiting on you to turn them pink." She smirked, teasing me about how much hot sauce I used when I ate the traditional Black 'delicacy'.

I grabbed my bags and took them up to her place. I'd just be dragging them back down to go to Momma's but at least I wouldn't hold Aunt Syn up if they wanted to leave or something. Not that Jakeem was going anywhere. He loved MamMaw's chitlin's too. Talking to MamMaw and Syn and even Keem who'd been ten when I left and was now almost old enough to drive was easy and made me feel even more foolish for cutting myself off from my family to spite my mother. In punishing her for her bigotry, I'd ended up punishing them and me for feelings they didn't even share. Keem made that abundantly clear when he leaned over and asked me, "so cuz, are you boning that other dancer dude, the Hispanic one? Because I mean…if I rolled like that, I'd definitely hit that. But more 'portantly to my own personal sexual curiosity…the cute little chippy that they call Bae-Bae on KAMA's website…does she have a boyfriend and is she as flexible as she seems on TV?"

"While she is entirely that flexible, Bae is too old for you. The Hispanic dancer, Jackson isn't really my type. I learned my lesson long ago. I don't date dancers anymore. And I definitely don't date bandmates. That is just asking for drama, trouble and bull-isht." I gave him a long look. "You know Damien…the taller of the two male background is bi. If you need someone who understands, I can get you his email."

Keem gave me a cheeky grin. "Naw, I'm cool. I can find dudes aesthetically pleasing without wanting to actually bone them." He said confidently. "But while you're home…you might wanna have a chat with Ty. I'm not sure or anything…but in every game that has a romantic back story he has found some way to make them gay as hell."

I shrugged. Back in the day, Mom had taken my computer and Sims game because I'd filled the neighborhood with a bunch of 'unnatural couples'. Her words not mine. "I'll talk to him. Aunt Jannia will bitch for a while…but as long as he promises to have a kid, she'll let up."

Keem nodded. "Yeah…I think so too. She's already talking about grandkids and Ty ain't even out of high school yet. MamMaw told both of us that she'd cut off our thang-thangs if we made her a great-grandmother any time soon."

We both laughed because she would too. "She better worry about Tanya." Tyrique's younger sister was the youngest of the four of us and hella spoiled.

"Momma ain't gotta worry about Tanya at all. You know she isn't sharing her spotlight anytime soon. She has a baby and she'd drop at least one rung down the totem pole." Aunt Syn dropped down into the chair across from us. "I don't see how you two can eat those nasty things. You know they're pig intestines don't you?"

"Oh hush, Synt'ia. You used to love them before your friend, Kenya, told you what they were." MamMaw shushed her. "Now, Simmy…tell me everything I don't know yet." So I told her all about how I found my way back to the church. I told her exactly how good I had it working with KAMA. I told her anything and everything she might want to know and that I felt comfortable about sharing. The time flew by in a hail of laughter and love and well just family.

Before I realized how late it was getting, there was a knock on MamMaw's door, before it opened anyway. My grandmother firmly believed that if you lived near family they should have keys just in case. And her usual definition of that was 'just in case' she didn't feel like moving to get the door. "Mom, did Synt'ia get Simmy from the airport on time?"

I stood up and went and gave her a hug. I may have been angrier with her than I'd ever been at anyone in all my life, but she was still my mother. "Yeah, they found me and they weren't just on time…they were early. How was work?"

"It was work, same old thing just a different day…but how are you?" she hugged me tight then pushed me back and looked me over. I was fit as a fiddle, had had a haircut and a nice line up by Ricki's partner Kalvin. Mercedes' hairstylist gave all the KAMA crew preferential bookings at her shop. He was good people.

"I'm good, Momma. I'm just fine." I said honestly. We stayed for dinner, which I hadn't even realized MamMaw had going in her crockpots while we'd been talking. It was really nice. We said goodnight to MamMaw, Syn and Keem and headed to Momma's row house around eight.

When we got there, I realized that very little had changed. Her living rooms walls were still painted a very light shade of blue, the TV had been upgraded, I remember her saying that the old one had stopped working a few years ago. But I thought she'd decided not to bother with putting one in the living room again since she watched television in her room most of the time. "There was a sale and if I got that big one, I got a thirty-two inch one for your bedroom for free. I remember how much you hated that old nineteen-inch tube set that was in there, so I took the deal…just in case. And look. Now here you are and you'll get to watch it."

"Momma…I'm sorry I haven't been home." I said quietly.

She smiled sadly. "I guess I deserved it. I…I tried so hard to make sure that you never found out…I always thought that I was so careful. I didn't date. I chose a man who was married and wouldn't expect me to be available when you'd need me. I made sure that he knew that we were not in a relationship. I thought that if you didn't know that I had needs…if I could meet them without bringing a string of men in and out of your life…that you'd never lose respect for me. Instead I created the very situation I was trying to avoid."

