Page 19 of 300 New Year's Eves

“Two!”

Sergio can’t help himself. It feels even better to hit him this time.

“One! Happy …”

Chapter four

“Uncle Sergio! Wake up!”

“Fuck,” Sergio coughs out as he jumps out of bed, then doubles over in pain for the third day in a row from Henry’s insanely accurate knee to the balls. He narrowly misses stepping on Gus as the cat hisses and shoots out from under the bed. “Fuck!” he cries again, clutching himself. Which, despite the near vomit-inducing pain, is not why he’s cursing. His fucks come more out of the frustration he’s feeling that he’s found himself waking up on New Year’s Eve again. He doesn’t even need to check the date on his phone. He’s been awake for thirty seconds, and it’s already painfully obvious he’s back to yesterday, as he has no memory of anything happening after the clock struck midnight.

“What’s wrong?” Henry asks, looking up at him with wide, innocent eyes.

“Nothing,” Sergio grumbles, knowing full well Henry will never understand. “Can you go wake up your Uncle Adrien and send him downstairs? I need to talk to him.”

“Okay!” Henry yells and runs out the door, his thumbs raised high above his head. Sergio waits for the telltaleoofof Adrien being awakened and then slinks out of his own room, tired, defeated, and in desperate need of a cup of coffee.

“Good morning, shithead!” Holden says brightly as Sergio shuffles into the kitchen, tripping over Gus while going straight past Holden and Rose, heading right to the coffeepot.

He pulls it off the warmer before it’s finished brewing and pours himself a cup, chugging it black and piping hot, acknowledging no one in the room. When his cup is empty, he pours himself another one.

“Thanks for pouring me a cup,” Rose says, reaching for it.

Sergio jerks it away. “Oh no, you don’t. Not today.”

“It’s like no one ever taught you to share.”

“We’ve tried,” Adrien says as he enters with Henry hanging upside down from his shoulders. “Some dogs can’t be housebroken.”

Sergio rolls his eyes. “I’m not a dog.”

“Jury is still out on that one.” Adrien laughs.

“Jury is still out on you,” Sergio bites back.

“Now, now, boys,” Holden says, walking between them, his arms laden with food to place on the table. “There’s too much to do today for you two to be fighting.”

“Yes, we have a full day,” Sergio says, annoyed. He puts his cup of coffee down, then holds up his hand and ticks through his fingers as he lists. “We eat breakfast, then we go skiing,” he says, pausing to look directly at Adrien, “which is when Adrien quits on me.” All the color fades from Adrien’s face. “Then after that, we have lunch. Then more skiing. Then I go with Holden to grab Henry from Jeremy and make an ass out of myself. And after that is the New Year’s party where I punch Chadwick Levinson, and this day starts all the fuck over again.”

The room goes silent, and everyone looks at Sergio with varying levels of confusion on their faces. Holden is the first to speak. “Any particular reason you have ‘punch Chadwick Levinson’ on your agenda, mate?”

And that’s when it hits him. Maybe if he can get through today without throwing a punch, he can wake up tomorrow.

“Five!”

Don’t hit him.

“Four!”

Don’t hit him.

“Three!”

You can do this.

“Two!”

Oh, thank God it’s almost over.