Aedan's Story - 14. Chapter 14: Hillbilly Holidays

December 24 2017

Alcorn, Tennessee

I was outside playing in the snow with my cousins. There was a nice hill for sledding in the park across the street from Gran's house. Gran is my great grandma. The grandma of both my parents. She had recently turned 80 years old and a lot of my extended family lived in Alcorn and so Christmas was spent here most years. Last Christmas we spent in the townhouse up in Connecticut, as we had just moved in and couldn't afford a trip. When I lived in Tennessee, we lived in nearby Turtle Creek, about 30 minutes away by car. Growing up, we came to Alcorn to visit several times a year. And the area was beautiful, and on the edge of the Smoky Mountains National Park. Being in the mountains meant the winters were quite snowy and cold, compared to the mild winters of the rest of the Southeastern states. I was with my younger cousin, Harper, who's 11, and her older brother, Henry, who's 14.

Sledding here was much more fun here than back in Connecticut. Bigger hills and such. There's skiing and snowboarding here too, but I never tried it because it was always outside of our tighter budget.

I sat in the saucer shaped sled and Henry gave me a shove. He was older than me by six months but we were about the same height. Towards the bottom of the hill, River was making a big snowman with Harper and I realized I was on a collision course with their snowman. As my brother put a carrot in for the nose, I shouted out "watch out!" River jumped out of the way, landing in the soft snow with a somersault. My sled hit the snowman and I went flying and landed in the snow six feet away. I landed on my back, so the wind was knocked out of me.

"Jeez..." I muttered.

"You okay, bro?" River walked over and offered to help me up. I shook my head and continued to lay there to catch my breath.

"YOU KILLED THE SNOWMAN RIVER AND I MADE!" Harper whined in a southern accent.

"Um, sorry," I sat up and brushed the snow out of my hair. "It's not like I could steer that thing," I indicated the sled.

"It's okay, I forgive you, cutie," she kissed my forehead. I blushed.

"Um," I blushed even harder when she continued kissing me. Dang... she's only ten, what the fuck? "Get off me!" I shoved her.

"Sorry about that," Henry blushed and helped his little sister up. "She's had a huge crush on you since she was like six," he laughed.

"That's weird... cause she's, like, my cousin..." I was able to stand up now and brush the snow off of my jeans.

"I mean, it's not that weird. I have a crush on Violet..." Henry shrugged and picked up the sled.

"DUDE! You did not need to tell me that," I shut my eyes and shook my head. "You actually like my sister?"

"Yeah, she's kinda hot..." Henry blushed.

"GROSS!" River winced.

"Dude, our sister's a lesbian... she has a girlfriend..." I explained.

"Wait, seriously?" Henry asked, a disgusted look on his face. "Now that's really fuckin' gross..." Henry scoffed. The irony of that. Incest is okay, but being gay isn't... go figure. Redneck logic, I guess. Glad I hadn't come out to any family yet. That's one of the things I liked better about New England. Nobody there cares if you're straight or not.

That night, we got home from Christmas Eve service at the local Baptist church at around 10PM. We're not Catholic, so it's not "Midnight Mass" which would be later in the night when I'd rather be sleeping. Us kids were allowed to open one gift and then head to bed. I opened a gift that was from my Aunt Kelly, my mom's sister. In the wrapping, there was a long sleeve fishing t-shirt and a new pair of basketball shorts, which is perfect because that's what I wear most days. I grabbed the new clothes to put in my suitcase to bring home the next week and grabbed my towel and pajamas to go across the hall and shower when Henry stopped me.

"Yo, Aedan, you wanna play Call of Duty with me?" he asked. Call of Duty was a lot of fun, but I was tired from interacting with family members all day, and what Henry said earlier didn't leave a good impression on me.

"Naw, Henry. I'm tired. Gonna shower and get to bed." I rubbed my eyes. Henry began to protest. "Dude... I'm going to bed. Good night..." I shut the bathroom door and sighed. Getting in the warm shower cleared my head and it was nice to warm up on a cold snowy night.