I sighed and took a seat on the navy microfiber couch Momma had gotten when I was seventeen and the one we'd had my whole childhood had given up the ghost after I flopped down on it one of the days I'd actually gone to school. "Momma, that may have…I don't know started the process of my loosing respect for you, but a lot of it was. You hated me. You hated who I was and said that me and everyone like me were going to hell. You lapped up everything that Reverend Long had to say about homosexuals and even after you knew that it applied to me, you still kept putting out his party line. Did you love him so much that there was no room left in your heart for your gay son?"

She dropped into the ivory damask arm chair that had survived my entire child hood simply by being too uncomfortable for me to bother with. "I have never loved any man other than your father. I had physical needs, but that was all Teddy ever got from me. I never thought that you were gay. I don't know if it was just something that I thought only other people were, or if I just saw what I wanted to see. But until you were sixteen or seventeen, I just wouldn't let myself believe that my son was gay. Your father was so proud…so happy that you were a boy to carry on his father's name. Even your grandmother, your Dad's mom…she was able to leave this world in peace because her family's name would continue."

I scoffed. "I can have kids if I want. There are egg donors and surrogates."

"I don't think of things like that. I grew up in a church where the pastor said the same things Reverend Long said."

"Oh please." I interrupted. "MamMaw, Aunt Syn…even Aunt Jannia aren't homophobic like you. I never doubted that they loved me. But my own damn mother couldn't condemn me enough."

She shook her head. "Momma and I haven't always seen the same things when we read the bible. She says that condemning others is the fastest way to go to hell."

I smirked a little bit. "Well, that is one interpretation of 'Judge not lest ye be judged'. A lot of Christians like to forget the Christ in our religion. I'll be honest, you and your Reverend Long almost had me convinced that God hated me. That I was of the devil. I spent all of high school showing you just how bad I could be. But I'm not bad. The devil is a liar not a creator and God is love not hate."

"I know that you aren't bad. And the devil has nothing to do with how you were created. But I've always been taught that being gay is a sin." She defended.

I shook my head. "Ya know…I've always wondered…if God held homosexuality as such a sin…why isn't it in the commandments? If it is so bad, how come Jesus doesn't speak out against it? Between the two, everything we aren't supposed to do is pretty well outlined. Did you just think it slipped Their minds?"

"Paul wrote…"

"Momma…Paul was a man. He held his own belief structure and though he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, he very obviously picked and chose from Jesus' teachings. His teachings have been used to support so many abominations it is hard to remember them all. For me the fact that his epistles backed the enslavement of our ancestors, the subjugation of women and the denigration of gays has pretty much led me to ignoring every fucking word he wrote. Let us not forget that there are always going to be false prophets. Saul wasn't a good man. So because he changed his name, we're just supposed to forget that. No, he just started preaching his hate in the name of Christ rather than the Pharisees." I reminded her. "Look I don't want to get into a theological debate with you. I'm just going to say that as my mother…your job is literally to love me any damn way."

"Simmy…I do love you. I am sorry that my words or actions ever made you feel as if that wasn't the case, but I LOVE YOU." She started to weep. "I have loved you since the first time I felt you move inside me. I…had so many dreams for how you would grow up and find the perfect girl. She would be good and kind and let me feel as if she was the daughter I never had. I just…I don't want your life to be so damn hard Simeon. It's hard enough to be a black man in this country or to be a gay man in this country. But to be both..."

"Yeah, it's hard to be a gay black man in America. Especially when you're in middle and high school. That was why I needed your support so badly. But you were so busy being the best Second Lady of the Apostolic Body of Jesus Christ Baptist Church that you couldn't be my mother. Oh you were a mother…and if I had been a different kid, you'd have been a good one. But you never had my back when I needed you. Do you remember in sixth grade when I had my first nocturnal emissions dream? You called me sick and nasty for something I couldn't even control."

"It's a sin against God to spill your seed upon the ground." She quoted by rote.

"Yeah, I think God had more of a problem with Onan getting down with his brother's wife rather than the whole seed on the ground thing. But again not going on the whole theology thing Momma. The simple fact was that I was eleven years old and had no fucking clue. If Aunt Syn hadn't told me what was going on and that it was a pretty natural part of growing up…I'd have been the next Norman Bates or something. It happens to every kid. It was a natural biological process and you made me feel dirty and wrong."

She finally nodded. "I know. Synt'ia and Momma have never let me forget that I was stupid about how I reacted. I just…I guess I hated that you were growing up. I was stupid. I was resistant to change and I couldn't believe that my son was gay. But I always loved you."

"Aunt Syn said that if my father had lived he never would have let you treat me like that." I whispered. All my life I had wondered would things have been different if my father had not been killed. Would he have been more tolerant or loved me anyway?

Momma gave me a sad smile. The same one she always wore when she was telling me about the man who'd apparently, never left her heart. "Your father and I used to have the same kind of discussions that we're having now. He believed that when a pastor preached hate in the name of God, he was committing the ultimate sin. God, Simmy…your dad was so smart and strong and loving. He would have been an amazing father. I'm sorry that I failed him by failing you so badly. I do love you Simmy and I swear to the Lord that I will be a better mother to you."

