Welcome to Gaia! ::

The holidays in the past had always been special; simple little things around the house with the large, 10ft live tree in the living room. Colorful decorations and lights mixed in with homemade touches such as the snowflakes on the windows. Things their mother had passed down to them and things Jasper had tried to keep doing with Amelia.

But this year, all of that changed.

Jasper had been not only absent minded but almost physically absent as well. Even when he was home, his clearly wasn’t focused on the things going on around him. His mind was elsewhere and he really didn’t want to discuss it with anyone. Not his father, not his sister, and not even the therapist they had gotten him thinking he was suffering from depression. While the last one might have been true at times, especially around the current Pennington household, he still didn’t care to discuss it.

But lately that had begun to haunt him more. The happiness everyone seemed to be feeling and yet all he felt was…alone.

That might have been why this evening, when he had come in the back door and found the kitchen smelling of baked goods, he had frozen in place. A light sound of Christmas music floated through the hallways wrapping around his frozen heart and luring him farther in. When he had left that morning, everything had been as it normally was. Now…now he found her on a stepstool hanging ribbon at the top of a 14ft white, flocked fake tree.

The house was covered in decorations. Sophisticated knick-knacks that looked as if they belonged in a Hallmark movie took the place of trees made of cardboard tubes. Garland wrapped in snow and white lights rested where a giant Santa and his sack of toys used to on the mantel. She even had a fire going in the fire place with what looked like snacks laid out.

“Oh! Jasper! I didn’t hear you come in.” Annabelle smiled, glancing back over her shoulder at him. Jasper could feel the look of disbelief and shock come over his face when she turned and smiled. “What do you think? You father called me this morning and asked me to surprise you all with it. I’m not completely done yet but I hope you li…”

“How dare you.” Jasper’s fists rolled into balls. He could feel both arms start to shake with as his anger and rage grew. “How. Dare. You.” Jasper couldn’t hold back anymore. He couldn’t contain it. For months, almost a year now, this woman had become nothing more than a pest in their home. And now she had decided to ignore anything about their own family traditions and bring in everything new? “You think just because you were on the team that fixed my arm I…”

He could see the shock cross over her face. Shock that became almost near fear when his voice began to raise. “Jasper, please. Let me explain.”

“NO! You may have gotten to my father but you are NOT welcomed here by myself or my sister. You are not our mother and you will never be our mother. So why don’t you just see yourself out!”

He snapped the last bit, his eyes then catching a photo on the fireplace. It was one of the last images they had as the four of them before their mother passed. Jasper felt his heart sink. Even now Annabelle had placed it in the center of the room.

A place to show honor to the family in it.

God he was a piece of crap.

Not a word was said as he turned on his heel, headed back to the kitchen and out the door. He couldn’t stay there anymore. He was toxic to the entire family…to everyone. They didn’t need him…

How long he had been walking before he had jumped on the bus might have been the better question. Instead Jasper had been asking himself why he kept standing outside of Phedre’s place. He had been there at least 5 minutes, gazing at the exterior as if trying to decide if this was where he should be. Phedre had taken him in without question and yet, just like his family, he felt as if he had done nothing but be a burden to her. And here his wandering had brought him yet again…

Turning to the side, Jasper let his head smack against the tree he leaned on. “You are an idiot.” He mumbled, casting his eyes to the ground. There something caught his eye. A small group of what looked like flowers had sprouted up around the base of the tree. Odd looking little things, almost as if snowflakes themselves had formed the bloom. Stranger yet, they seemed to have a smell that soothed his mind.

My Flower

The nickname he had given Mei before he had known it was her. The memory of the night he had found out slipped into his mind and with it returned the darkness around his heart. Mei…the woman who had taken his heart harder than every other female he had ever laid eyes on. Mei, the queen of his world. Mei, the woman he had told to leave him alone for her own good.

“No, you are a jackass who doesn’t deserve to be happy…” Jasper mumbled, picking his head up and kicking snow atop the little blooms. He was wrong to come here. He was wrong to bother Phedre. She already did so much and yet…

“Jasper?” The female voice made him stop and turn. There, standing in the doorway of her house was a woman that seemed to have become his light. If Mei was his heart, Phedre had become his soul. She had been his strength in the weakest times and even now, he found it rather ironic that the lights behind her gave her an almost angelic like glow.

Turning from his path to leave, Jasper walked up to the door, reached out his hands and threw them around her, taking her into a deep, hard hug. “Don’t ever change Phe.” He whispered into her ear before moving slightly and placing a warm, honest kiss on her lips. Chaste as it may have been, the look on his face when he leaned back might have been the happiest he had been in a long time. “Merry Christmas, my Angel.”

Word: 1071