Christmas is a magical time for everybody. Children around the world await the arrival of good old Santa Clause to bring them gifts upon gifts. For many families, it is a time of reunion. For couples, a time of romance. For children, a time of being spoiled. And for me, a time of wanting to die. Ever since I was little, Christmas has been more than unbearable. Every year, all of my extended family packs into our tiny house to bitch and whine about what terrible lives they have, but what a great Christmas it ought to be. The day before everyone comes, (the day before Christmas Eve,) my dad insists on making the house as spick and spam as possible. It needs to be completely tidy and presentable or else it's like the plague has occurred. This day of decorating and cleaning used to be somewhat enjoyable for my older sister and I, when we were kids. Dad and mom would make it into a privilege rather than a chore. But now it's nothing but a command from my parents. "Macey, clean the bathroom, Ruby, do the dishes." We're not asked to do anything, we're forced. This was so when I was 13 and my sister was 15. Now, I'm 18 and my sister's 20. You'd think living in a house like this would motivate her to get out of here as fast as possible and go to college or something. But... something happened over the years that caused my sister to become... a scum bag. She dropped out of her senior year of high school because she was failing anyway. My dad offered to pay for a FULL RIDE to community college, but she refused. She was much more interested in going out onto the streets of Los Angeles and getting high with someone she probably barely knows. She's missed the last three Christmas Decorating Frenzies because she was either shooting up some drug, having unprotected sex, or was in rehab. This year, my father threatened to kick her out of his house for good if she didn't help decorate and show up for the family get together. Over the years, I took another path other than what my sister did. I've worked hard in school and gotten accepted into college. I'm leaving next Fall, luckily. Until then, I do absolutely whatever I can to make my father happy. I feel bad for his one failure as a daughter, so I feel it's my responsibility to do what I can to keep him alive and pleased. This year, being completely disgusted with my sister, my father demanded my sister do all the household cleaning while him, my mother and I did the decorating. He told my older sister that if she had wanted to decorate the tree with us, then she should have gone to community college. She began to freak out on my dad while he stayed completely calm, waiting for her outburst to end. When it finally did, he told her to get her ass to cleaning or else she'd be spending Christmas on the streets of L.A.
When the house was clean, decorated, and happy, the family began to arrive. My dad made my sister clean herself up, get nicely dressed and present herself to the family as a college-attending, hard-working, driven daughter. He offered her his house to live in with no rent to pay if she went along with said story. If she didn't, he threatened to make her pay rent "out the ass" or to just get out all together. My dad was really good with the threats. I wore a black, long-sleeved, lace shirt and a red skirt with black tights. I wore my black hair down and straight with red lipstick and Santa earrings. Although the family already knew what a "good girl" I was, I wanted to present myself as such, just to reassure them. My sister wore her finest clothing, (including some of mine,) being black skinny jeans, a bulky Santa sweater, and her hair tied back in a pony tail. She only applied a little bit of mascara, even though I offered to do her makeup for her. She claimed to "not need any of that shit" and then told me to fuck off. Her hostility towards me was basically life-threatening.
When the family arrived, my sister and I greeted them in the finely decorated living room. It didn't take a long time for everyone to pile in, exchange hugs and kisses and even some gifts. We all sat down in the living/dining room chit chatting. All was going smoothly until my father came up to my sister and me and asked us a simple favor. "If you girls could please help your mother serve the dinner, it would be greatly appreciated," he whispered. Maybe it was the drugs, or maybe she was just a true bitch, but this made my sister fly off the handle. She went completely nuts! Cursing like a sailor towards my father which effectively silenced the rest of the family and turned all eyes on her. "I'm done pretending with this shit, dad. I don't need you, or this house, or any of your bullshit family." She turned towards the family whose jaws were all dropped at this point. "Fuck all of you, none of you truly love or care about me anyway. You're all worthless." Then she turned to me. "And you. Miss goody-fucking-two-shoes. You think you're something fucking special because you can get 'As' and be a kiss-ass to daddy? You're nothing but a worthless fucking bitch and I am ashamed to call you my sister." She stormed out the front door at that point, leaving everyone in the room in shock. I couldn't help but let out a little chuckle which shocked the family even more. I just couldn't help but find it humorous that my drug/alcohol addicted, sex craving, school-dropout, failure of a sister had just told me she was ashamed of me. And the funniest part was at that moment, it finally felt like Christmas.
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