"I hope so…because it hurts like hell not having you in my life." I said honestly. We sat together in silence until Momma's curiosity got the better of her. It would seem that despite her disapproval of my sexuality, she was ridiculously curious about what sex between two people of the same sex entailed. She also wanted to know tons about my dancing. That lead us to talking more about Mercedes, Sam and Noah and I told her how they had actually been the ones to get me back to church for the first time since I was thirteen years old. I told her about the great things we'd done during the tour. "I can even play a little piano now."

"Wow, you must have a really patient teacher." She laughed. "I couldn't make it through teaching you 'Twinkle Twinkle' let alone something more complex."

"Momma, isn't that the only song you can play?" I asked before joining her in the laughter that just ratcheted up a notch.

She looked over at me. "You definitely do not get any musical talent from our side of the family. Your Aunt Jannia's singing is so bad she made the chorus teacher cry once. And you know that your momma is the exception that makes it a rule that all Black folks have rhythm."

For the first time in more than a decade I spent a full week with my family and there were no yelling matches. There were no recriminations. My mother and I started rebuilding our relationship. I went to church with her and, of course, we had to stay for the after service holiday pot luck dinner. It was during the dinner, that I met the church's new pastor and his wife. To my surprise, I found that I actually liked Pastor Yeoman. Turned out that he and his wife had a son who was gay and he was both around my age and he lived in New York. He worked at Barclay's in their investment management division. "Oh, my bosses' uncle works there. But Mr. Mayzer is one of the higher level financial consultants. He manages all KAMA's investments and he's helping all of their employees to build portfolios for ourselves."

"He sounds like a good man." The preacher's lovely wife, Mariah, said with a smile. "Now I have to tell you…I love KAMA. Bernie here thinks that the Jones girl should just pick one…but there is something so beautiful that's there when all three of them are together doing an interview. Just beautiful the love between them. And the way their voices combine…I tell you, you can't not believe in God when you hear them sing. That kind of talent doesn't come about by accident. Do you think they will ever do a gospel song?"

I smiled. "They sing a lot of church songs, Ma'am. When we were on the tour last summer, they opened and closed every Sunday show with gospel. Mercedes' voice is just about perfect for it. Don't get me wrong, I've heard her sing everything from Country to Ska and it is all amazing…but when she takes us to church with her voice…that definitely brings the biggest sinner back to church."

Pastor Yeoman just chuckled. "All I know is that in the last year or so, the number of girls I'm having to counsel at the youth center about body image and for eating disorders is down across the board, but especially among young black women. So no matter what I may feel about the polyamory, those three are doing the Lord's work in my book. Too many women are dying trying to be skinny." He said in such a way that I knew the subject was closed. We chatted for a few more minutes about Momma and the family and their attendance then they moved on and left me with their son's business card with his cell phone number written on the back. Parents were a straight trip.

After the dinner, which was way too early, we all met up at MamMaw's condo and I borrowed Momma's car and took Tyrique, Tanya and Jakeem to the mall to find them some decent gifts. Apparently…according to my mother and both her sisters…gift cards are fine if you're mailing gifts. But since I was home I had to get them actual gifts. I drove them over to the Galleria near the fabled Creve Coeur section of St. Louis. I told them going in that they could each get one expensive item or a few cheaper ones. But what they got while we were at the mall was their Christmas gifts and that would be it. All three of them were cool with my rules.

So we shopped. Tanya wanted to look in jewelry stores. I took her to Kay's first since they were reputable, but not ridiculously expensive. But the chick behind the counter was straight tripping. She was hovering with her finger on the silent alarm button the whole time we were in the store. That shit pissed me all the way off. Especially since even Keem, the only one of us who actually dressed like a thug by choice, was still in his church clothes. So we peaced-out without buying shit. I may not have had a back breaking job, but I worked too damn hard for my money to spend it where I wasn't wanted. As we left the store, Tanya started pouting. "If you walk into a store and they act like you ain't 'bout shit because you're black…you don't spend a single, solitary dime there. If they don't want you…they don't get your money. Have some damn dignity. Have some damn pride. Black folks we want change…we need to make that change happen. This is just a small way to start that change."

"I got you Cuz." Ty agreed. "Let's got to Game Stop…they don't care about the color of our skin. In gaming all that matters is if you're a good gamer or not."

He wasn't lying. Even as he took forever to pick out his multitude of video games, including Dragon Age: Inquisition, the newest installment of the Mass Effects saga, and Final Fantasy XIV, we weren't tracked around the store. Keem was getting his flirt on with a cute little redhead who had driven her younger brother to the mall as his Christmas gift. She was flirtatiously, kind of complaining about how long he was taking. It was really fucking funny though when her brother popped up and said in exacerbation, "Just get his number, I'm ready to go."

