Page 29 of Brandishing Beginnings

Any chance I can convince you to come home for Christmas?

I had to wait a while for her reply, pacing the living room as Nico pulled out his own phone and began typing.

Kara:

Sorry. It was something I was already planning. Christmas just isn’t the same without Mom. I can’t try and put on a happy face this year. I just want to be alone.

Jason:

I get that, Kare Bear, I really do. But we’d feel better if you at least came home. You can stay at our place.

I threw the offer out, knowing our small apartment was cramped enough as it was. Three small ten by ten bedrooms with a twenty-by-twenty kitchen, living, and dining room. It would be tight, but Kara was family.

Kara:

I’d probably catch a disease from your couch, no thanks.

Jason:

Come on, we aren’tthat bad.

Kara:

Skanks at my mother’s funeral?

Jason:

Ok we are that bad.

I sighed and rubbed a hand over my messy hair. I was trying here.

“She still pissed?” Nico asked.

“Yeah. But she’s talking to me.” I shrugged.

Jason:

I am really sorry though.

Kara:

I know.

Unsure of what else to say after all that, I tossed my phone to the couch and pulled at my hair. I had to think of a way to make shit up to both Maya and Kara.

“Who are you talking to?” I asked, as Nico was fully concentrating on typing on the small keyboard of his cellphone.

“Maya,” he murmured.

I moved around the back of the recliner and read over Nico’s shoulder as he typed out a paragraph to Maya.

Nico:

Hey, just wanted to check in… make sure you’re ok?

Nico:

Maya, I’m so sorry for what happened today at the funeral. We never should have invited those girls. It was a family affair and we should have left it at that. I’m so sorry for alienating you today and not realizing you were sick. We should have taken care of you.