December 25 2017

In the morning I woke up to early sunlight. I checked my phone. It was 6:30 AM; a time I usually dreaded waking up at, but on Christmas Day, I'm okay with it. I had been sleeping on a futon in the basement with River in a sleeping bag and Henry on the couch in the same room. I groggily sat up and rubbed my face.

"Aedan, you're up?" I heard my brother ask quietly in his morning voice.

"No shit, Sherlock…" I muttered, pushing back the covers. I stood up and adjusted my plaid pajama pants and put my bare feet in my reindeer slippers. "Wanna go open our gifts, bro?" I asked.

"Yeah!" River said enthusiastically.

I reached over and shook Henry. "No…" my older cousin groaned.

"Riv an' I're goin' to open gifts." I said. "You joinin'?"

"Santa didn't come. It's just Paw Paw…"

"It's still fun to open presents, dude," I rolled my eyes.

"I will punch you in the uvula if you don't shut the fuck up…" Henry rolled over in his spot on the couch.

"Suit yerself," I shrugged. "More of them cinnamon rolls for us…"

Upstairs, I saw snow falling outside. It was a white Christmas! The kitchen and living room smelled like cinnamon rolls. I grabbed a couple to eat while River went to wake up mom. Violet was in the kitchen as well, since Harper had annoyingly woken her up. "Mornin' Aedan," Gran said as I was eating. "Ain't you cold? Did'ja sleep all right?"

"Yes, ma'am," I answered, my mouth full of gooey cinnamon roll. "And, uh, no. I ain't cold." I responded, despite the fact I had no shirt on.

My mom entered the living room with River and I finished my cinnamon roll in time to go open gifts. My gift from "Santa Claus", aka Gran and Paw Paw, was a new Lego Star Wars set. I had been getting into the franchise ever since Jake introduced me to it in May, even doing some fanart of some of the memorable scenes and characters. Jake and I would have to build this when I get back. Some of my other gifts under the tree included some new watercolors and colored pencils. I go through those a lot with my artwork. I also did get some more clothes as well from other relatives, as I have outgrown most of my shirts and jeans from a year ago thanks to growth spurts and puberty. Henry came in about an hour into the gift unwrapping, and I eventually decided to get a shirt on 'cause it was getting chilly in the house. The snow was over by early afternoon so I got dressed and went outside to play in the snow again with Harper, River, and Violet. Henry said he wasn't feeling well and stayed in. Probably an excuse to play his stupid Call of Duty game all day, cause he seemed fine. In the late afternoon, a bunch of other family members who lived in the area, including dad's parents, came over for dinner. We had a bunch of pork and ham leftover from the Christmas eve dinner, as the pig Paw Paw had shot the previous week was pretty freakin' huge. For sides, we had mashed potatoes, collard greens, and okra. After dinner, I was so stuffed, so River and I went to go rest in the basement while the adults drank their beer and moonshine (yes, a few of my many relatives distill the stuff. I dunno how it tastes. I ain't allowed to try it, cause I'm only thirteen). I ended up working on drawings in my sketch book, since my stomach hurt, so I couldn't sleep. A bit later in the evening, after River and I took a bath and got into pajamas, I had a little bit of dessert and stayed up until midnight playing some video games on Henry's Nintendo Switch with him.

December 26 2017

Gatlinburg Tennessee

Mom needed some time away from the rest of the family, so she took River, Violet, and I up to Gatlinburg. The town was mobbed with tourists, as usual. We stopped by the mall for a bit to browse as we each had some gift card money to spend from dad's side of the family. They were much poorer, and couldn't afford to give us much, but they felt bad about their son's crimes and abuse, and sent us some gift cards in the mail. We got hot dogs for lunch and River and I got to snow tube at the ski resort for a bit. Before heading back to Alcorn, near Pigeon Forge, we went over to Turtle Creek, our old home town. I got to see the ruins of our old home, a log cabin, for the first time since the fire. I was twelve when it happened and we thankfully evacuated to Gran's house with most of our stuff. It was the cabin Violet and I were born in, as my parents couldn't afford to give birth to us in an actual hospital. Mom was only 24 years old when I was born, and in nursing school. Dad was a few years older and a mechanic. When the cabin burned down in the 2016 Gatlinburg fire, they took the insurance money and moved us away. I used my boots to kick away some of the snow to see what was underneath. It was ash. Charred remains of our home. I managed to take a few pictures with my crappy cell phone before I sat down on the barren, snowy ground and cried.