When we left that store, we went down the escalator and hit Helzberg Diamonds where Tanya got a pair of real diamond earrings. They were really nice. A small white diamond with a band of pave black diamonds around them. They were small but real and nicely age appropriate. Best of all they were, on sale, about the same amount as I'd spent on the six video games that her brother had gotten for his gift. Keem then dragged us to Foot Action where he finally got the sneakers he been dreaming about since they came out the month before. But no way was Aunt Syn giving him two hundred bucks to get a pair of sneakers he wasn't even going to wear for their intended purpose anyway. He still had enough to get a pack of Jordan socks, the shoe cleaner, the shoe protector, the shoe freshener…yeah that kid was way into his shoes. Then I dragged them to Champs and got myself a bunch of new workout clothes. They were cheaper outside New York and since we were going to be moving into heavy practices in February or March, I wanted to go ahead and stock up in a state where the cost of living was lower. Then I went ahead and hit Macy's and grabbed a large, rolling suit case for all of the new sweats and stuff and for my Christmas gifts from the family.

The rest of the week flew by. I ended up meeting up with a few old friends from the neighborhood and on Tuesday, I got asked out by a guy I'd have never known was gay…only to find out that his ass was on the DL and I didn't roll like that. Still, he gave me a great story to tell MamMaw, Syn, Momma and Jannia while I helped them do the prep work for Christmas dinner. I could cook and I had a lot of practice helping those four women in the kitchen. But the time schedule they traditionally kept too was too much for me. So I helped with the dicing and slicing and all that crap and lifted whatever heavy thing needed to go into or out of the oven. Other than that, I played video games with Ty; talked with Tanya about clothes; and even taught Keem the Harlem Shake and the Dougie. It was straight fun. The next morning, we all opened some gifts at home, before meeting up at MamMaw's after lunch. My mother had gotten me a tee shirt that was actually for her to wear that may have been the best thing she'd ever gotten me. It had the word 'PROUD' in a rainbow design then the words 'of my GAY SON' under it. She also got me a cool French Press coffee pot and a vacuum beard trimmer from Norelco. It was really nice.

Everyone loved all their gifts…well except Keem who ended up getting a homemade book of those stupid 'I'll do your chores for you' coupon books from Tanya. "I might think this is something but a waste of paper, if I didn't know that you don't honor these. You're still supposed to be washing the dishes whenever you come over and it hasn't happened yet. Which is just pitiful because Momma has a dish washer." He grumbled.

"Well if you didn't try to dress like you're balling out of control, I'd be able to afford to get you a nice shirt or something like I did Simmy and Ty." She shot back. I didn't say anything…but I could kind of see her point.

After dinner, we were all too full to move, so we all chilled out on MamMaw's floor…well MamMaw and Aunt Jannia had the couch and Momma had the chair…but still we were all laying around watching Christmas movies. Everything from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas…the cartoon, not that live action abomination…to A Christmas Story was watched. Naps were taken and when we weren't talking, eating or sleeping, we just enjoyed the time with the family. The next day, Momma and her sisters dragged me out of my bed early to take them to the same mall I'd taken the cousins to before Christmas so they could hit the after Christmas sales. Oh well, they fed me and I was able to catch a few pieces on sale myself. When we got back to the house, I went back to bed only to get woken up by the cousins and MamMaw who wanted more time with me before I left the next morning. By the time I got back to my apartment, I was exhausted. I loved my family and I was really grateful that I'd found my way home…but I was also really grateful that I didn't have any more relatives.

The same day I got home, we spent four hours in the studio. Rainbow liked to have the dancers at the recording sessions because watching the process and learning exactly what and why Sam, Mercedes and Puck had written the songs really helped her with creating the choreography. We had Sunday off and then we were back in the studio on Monday. We were free Tuesday as well which turned into a blessing. Macklemore needed another dancer as one of his had pulled a groin muscle. He hit up his friends KAMA because he knew they lived in the city and he was on a serious time crunch since he was performing at New Year's Rocking Eve. Puck gave him my number since Jackson had plans with his family who had come to the city to see him. I was all over that. The dances weren't too complex and the two days of work paid for my entire trip home. Not bad at all. New Year's Day was mine to do as I wanted…so once I called everyone back in St. Louis I just went walking through my neighborhood. I also used the walk to get some groceries and sundries. Friday, Saturday and Monday afternoon saw us back into the studio.

That week, Puck, Sam and Mercedes may have given us the time off while they were in LA…but for Rainbow, the only one of us she didn't expect to see in her studio for four hours every day was Brittany and that was only because she was back in her home town seeing to some family business. When she got back…she was brought up to speed on what all Rainbow had worked out. By the time school was back in session we had the dances fully choreographed for every song that was already in the can. It was pretty near perfect. I loved my job. I had my family relationships back in good condition and my personal life wasn't creating any drama or trauma. Two thousand fourteen had been an awesome year and it was looking as if twenty-fifteen was going to be at least as good. I couldn't wait. I might even give Phillip Yeoman a call, after all he had good looking parents who seemed to be good people. He might just be worth a shot.

