"Merry Christmas!" I announced to Emmett, bouncing on his bed.

"Oh my God," he muttered, pulling a pillow on his face.

"Do you think Santa came?" I asked, flopping down on the bed next to him.

"Go back to bed."

"Let's go make pancakes!" I whisper-shouted. "Or cinnamon rolls. Yeah, cinnamon rolls sound better."

Emmett peeked at me from underneath his pillow, letting out a sigh. "You're 17 years old Emily Winston."

"And you're a party pooper Emmett Winston."

"It's 7:00 in the morning," he groaned, rolling over to turn his back on me.

"Which is why it's the perfect time go and check to see if Santa came!"

He let out a groan, smacking me with the pillow he was holding over his face before sitting up. "Did you at least bring me some coffee?"

I handed him a mug of coffee off of his nightstand with a smile.

He grumbled something that sounded like a "thanks" while sipping his coffee and climbing out of bed.

"So we can go check?" I asked, jumping up and down on his bed again.

"Yes," he groaned. "If you shut up we can go check."

I hopped on his back, pecking his cheek. "Yay!"

He laughed, shaking his head. "You're a piece of work, you know that?"

"I've been told."

He finished off his coffee, placing the empty mug on his nightstand as I hopped off of his back.

We made our way out into the living room, and there were indeed presents under the tree.

"Looks like Santa came through," Emmett said, with a laugh.

"Props to Santa," I said, shaking my head.

I did not expect my parents to pull through.

"Are you making me breakfast or what?" Parker asked Emmett, coming out of the back.

"Merry Christmas!" I sang.

"Yeah," he agreed. "It's way too early for this shit."

Emmett laughed. "Better get used to it. Emily gets excited for pretty much every holiday."

Parker gave me a quick kiss before going to pour himself a cup of coffee.

"No," Emmett ordered. "It's too early for that definitely."

"Boyfriends and girlfriends kiss," I informed him, taking a seat on one of the barstools in the kitchen.

"Not at 7 AM they don't," Emmett grumbled, opening the refrigerator and pulling out the cinnamon rolls.

"Where's Lee?" I asked Parker.

"Not quite in the Christmas spirit," Parker answered, dumping some creamer into his coffee.

Emmett clapped Parker on the back, offering him a sympathetic smile before pulling out a pan for the cinnamon rolls.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Lee was the most bubbly and energetic person in this entire apartment. He's the last person I expected to still be in bed on Christmas morning.

Parker took a seat next to me, taking a sip of his coffee. "Lee's bipolar, yeah?"

I nodded in agreement.

"So he suffers from mood swings," Parker explained. "Not always as severe as manic and depressive, but mood swings none the less."

"So how long does it last?" I asked.

"Depends," Parker said, with a shrug. "I've seen this one coming for the past couple of days though."

Parker must really be attuned to Lee's moods, because I hadn't really noticed anything out of the ordinary.

"So do we want to wait for Lee to get out here?" Emmett asked, turning to face us. "Or go ahead and open our stockings?"

"Stockings," Parker and I voted in unison.

Emmett chuckled, but nodded in agreement.

I jumped off my barstool and headed over to the tree, finding my stocking.

There was one for all four us, and then one for each of my parents.

Leave it to my parents to fill their own stockings.

"Your parents are pretty cool," Parker said, taking a seat next to me on the couch.

"Because they buy presents?" I asked, dumping my stocking out on the coffee table. "That just makes them rich."

Parker chuckled, pulling an iTunes gift card out of his stocking. "I don't mind your parents one bit."

My stocking produced a ton of candy, much more than Emmett or Parker, along with gift cards to Victoria's Secret and Forever 21 and a couple more of my favorite clothing stores.

"Now you can't complain about an empty closet," Emmett accused.

"I'll always complain about an empty closet," I teased, opening a Christmas Tree brownie to munch on.

"These things are the shit," Parker informed me, as he opened up his own Christmas Tree brownie.

The timer for the cinnamon rolls went off, and Emmett went to get them, and Parker stood up as well.

