THIS CHRISTMAS

This year will be the official first year of me celebrating the holiday on my own. Of course the family normally shows up at mom’s house to decorate, but my own apartment is usually void of cheer. But this year is different. I invited mom and dad over for dinner next Saturday. And since I haven’t won the battle with Candice yet, I went on and invited my X, Vanessa. My parents always liked Vanessa, though they didn’t really understand how crazy she actually is. I had to stop going out with her, because she’d always embarrass me in public by forcing her fake psychic readings on strangers. She told a lady once that her husband had just died while cheating. The woman ran off crying, but later found us in a restaurant and assaulted Vanessa for such a lie. Fortunately, she’s never offered such a reading to my parents.

So, since dinner would be at my space, I had to make it look festive. I had invited just a few friends over to help trim the tree. Derrick was the first to arrive. He loved to make good use of his speed power, though he is not an active hero – partly due to the name Jiffy Jeff and Dart. I think is baby sister picked the name (his parents were old, but apparently frisky). Either way, he gave up the hero business after a few months.

Marc, Tina, Leah and Ean all arrived within a few minutes of each other. The only person not here yet was Terra. She’s always late, and I hope she doesn’t bring her kid, because my apartment is not built to handle juvenile creatures. We sat and talked for a few minutes. Luckily, Tina and Marc brought over some food from the chicken place down the block. After about 30 minutes, the gang decided they could no longer wait for Terra, and that we should start without her. I sent her a text, and we all began to sift through the unopened boxes of decorations, to begin.

In a blink, the tree was done. In fact, the entire apartment had been decorated, literally, in the blink of an eye… I hadn’t even had a chance to speak before Marc started swearing. He’s also given up the hero business on account of his potty mouth. How the hell could Derrick just come in and steal the joy of me decorating my own apartment. Derrick just sat down, smiling, finishing the last of the chicken. Did he take some sick pleasure in robbing me of my joy. But then I thought about it. No, he didn’t. He just gave me joy. I didn’t really want to do all that work. In fact, I just may have a party to take all this down, and invite Derrick. I sat down, too. Smiling. Marc would be swearing for another hour. It’s best to let him get it out, once he gets started.