Adam Kress PoV

There was something almost undefinable that was really fucking awesome about working for KAMA. I mean, the money was great. The benefits were awesome. Damien and I had both gone and gotten full checkups, medical, dental and vision. Turned out that we were both in great physical condition…but I may have needed glasses and Dame needed like four cavities filled. The other great thing was all the time off. We had time, once the closing on Mom's house took place, to go back to Paducah and help her move from that crappy ass trailer she'd raised us in. It hadn't taken much time or even that much effort. She'd refused to take any of the crappy furniture, except the one set of real wood bunkbeds that she'd lucked into when we were kids. She wasn't taking any of the dishes or linens that were more than ten years old either. Hell, what she did take we stopped by the laundromat and she washed and folded it all fresh before we carried it to the new house. The house was really nice. It was a one story, three bedroom, two-bathroom house with the master bedroom and bathroom separated from the other bedrooms by most of the rest of the house. It had a one car garage and a nice long drive way. When you entered from the garage, you were right next to a nice laundry room with three open shelves above the washer and dryer hookups and a rack for hanging clothes attached to the back of the door. Directly ahead was the door to a good sized master bedroom with a large walk in closet and a master bath with two sinks and a big stand-alone shower. If you turned left you headed into the great room, dining room, kitchen and small foyer. Thankfully, the place had hardwood floors throughout. The floors were a rich, dark stained, solid walnut and they complimented the light painted kitchen cabinets well. The counters were a cloud white quartz shot through with dark gray and smoke white veins. Mom ooohhhed and awed over everything.

The other two bedrooms shared a bathroom and that one had a bathtub-shower combo type deal. Both bathrooms had the wood look tiles that matched the floors in the rest of the house. The walls were the same cloud white as the kitchen cabinets. The fixtures were all brushed nickel and the porcelain was all very bright white. The previous owners had fully renovated the entire place. The paint, floors and all the toilets, sinks and such were all brand new. Damien and I had gone ahead and bought the appliances the house had been staged with, so she had a stainless steel stove, dishwasher and refrigerator. Jarrod was working at one of the four furniture stores in town so he talked with his boss and got Mom a great deal on a living room set. Apparently, no one in Paducah was really the 'crimson living room set' kind of people. Best of all though for Mom was that both the sofa and love seat were pull outs. The store owner was so happy to get fifteen hundred for the set he threw in the rocker recliner for free. Rodney had come home for the weekend too and he took Mom to Kmart and got her some nice, neutral throw pillows and blankets to go on the rather brightly colored living room furniture.

Since Jarrod's boss had given her such a great deal on the living room furniture, she stayed there for furniture for her bedroom. She said she was going to wait until she was a little more flush in the wallet to get the furniture for the smaller of the two other bedrooms. The last one was the twins room and that was where we put up the bunkbeds. Mom was going to get the rest of them dressers and more furniture for it later too. At least that was her plan. That was not the plan of any of the men in her life. Ronnie disappeared as soon as Rodney and Momma headed to K-Mart, next thing we knew he was showing up with a stainless steel washer and dryer pair. He'd had a friend of his at Sears hold the set for him on what pretty much amounted to layaway when we'd started the process to buy the house. Then Aaron showed up with some bookshelves and a desk and nice chair from Sprawl-Mart. While we were putting those together in the room with the bunkbeds, a Big Lots furniture truck arrived and they delivered a dining room set with enough seats for eight. There were also two matching stools for the small breakfast bar and two matching tall boy dressers for the twins. My uncles showed up and they had gotten her a bedroom suite and mattresses for the final bedroom. All of us loved Justine Anne Peterson, her sons and her brothers, and we all wanted better for her than she'd been able to have before. The look on her face when she realized that she just had to decorate the house, because all the furniture had been purchased and was brand new and for the most part to her taste, was priceless. Jaden and Denzil even got in on the action disappearing and coming back with a brand new set of good pots from Sam's and a new set of dishes from Kohl's.

When Mom and Rodney got home, she was so happy she cried. It was worth everything. Because Mom didn't do girly things like happy tears. We stayed for the entire weekend…even if Mom did keep finding things for us to do. When we got back to New York, the world knew about Puck's baby mama drama. But that turned into sales gold for KAMA so we just minded our own. Dame was dating a new chick who did background vocals for Empire records. That label was weird, they only ever put their singers on their tracks and if you did vocals for them, you couldn't work for anybody else. He was happy with her but that relationship was coming to an end after only a few weeks. She didn't give blow jobs and she refused to let him touch her breasts…which were a big part of why he'd asked her out in the first place. He and I took quite a few other gigs around KAMA's event, practice and video schedules. The two of us were making incredible loot so if we saw something cool that we thought Momma would like, we grabbed it. Every time she got a package with a lamp or a new duvet cover, she'd call us and chide us for spending so much on her.