He went over to the hallway, sipping on his coffee as he watched Emmett pull the cinnamon rolls out of the oven.

"Lee, breakfast!" Parker called.

"Do you think he'll come?" I asked Parker.

"Oh no," Parker said, shaking his head as he retook his seat next to me on the couch. "Absolutely not. But I did tell him, so when I go and physically drag his ass out of bed in a couple of minutes, he can't say he didn't know."

"There's that Christmas spirit," I teased.

"Speaking of Christmas spirit," Parker said, his eyes flickering around the room. "Where'd that mistletoe go?"

"I took it down!" Emmett called from the kitchen.

Parker chuckled.

"Such the buzzkill!" I called back, rolling my eyes.

"The buzzkill just frosted some cinnamon rolls!" Emmett called back.

"A lovable buzzkill," I corrected, skipping into the kitchen.

Parker disappeared back towards his bedroom.

"What time are mom and dad coming over?" I asked, taking a cinnamon roll for myself.

"Lunch," he answered, taking a cinnamon roll for himself. "We're going to that fancy Italian restaurant on 98."

I opened the refrigerator, pulling out my personal milk carton, one that Parker did not drink out of.

I poured myself a glass of milk before sitting down next to Emmett on one of the barstools.

"Good right?" Emmett asked me.

I took a bite, flashing him a thumbs-up.

"Don't you just feel the Christmas spirit?" Parker's voice asked.

I looked over to see Parker coming back into the kitchen, a grumpy looking Lee in tow.

Lee just rolled his eyes, plopping down on the couch.

"How many cinnamon rolls do you want?" Parker called over to Lee.

Lee didn't answer.

"I'll take that as two," Parker filled in.

I got up from my barstool, going over to Emmett's record collection and locating The Beatles Christmas Album.

"Good choice," Emmett approved, as I plugged it into the record player.

"Now it feels like Christmas."

"A Beatles album and then it's just magically Christmas?" Lee asked, sarcastically.

"It brings some Christmas spirit into the apartment," Parker corrected. "Just like that mistletoe did."

I couldn't help but laugh, shaking my head at him.

It's not even 8 AM and that's the only thing on Parker's mind.

"So am I done here?" Lee asked Parker.

"Well for one you didn't eat a single bite of your breakfast," Parker informed him. "And for two it's Christmas morning. So you have to at least pretend to like us and want to be here."

"Well in case you haven't figured it out, I don't want to be here," Lee informed him, before heading back to Parker's bedroom.

Parker let out a sigh, running his fingers through his hair.

"Teenagers," Emmett said, shaking his head.

"Shut the hell up," Parker muttered.

"It's Christmas, you can't curse on Christmas!" I chastised.

"Let's open presents," Emmett suggested. "Give Lee some time to come around."

"You really think he'll come around?" Parker asked Emmett, raising his eyebrows.

"Not at all," Emmett said, shaking his head. "But you can't force him to enjoy Christmas."

"Well it's really hard for me to enjoy Christmas when he's just back there being miserable," Parker muttered.

I looped my arms around Parker's neck, pecking him on the lips. "You're a good person Parker Adams."

He hummed in disagreement, letting out a sigh.

"Here," I said, handing Parker a present labeled to Lee. "Go."

"What do I even say to him?"

"He's still your brother," Emmett pointed out. "Just a bit more grumpy and unpleasant."

"You'll say the right thing," I promised. "You always do."

~*~

"Merry Christmas darling!" mom said, opening her arms.

"Merry Christmas," I said, giving her a quick hug before stepping away.

"Merry Christmas mom," Emmett greeted, giving her a hug.

"Your father is waiting inside," she said, with a bright smile.

Emmett and I followed her inside and back to our table, where dad was sipping on a wine.

"Merry Christmas," dad greeted, raising his wine at us.

I nodded, taking my seat.

"Merry Christmas dad," Emmett said, going around the table to give dad a quick hug.

