Page 8 of A Different Kind Of December
“Bloody hell, if I hear that one more time today...”
“Mum reckons we can all have the day off and help her put the trees and the decorations up,” Harry informs his sisters.
“Yeah right,” Tallulah snorts as she talks and laughs at the same time.
“Stop messing with me, what’s really wrong?” Kiki asks.
“He’s serious,” George adds. “Tell them, Mum.”
One pair of blue eyes and four pairs of brown are all on me.
“He’s serious, I thought it’d be nice to have a family day.”
“What, and you’re actually gonna let us touch your trees and decorations?” Lu sounds incredulous as she asks.
I watch Cam roll his top and bottom lips between his teeth, and my hands go to my hips as I start to feel defensive.
“Are you lot all taking the piss outta me?”
They all double up and start laughing, and I feel my nose tingle and eyes burn with tears. I wanna find it funny. I know they’re only joking, but today...today, I’m just not in the mood to be laughed at.
“Babe, we’re not taking the piss, we just know full well that there’s no fucking way you’re gonna let any of us near your trees or your decorations.”
“I’m not that bad.”
“Yes you are,” they all state while still laughing.
I am that bad.
“Well, this year’s different, you can all have a go.”
“Why? So you can change it all as soon as we go to bed like you used to when we were little?” Lu asks.
I did use to do that, I didn’t think they’d noticed.
“Yeah, we knew,” Harry tells me. “We always knew.”
Cam slides his hands around my waist and grins down at me. “Please tell me I’m not a terrible mother.”
His brown eyes twinkle, and he leans in and kisses my forehead. “You’re not a terrible mother, you just suffer with what the kids call CDO.”
They all start to laugh again, I don’t.
“I don’t get it, what’s CDO?” I question.
“It’s like OCD, but you’ve got it so bad that the letters have been rearranged in alphabetical order so you don’t have a meltdown of Georgia proportions,” Lu informs me.
I open my mouth a couple of times.
Fucking cheek. I can’t believe they all talk about me behind my back. I continue to stare up at Cam, whose eyes are watering as he attempts to suppress a laugh.
“Where’d you hear that saying? How’d you even know what a meltdown of Georgia proportions is?”
“Coz Nan says it,” George informs me.
“And Marley and Lennon,” Lu adds.
“And Grandad says it to Lu whenever she starts throwing a tantrum—”