At Thanksgiving, I sang backup on a float in the Macy's parade. It was really awesome and the pay was damn near ridiculous. Damien's relationship didn't survive the holiday. The chick was on some new shit. She invited us to have dinner with her since we weren't going home, and she tried to feed us tofurkey. That was it. I was so damn mad; I damn near broke up with her myself and she wasn't even my girl. We could have had real dinner at a great diner that had never let us down when we couldn't afford to go home at Thanksgiving. But instead we got stuck with her funky ass tofurkey…that shit was foul. When we got home, we called Mom and the brothers and found out that Momma was going to start taking classes over at the West Kentucky Community College. She had a high school diploma and with all of her kids pretty well grown, she finally had the time to start trying to advance herself. We went home at Christmas and it was really funny. Dame and I took turns swapping between the full sized bed in the guest room and the pull out sofa. Momma had gotten a real tree that year and it was decorated with brand new lights and tinsel and such. The only ones of the old ornaments she kept were the ones we'd made for her in school and at church and such. Dame and I had gotten her one of the ones from the KAMA swag shop and she giggled when she put it on the tree.

We'd always been pretty poor so we always had one nice Christmas gift and one cheap one every year. We all decided to stick with that plan even though for the most part we were a lot better off than we'd been when all eight of us were home and all Mom really had to get by on was sporatic child support and food stamps. Momma got each of her boys a shaving essentials set that contained a shit load of lotions, creams, and scrubs. Those were our cheap gifts. We'd come up. Used to be the cheap gifts were around five bucks each. Those kits cost five times that. For her cheap gifts, we'd all gotten her something for school. Jaden and Denzil had gotten her supplies, pencils, paper, notebooks…things like that. Aaron had gotten her a big flash drive and Ronnie had gotten her a decent tablet. Me and Dame had each gotten her a fifty-dollar gift card to the campus bookstore. Rodney and Jarrod got her a nice backpack and a pair of fashionable sneakers respectively. Then we each opened our cheap gifts…which were all just gift cards for places like Starbucks and Sprawl-Mart. Our nice gifts to each other weren't any better, according to Momma. We were happy without larger gift cards to places like Kohls or Macys…but she thought we were being lazy. We weren't that was actually what we all really wanted from each other.

For Mom, we'd actually shopped. Aaron had gotten her a set of end tables for the great room and Ronnie had gotten her a good sized television for out there too. Damien had gotten her a Keurig coffee maker for her new kitchen. I had gotten her a gorgeous rug for her living room that had lots of shades of cream and brown mixed with the same crimson color as her furniture. Jarrod had found a great wrought iron wall shelf with hooks for keys that would go in the foyer while Rodney, Denzil and Jaden went in together and brought her a really nice, refurbished laptop. She shopped for us too. Aaron got an Amazon Paperwhite…he loved to read even though we all teased him about the neediness of it. She got Ronald a ridiculously expensive Yeti travel cup set. Supposedly it would keep his drinks hot or cold as needed for up to twenty-four hours. I was a little jealous until I saw what she's gotten me…a small portable keyboard. I'd told her that Justin was really enjoying having so many music lovers to teach. I'd started learning to play piano from him and I really loved it. Damien got a very similar box, but it contained a drum board. He loved the beats. He, Cass and Dave had definitely bonded over their love of rhythms. Jarrod got a wicked cool, vintage leather bomber jacket that even second hand had cost a pretty penny. Rodney was a little jealous until he opened his brand new Js…nothing reached a basketball player's heart like kicks. Denzil and Jaden got a combo gift…Momma had gotten them a really nice TV for their bedroom.

After we cleaned up the mess from opening our Christmas gifts, Jaden hit the kitchen. That kid was going to be a world class chef someday. I don't think Mom had cooked since he could see over the stove. Jaden cooked, Denzil cleaned and they were both better at their chosen avocations than Mom was. The thing was that Jaden hated having anyone underfoot other than his twin so the rest of us had nothing to do until dinner was ready. We set up Mom's new TV, with Ronnie helping it took less than twenty minutes. So we did the twins' television too. While we were at it we hung the entrance shelf and moved the furniture and laid out the rug then arranged the furniture into a better configuration for watching the new TV and having conversation too.

Somehow, Mom's four eldest ended up working together to set up the closet system Mom had gotten on the cheap for her closet. Aaron broached a subject that Dame and I could tell had been weighing on his and Ronnie's minds. "Look, you guys are…shit we could never have done this. Getting everything together to get Mom a real house. But we do want to help."

I just smiled but Dame full on laughed. "And you will…who do you think Mom is gonna call when shit breaks or something? Ronnie, you'll be putting in by fixing her stove or helping her do something with the back yard."

Ronnie shook his head. "Nope…Jaden and Denzil are already planning to turn about half of it into an herb and vegetable garden come the spring. Something about having fresher things to cook with." He told us conspiratorially.

"Man…where did those two come from. I can do alright in the kitchen…but all that Cooking Channel and Food Network shit Jaden pulls out his ass…I can't even." I shot back.

"I know, right." All my brothers cosigned.

"Still, we're serious…we want to help. So why don't me and Aaron do the mortgage one month out of every three." Ronnie suggested.

