A Tight Call

Mark's POV

"Merry Christmas Mom!" I greeted her, placing my gift for her in front of her face. I'm excited for my gift for mom because I made it myself. It's a chain necklace with a clover leaf shaped piece of wood. I sculped the pendant myself. I want her to be reminded how lucky I am to have a mother like her. One of the things I learned in Clay's situation right now is to show your mom how much you love her right now and don't wait for fate to let you realize you are late to do it so.

Of course, there's still a chance for Clay's mom to recover and we cling to that hope, also you don't have to experience the situation or let someone go through that situation to realize it. As soon as your mind can process the weight of the situation relevant enough, Act what's best. Anticipation is one of the vital keys for self-improvement. Don't wait until you're in the middle of the situation before you realize what to do. Life doesn't always hand out flyers for lessons to learn. Schools doesn't only consist of preparatory exams; pop quizzes are what we should be prepared for more than those other types that gives you time to study.

After eating, my mom then got back to her room to dress up. It's our tradition to spend Christmas together with Jean's family. We've known each other since childhood and our parents' sort of helped each other raising us. They don't have intriguing feelings for each other, I think. We have been a good family partner which each other. We don't even have to ask permission to enter the house sometimes, but we still practice it most of the times. Last Christmas I remembered them dancing in the house because they are so drunk, they didn't sleep together though. We wouldn't want to see that with our own eyes. Last year's Christmas was fun and I hope this year's will also be.

Jean's POV

We, me and my dad, ate breakfast. He did the cooking since I did not have that talent off him. He made a deep buttered beef, he called it steak, but I don't. he literally just seasons the meat a bit then added a bunch of butter and garlic then served to me. Is that how you cook steaks? I have no idea, but I will call it deep buttered beef anyway. It tastes amazing. It always tastes like it. My dad is one of the best cooks I know, not that I know many of them. After eating breakfast, I got back to my room and once again take a look at the presents I had. Presents I accepted, mom's gift not counted. I do not like to even read from the pages of that damn book. I will not let my self understand her situation with out her understanding what I've been through with out her. From the sight of it, she doesn't even look like someone who regretted leaving her own family. It's like she built this family as trial and error the ending up finding another breeder. To think of it now, I didn't even know if she had a son or a daughter with Clay's father.

I was signaled to go back downstairs with Mark's shout. It was sort of our culture to spend most of the holidays with them since our parents sees us to be the stickiest best friends when we were kids. And since we do not have anyone to spend special occasions with, our parents are cool with us. I wore the necklace he gave me to sign him that I liked his gift for me. I touched the pendant and remembered what his letter told me, to guard my heart. To guard it. I know for a fact that he knows me very well but to guard my heart? Guard it from whom? Or where? But I couldn't care less of it right now. I appreciate the concern, I really do.

I get out of my room and crawled down the stairs. "Merry Christmas, you freaky little blonde girl" Mark greeted me as I approach him with arms wide open. He hugged me, "Merry Christmas" I greeted him back. I immediately smell the fragrant I gave him, it's really for mark. He then looked at my neck and smiled when he saw the necklace. We broke the hug, "Merry Christmas Gretchen" I greeted his mother and she hugged me and muttered a Merry Christmas to me. I also heard Mark greeted my Father but I don't think they hugged.

We then sat on our seats and started helping ourselves from food both our parents prepared for us. Mark's Mom brought Salad and other food like Spaghetti and Chicken while my Dad prepared His home-made drink of veggies, not a smoothie though. They are those leafy vegetable, I don't know the name, which he boiled with water and brings violet hue then he added some fresh lemon juice and sugar. It's tasty. It may look so weird but trust me, it tastes so good when served cold. He also made a dish, which of course I don't know the name is, but I call it as 'Sweet Meat'. "Hey Mark! try Dad" Sweet meat, it's so good" I offered him. They all then laughed and I felt so outcast for a moment, why are they laughing? "What?" I asked looking alternately at the three of them. "It's called Ham, Jean" Mark said then continued laughing. Oh, so that's what it's called. Now I feel like a caveman. "Well it doesn't look like what Normal ham looks like" I argued while eating. "Mark because it's Home-made" Mark replied. We really did take our time eating since we don't have anything else to spend the day with.

Before I could even argue more, my phone rang. I then excused my self from the table to fetch my phone from my room. The ringing stopped when i got up but I decided to fetch my phone. It's either Lynn or Clay who would call to be honest, they are the only contacts I have, cancelling out everyone who's in the house. I opened my phone and saw a missed call from Lynn and a text message from Clay. I opened the message, it says "Mom's awake!"

My head was tumbling around. All I knew after reading the text message was that I was screaming out of my room. "Mark! Mrs. Jordan is awake!" I exclaimed repetitively. I then saw Mark dropped his fork with Ham on it then started shouting too. "IS she really? When?" he asked. Happiness tattooed in both our faces. Our parents looked so taken aback about our sudden behavior, more like curios to be honest. I then explained them, "Clay's Mom's awake!" I said to Dad and Gretchen, then they also celebrated with us. After some dancing around in excitement, our parents let us go to Clay's House. I called Lynn back, it's why she probably called me in the first place, while Mark get his phone in his room from their house.

After like a minute of waiting outside Mark's house when he got his phone, Lynn came. Still on her Christmas dress that looks so fancy, we got inside her car. She looks so elite and well-mannered. She wore an extraordinary amount of happiness, happier than us. She looks like someone finally getting their biggest dream. I couldn't care less why she had been extra jolly right now; she then drove back the road and head straight to Clay's House. My Dad and Mark's Mom waving their hands outside our house shouting, "Greet Clay and his mom for us!" then gestured a flying kiss. We sat off faster than normal because of excitement. "Clay must be ecstatic right now" Lynn said with still a smile on her face. "Yeah well, we all are ecstatic when we got the news!" Mark replied. "I couldn't argue, my gift will not win for the best present but it's so fine!" I added. I turned my gaze on the road, which weirdly looks so jolly right now even without so many people outside. The sun even has a medium heat, like they also are celebrating Christmas. The leaves from the trees fall gracefully to ground and landed so softly. The birds' twitting felt like paradise whispering in my ears. Everything I see turns out to be so positive and fun. All positive. I can't think of anything that could ruin this day, not even my own mom. We parked ate Clay's front and the thought of mine, that no one can ruin this day was immediately taken away from me. Clay was red in the eyes and His dad was also there, with an old lady in a wheelchair.

"Clay!" Lynn blurted out which gave the old lady a fright. Clay then hugged Lynn. We, Mark and I, followed their hugs before I go ballistic with unrightful emotions. House still plain and literally looks like how we left it last night, I turned my gaze to the old lady. "Lynn, Mark, Jean this is my Grand-mother." Now that he said it, I quickly saw a deep resemblance of her with Clay's Mom, they both have the same radiant smile which seems to never fail. I smiled back at her. The doctor then came out of the room and Clay quickly ran through his direction. The doctor then tapped Clay at the shoulder with a neutral face. "Is she going to wake up already" Clay asked with deep concern. We all became silent. All eyes fixed to the both of them. The doctor's face still in a neutral face, our hearts pounding. I could hear mine beating so loud, if mark will take a step closer, he'll probably notice the beats in my chest. The doctor sighed and looked down. "That's a tight call, Merry Christmas Clay" then the doctor beamed a smile and let us all inside.