Chapter 63: Christmas II
"Where is the Christmas tree?" I asked, since I had helped decorate it too.
"Our parents are crazy people," Haley commented.
"We are not crazy," Claire appeared along with Phil and Luke. "We canceled Christmas until one of you three confesses who burned the sofa with a cigarette."
I glanced at each of the three - Alex, Haley, and Luke. None of them looked guilty.
Luke wasn't good at hiding secrets, Alex would confess as soon as pressured, and Haley would ask me for help to escape punishment (if it were her).
"They can't confess something that none of them did," I argued. "It was me. I got a little distracted and dropped the cigarette butt. I'm sorry."
"Great! I'll go get the Christmas tree back!" Phil said excitedly.
"Nice," I moved closer to him. "I bought a mini-Santa Claus that climbs a rope. We can put him on the tree." I showed him, taking it out of my shopping bag.
Phil took it, "Cool!" reacting much like Luke, who was watching beside us.
"Phil!" Claire barked, staring in disbelief at us.
Phil blinked confused. "What?"
Claire gave him the look.
"Right," he corrected himself quickly. "Uncool, buddy." He started pulling me to help him bring the tree back.
"That's it??" Claire looked incredulous. "No, no, no." She repeated.
Phil paused, then improvised, "You're… not playing Mario Kart with me and Luke... today." He looked at Claire for approval.
She let out a frustrated sigh. "We're against smoking and setting a bad example. Jake, you're banned from coming here until the end of the year."
I stayed calm. Well, that's less than a week…
"That's not fair, Mom!" Haley protested
"Who am I going to talk about books and science with?" Alex added, complaining.
Phil joined the chorus. "Yeah, Claire, why should we be punished as well?"
"Mom, you said Christmas is about forgiving and all!" Even Luke managed to blurt out something that sounded halfway wise.
Claire's patience snapped. "Why am I being treated like the villain here?" She took a deep breath. "Fine. Three days. That's final."
I had to hold back a laugh. I love this family.
"Guys, she is right," I spoke, placing a hand on her shoulder, then whispered, "You know, Aunt Claire, stress shortens life expectancy by twenty percent."
"And you shorten mine by fifty!" she shouted back.
"Don't say that," I replied, pulling out another bag. "I bought you a fine wine."
She narrowed her eyes. "Are you treating me like an alcoholic woman?"
"No," I denied immediately. "The wine I gifted you in the past must have been emptied by gnomes," I remarked.
She snatched the gift, said thank you, and headed to the kitchen.
After helping Phil bring the tree back to the living room, we decorated it again and talked for a while until I mentioned that I needed to deliver the rest of the presents.
I stopped by Malibu and told Dad I would spend the 25th at Jay's house too. He wasn't really bothered by it.
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That night, I went back to Brentwood with Jay (we bumped into each other by chance at Mitchell's house).
"Where were you for so long?" Gloria inquired as we walked into the kitchen.
Jay explained, "Just a little last-minute shopping," then asked, noticing a round food on the table, "What's this?"
"Buñuelos," Manny spoke, already eating one.
Jay frowned. "Who? What?"
Gloria explained, "Cheese fritters. It's a traditional Colombian Christmas food."
"Okay, new rule. From now on, we do Colombian things when we're in Colombia," Jay declared annoyed, continuing his rant, "We do American things when we're in America."
He stormed off toward the pantry, shouting, "No more of your food, no more of your music, and especially no more of your crazy holidays!"
Manny and Gloria exchanged a disappointed look
"Inocente!" he yelled, suddenly reappearing.
Manny put his hands over his face, clearly realizing he'd fallen for our prank.
"You know, it was hard to get fireworks on Christmas Eve," I finally revealed what Jay and I had in our shopping bags.
"Go, Manny!" Gloria encouraged with a wide grin, patting his shoulder.
Manny ran to hug Jay and then me.
"Thank you!" he said, beaming.
I smiled too. "Let's go, we need to set up those fireworks out back, somewhere safe."
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The next morning, Christmas lunch was at Jay's house.
Mitchell, Cam, and Lily were the first to arrive, followed by the Dunphy family.
Claire came to talk to me while the rest of the Dunphys were nearby.
"Jake, I owe you an apology," she began, "but could you please wipe that smug grin off your face?"
"No way!" I denied. "I only took the blame so I could have the moral high ground, and to annoy yo…" I cleared my throat, "I mean, save the Dunphys' Christmas," I smirked.
Claire's eyes were twitching. "Either way, sorry, and thank you," she said, hugging me.
I whispered, "I'm totally going to use that in the future," which made her lightly pinch me.
"What about us?" Haley joined in. "You and Dad blamed us first! You were going to cancel Christmas for something none of us did!"
"You called us all liars!" Luke added.
Phil repeated the same line Luke had used yesterday. "Christmas is about forgiving."
"That's all on Luke," Alex snorted. "You took away the biggest holiday!"
"I made a mistake. People make mistakes. And they make up for those mistakes..." Phil paused, then exclaimed, "by taking their family... to Italy!" Everyone cheered, except for Claire, whose face instantly turned worried.
We ended up having a very unique Christmas lunch, with some Colombian dishes mixed in and a new recipe Cam had just discovered.
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That night, everyone left, and I did too, heading over to Summer's house. She had spent Christmas with her dad, but he was going out for the night with her stepmother.
Summer peeked outside before opening the door.
"Merry Christmas, Jake," she grinned at me.
I took a long look at the sexy Christmas outfit she was wearing. "Merry Christmas, Sunny," I replied, and she pulled me inside.
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