Dame shook his head. "We have it set up so every pay period we put five hundred each in an account and it just pulls from that account automatically. Since the account is at the bank where the mortgage is out of, it got us a break on the interest doing it that way."

Aaron nodded. "That makes sense. That's the same way I did at the credit union for my car note." He looked thoughtful. "I still have an account number and stuff for the car payment though…if you guys have the mailing information for if you ever wanted to mail in the mortgage payment…me and Ronnie can just send in an extra hundred each every month. That would at least get it paid down faster."

"Yeah, and Mom is planning on cornering you two before you leave to make sure that in taking care of her, you aren't forgetting to take care of yourselves." Ronnie pointed out.

"Man…we are fine. The thing is that we aren't just making a hell of a lot of money working with Cedes, Sam and Puck…when they don't need us, which is pretty much eight to six Monday through Friday during their school year, we can take as many other jobs as we want. So we're still working as background singers for other artists too. We pull down an extra forty-five to a seventy-five bucks an hour from the other people. I only work twenty hours during the week and it takes care of all Mom's mortgage, homeowners insurance and property taxes in one week most of the time." I shared honestly.

Damien cosigned that truth. "That's in addition to our main gig which is like four grand every two weeks."

Aaron's sigh of relief was easily heard in the small space. I threw him a side eye and he chuckled. "Maybe it wasn't just Mom that was worried." I laughed at him so he got a little defensive. "Hey, I'm the eldest…I've been hearing about how I have to watch out for my brothers since the day Ronnie came into the world. Habits are hard to break."

I could understand that. We all looked out for Rodney, Jarrod, Jaden and Denzil just the same. "Good, then help me and Dame figure out how to slip Rodney some money without Mom knowing. College expenses ain't no joke."

We spent the next fifteen minutes brainstorming and finally we just decided that Aaron would take Rodney to a local branch of a national bank and open him an account. All of us would get the account number and everything we'd need to funnel him a little change. His scholarship covered his tuition, room and board and books…but he still needed so much and Mom would be quitting her second job to go back to school. By the time we got the closet system fully installed, we had all our shit planned…including getting cable and internet into the house and getting a desktop for Jaden and Denzil. They were still going to the local library or staying after to use to computers at school when they needed one. We had found our come up. All four of us had graduated high school, and a trade school in Ronnie's case. It was our job to make sure that the younger four could come up too.

Mom did corner us and we made sure to tell her the same thing we'd told Ronnie and Aaron…well some of it…enough to ease her mind and let her know that we had her back and we were still our brothers' keepers. "Thank God…I don't know what I ever did to deserve you boys. You'd have thought that with all nine of us in that god awful trailer and not having a pot to piss in nor a window to throw it out of most time once the rent was paid you'd all be crazy as a bag of raccoons."

I looked over at Damien to find him looking at me just as confused. "Mom, I didn't know that you had to pay rent on that deathtrap."

"Yeah, I always assumed we lived there because it was free." I agreed.

She shook her head. The long, thick wealth of auburn was shot through with way less gray than most women her age usually boasted. "It was never free, but Adam's father payed the rent until he died when you boys were in elementary school. He was one of the best men I ever knew. If the woman he married hadn't been such a bitch, he'd have done more but she was determined to have her kids be the only ones he cared for. Never mind that he had six kids before he ever met her." She rolled her eyes.

"So how did you handle the rent after he died? I mean, you had a hard enough time keeping soul and body together before the twins came…"

She gave me a stern look. "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no tales." She shut us down firmly. "Anyway. I want you two to look into getting a better place too. I remember you saying that your first apartment was a hole in the wall and this one is better but still hole in the wall adjacent. You made sure that I have a nice place for me and the twins. I want you to make sure that you have a nice place for the two of you."

We agreed to save up and look into getting a better apartment or something. Though the truth of it was that Dame and I had actually decided to look into buying us a place of our own once we got Mom's house paid down some. We were even starting to consider getting two places. We'd lived together forever. Probably, it was starting to look a little strange that we were still roommates. But even in our day dream situations where we each bought our own condos, we wanted to still be in the same building. Still we weren't really checking for that for at least another year. Or so we'd thought. Jaden called everyone in for dinner soon after we'd settled Mom's worries. Dinner was as amazing as we pretty much expected when Jaden got into the kitchen. He really was a great cook. Dame and I made sure to let him know that if he wanted to go to culinary arts school after high school we'd help as much as we could; even letting him stay with us while he went to one in New York. He blushed under our attention and thanked us.

Since Denzil had helped with the cooking and Aaron, Ronnie, Damien and I had done a whole bunch of things around the house, which left Rodney and Jarrod to clean up. It wasn't that Denzil didn't trust them to do a good job…he was just very particular about how he liked things cleaned and the way things should be put back. So he watched them like hawks. Afterwards, we returned to our favorite childhood winter pastime…board games. It was hilarious. Especially since even as a grown ass man Damien was still a no good, low down cheater…and he was still so bad at it. We played so late that night that Aaron, Ronnie, Jarrod and Rodney ended up staying the night.