I crossed my right leg over my left, taking a sip of the water already waiting for me.

"So is there anything you didn't like?" mom asked, once we were both settled.

We both shook our heads.

"Thank you," I said, offering the two of them a smile. "The presents were great."

Emmett nodded in agreement. "I really needed the record player. Emily pretty much claimed mine as her own."

That was true. Once I got home I overtook his record player and over half of his collection.

"Did you play The Beatles Christmas Album this morning?" dad asked.

We both nodded in agreement.

"Keep that tradition alive," he ordered, before finishing off his glass.

"It's not your tradition," I said, wrinkling my eyebrows.

Emmett gave me a look. I knew I was just supposed to roll with it, let whatever dad said go.

But The Beatles Christmas Album was my thing; I started it when I turned 8.

"I've been doing that since you were, like, 10," dad said, raising his eyebrows at me.

"I started that when I was 8," I informed him. "The first Christmas morning Emmett and I spent alone."

Emmett pressed his lips together as a silence fell over the table.

"That's not true," dad said, shaking his head.

"It is," Emmett defended, with a nod. "Not that it really matters, but Emily fished that album out when we were 8 and trying to fill the silence in the house."

Mom crossed her right leg over her left, clearly uncomfortable.

"We had a really important meeting that morning," dad defended.

"So now you remember?" I asked.

Emmett gave me another look.

"It's not like we left you alone for days when you were 8," dad defended. "It was one morning."

"Christmas morning," I informed him. "And Emmett and I opened our presents alone."

"And if I remember correctly, you got that Barbie dream house you wanted," dad said.

I stared at him in disbelief.

"Do you really think that's what Christmas is about?" I asked.

"Not the middle of the restaurant please," mom said, quietly.

"We gave you everything you ever wanted," dad informed me.

"Except love," I informed him, my temper flaring. "Or attention." I could feel my pulse racing.

"You live the life every child would dream of living," dad defended.

"I would've traded that stupid Barbie dream house and every other thing I got that Christmas, and everyone thereafter for that matter, for my family."

Dad stared at me, dumbfounded.

"I don't care about the Barbie dream house," I continued. "Or the TV, or the iPad, or whatever else was under that stupid tree that morning. All I wanted that morning when I was 8 was for my parents to come through the door to celebrate Christmas morning with me, for us to be a family."

I looked over to Emmett, who was watching me silently.

"And now I realize the only family I can count on is the person that's been by my side since birth."

Emmett offered me a smile before I turned back to face my parents.

"We love you Emily," mom said, her voice shaking.

"Well you have a really odd way of showing it."

"You're acting like a child," dad informed me. "This is your problem Emily. You're immature and selfish."

"That's enough," Emmett ordered.

"Oh I'm sorry dad," I said, my eyes burning into his. "Am I not the perfect daughter you wished for?"

Dad clenched his jaw.

"Because if anyone is the childish one here I think it's you," I continued, the tears brimming. "I remember that day dad."

"That's enough," dad ordered.

"What's she talking about?" mom asked.

"The day that dad told me I was the daughter he never wished for," I said, as a tear rolled down my cheek.

"I didn't mean it like that," dad said, quietly.

"I think that's enough," mom said, standing up.

"I think we should go," Emmett said to me, his voice hard.

I nodded, standing up to follow him out.

"Emily!" dad called after me.

"Oh yeah," I said, turning around to face him. "Merry fucking Christmas dad."

**************************************************************************************************************

So what did you guys think about Emily's excitement over Christmas? What about Emmett & Parker? Which one would you be? And then Lee? What about Emily's parents? More secrets were revealed, did they change your opinion on anything?

The picture off to the right was submitted by FanGirlForver79. Check it out! -->

So I spent all day yesterday editing my new video for my YouTube channel. For those of you who don't know, I have a YouTube channel, knightsrachel. You should check it out :P But yeah, I'll be posting the new video on Friday, so be sure to look for that!

Teaser: New Year's. It's time to party hardy.

Update: Friday or Saturday