December 31, 2017

Avalon, Connecticut

Jake, Connor, Vincent, and I were taking turns playing on the Nintendo Switch in Jake's room sitting on the soft carpeted floor. There was a party at the mansion, and there was only a few hours until 2018 was to begin. As I was watching Connor shoot paint on a giant wall in Splatoon 2, I felt my cell phone buzz in the pocket of my jeans.

I pulled it out and pressed the on button to read the text. It was from Nina. "hey aedan i'm outside. can u let me in? can't wai 3" I smiled a bit and stood up.

"You still have one of those lame ass phones?" Vincent asked, referring to my old cell phone I got for Christmas in 2016 when I was 12 years old. It was a Pantech and still had physical buttons.

"Dude, shut up," my voice cracked as I flipped my bangs out of my face. My country accent still hadn't faded from my Christmas visit back to Tennessee. "Those Pear Phones and other smart phones are expensive as hell!" I slipped my phone into my pocket. "Now if y'all'd excuse me, I'm gonna go let my girlfriend inside."

"Mkay," Jake nodded. "Have fun. And ignore Vincent... he's a jerk."

"Shut up..." Vincent playfully kicked Jake in the side. I rolled my eyes as I left the room. I put my sneakers on and walked to the front door where I let Nina in.

"Hey, cutie," she smiled and reached up to kiss my cheek. I helped her get her jacket off as it was very cold and windy outside.

"Hey, Nina. You want any snacks?" She followed me to the kitchen. There were party trays out of fruit, vegetables, crackers, and cheese. We stood in the kitchen and ate for a bit away from the adults who were talking in the living room nearby. I introduced her to my mom and Jake's parents. They knew I had a girlfriend before, of course, but were glad to meet her. I showed her around the house for a bit and then we hung out in my room. I gave her a Christmas gift I had purchased at the mall in Gatlinburg with some of my allowance money from doing chores. It was a pokemon plushy of Pikachu I got from the Nintendo store. The plushy was super cute in my opinion, and Nina really liked it. Nina had gotten me a gift certificate worth 30 bucks at a local art store. They sold paint and art supplies, and had some classes in painting, pottery and sculpture. "Thank you, Nina," I hugged her. I had been to the store before, and it's super cool, so I knew I would enjoy going there more often.

"We have a couple hours now until midnight. What should we do?" Nina asked.

"Well we could snuggle up in my bed and-" Nina gasped and shoved me. I landed on the carpeted floor with a thud. "Ow! You're strong, for a girl..." I sat up and rubbed my arm. "I was gonna say AND WATCH A MOVIE..."

"Oh, sorry," Nina blushed as I got back on the bed. "But I swear... if you try anything stupid... I won't hesitate to do that again."

"Um, yes, ma'am," I rubbed the back of my neck nervously and blushed.

The movie finished on the TV just a few minutes before midnight. Nina and I were laying on my bed on top of the neatly made sheets and blankets, and my right arm was resting around her shoulders and neck. I reached over and kissed her lips. "That was good," I smiled. Nina had pressured me into watching one of the Hunger Games movies. I checked the time on my nightstand. "Woah... it's almost midnight. We can do that midnight kiss thing soon."

"We're a couple so we should do it." Nina smiled. She's so cute...

I used my watch Jake had gotten me for Christmas to time our kiss. Our lips met at midnight as my cheeks blushed a soft pink color. We held it for a while and began making out as fireworks exploded outside.

"Happy New Year, Aedan!" Jake announced, opening the door. Jake, Connor, and Vincent's jaws dropped when they looked into my room to see Nina and I making out.