The next morning, Damien snuck Jaden out and took him to the grocery store in our rental car and let him go wild. I borrowed Aaron's truck and took Denzil to Sprawl-Mart and I just told him to stock up. As soon as he asked me if I was sure, he grabbed a cart and dragged me to the water aisle where he got two big cases of purified water and then to the hardware section where we grabbed a bunch of tools, a water filter system for the kitchen sink and garden tools. From there he went to the bathroom area and grabbed one of those things that you could assemble and put up to hold towels, or toilet paper. Then he thought for a second, "Can I get one for me and Jaden's bathroom too?"

I just chuckled. "Denn…I want you to get whatever it is that you guys need, okay? If you need me to go and get another damn cart to get it all I will. But when I leave here tomorrow, I don't want to worry that you guys need something and you ain't got it or got a way to get it. I know that you and Jaden work and so does Mom, but she's starting classes in two weeks. So get what you need…hell, get what you just fucking want, Okay?"

He nodded. "Umm…can you get another cart then?"

So I did. And Denzil filled that bad boy. He filled it with cleaning supplies and lightbulbs and lamps and cookie sheets and baking pans. Then he added soap and toothpaste and mouthwash and deodorants…things that they needed, and they got, but usually they got the cheapest stuff they could afford. I wouldn't let him cheap out at all. I grabbed Mom some of the same stuff Cedes had available in the bathrooms on the tour buses we'd had the summer before. So some Dove soap and deodorant and some sweet smelling, thick lotion. I added some things I noticed they needed, like new underwear and socks and the like. Then I pulled the completely full carts to the one of the managers and simply asked her to watch it until we were finished. "My mother and little brothers just moved into a new house and I'm trying to get them everything they need before I head back to Manhattan." I explained.

"You must be Justine's boy, are you Adam or Damien?" the older woman asked giving me a big smile. I guess she saw the shock on my face. "Oh, I also work over at Aldi with your mom."

"I'm Adam…Damien is with that knucklehead's twin getting them groceries." I answered. "Sorry, guess I've been in New York too long."

"Well, it don't seem like it's done you any harm. You and your brother are still doing right by your mom and brothers. You all go get what you need. When you're ready to check out, I'll get you personally so you won't have to wait in line." And she was as good as her word. We filled that last cart with Tide, Bounce, Oxy-clean, Clorox and Clorox 2 and Downy and Unstoppables and Febreeze and Cascade and Dawn until it just wouldn't hold any more. When we checked out, she had to grab us one of their stockers to help us get it all out to the truck. Thankfully, Aaron, Ronnie and Rodney were at the house when we got there. Mom had had to go to work as had Jarrod. We pulled in and Dame and Jaden were right behind us. The seven of us got everything in and put away, then we collapsed. Well except for Jaden and Denzil who spent the next hour showing each other all the cool things they had now. After an hour, we old fogies forced ourselves to get up and put together the bathroom pieces, took off all the tags and washed all underwear, socks, towels and linens and put them all away. Then Aaron took all the boxes and such to the dump. Momma couldn't return anything and try to get us our money back without the boxes or tags or receipts or anything.

When she got home, Jaden had made another miracle meal…it was even better than Christmas dinner since the quality of the ingredients were so much better. We'd invited the uncles for dinner but they left after dinner…they didn't even stay to play the cool train board game they got us. The rest of that night was spent in laughter and yeah, Mom pitched a bitch about how much we spent on top of everything...but it was kind of easy to ignore her since she was thanking us with every other word. The next morning, Damien and I had to say good bye to the brothers and Mom, but it felt great to know that we were leaving them without any needs or problems.

I like to think that being so good to my family was what led to me meeting a sexy little mama with a Caribbean accent on the flight back to New York. Her screams were ringing in my ears as we rung in the New Year with a hell of a bang. I loved women like her. She'd come to New York for a vacation and wanted just to have some fun. On the fifth, she flew home having seen some sights and had what she swore was the best sex of her life. I was happy as hell with how two thousand and fourteen had turned out and I was looking forward to the next year and couldn't wait to see what it would bring.

Sorry for the delay. My hometown was one of those that had to be evacuated on the GA coast ahead of Hurricane Matthew. My family and Illy's all came here, except the ones too stubborn to leave. And on top of all the unexpected house guests, my cable & wifi went down. *Insert panicked scream here* Now I have to talk to these people. We just talked last weekend...there is literally nothing more to be said. My life isn't that interesting. Pray from me.
It has been one ridiculous weekend.

Anyway...Please Review...you have no idea how badly I need some happy. I'll just say that I'm the only unmarried girl in the family. Even my lesbian cousin has a wife and two point five kids. LOL.
I think I have 3-4 more Christmas Chapters before I head back to the main story. Maybe...one of these we heard from at Thanksgiving and so I may just skip it.

So in summary...stupid hurricane...Aarg family...please review.
TTFN,
Anni