💥💥SURPRISE💥💥
I am so very excited because my sister, murphnturf, went on a short story kick last Christmas and wrote a bunch of short stories and has allowed me the greatest honor of sharing them with you!! Woohoo!! I know you are going to love them just as much as I have!! Seriously this short story made me laugh so hard! So be the awesome person I know you to be and show her some love and support!!! Enjoy!!
"Are you serious?!"
Nat gave one last glance up and down the long table covered in food and threw up her free hand in disbelief, nearly dropping her plate of food. She stumbled to recover her balance and nearly ran into the person standing behind her.
She gave him a quick smile in apology, one which he only returned with a glare of contempt and an unspoken plea for her to keep moving. Nat cowarded under his gaze and moved along the table, glancing every which way, trying to find something resembling edible.
"I thought you guys were rich and yet I see no chicken nuggets." Nat muttered under her breath.
She reached for a plain dinner roll in attempts to make her nearly empty plate seem somewhat full and grabbed a napkin at the end of the table before making a beeline for the furtherest corner of the ballroom. She thought she heard an audible sigh coming from the people behind in the line when she left but everyone kept chatting and gathering food when she glanced back.
Only the guy who was standing behind not one minute ago seemed to notice her leaving. Nat made awkward eye contact with him when she realized she was staring and he was glaring. She quickly smiled, again apologizing for her existence and turned back to her quest to find the darkest corner in the largest room she had ever been in. Her faint hope of finding a quiet corner in which to spend the next two hours picking at her dinner were fading as she came near to the end of her second circuit around the ballroom.
She had nearly knocked over the two story tall Christmas tree occupying the center of the room and needed a place to hide fast. Her heart almost leaped out of her chest when she saw small window and window seat in the corner of the room and quickly made her way there before someone stole her sanctuary or she made a bigger fool of herself than she already felt she had.
Her new found hiding space allowed her all anonymity from the rest of the party but turned out to be a great vantage point and she could watch and analyze her fellow guests as she seemed fit without getting found out as the creep she suspected she was.
The room before her was filled to the brim with jewels, gowns, high heels and inflated egos. Seemed like everyone had been in the same sort of accident that had rendered them unable to keep their noses from sticking up in the air. The room was huge. Nat almost fell off her window seat trying to look up at the ceiling but was able to regain her seating without looking like a complete idiot or a dying swan.
"I'm pretty sure my whole apartment could fit in here." Nat muttered to herself.
It was about the tenth time she had found herself doing that, and she said a silent prayer hoping that this wasn't a nervous tic developing and that it was only because she had no one else to talk to.
The room was expertly decorated and there wasn't a single surface in the entire house that Nat had yet to find that didn't have a poinsettia. She had lost count of the red leaf planted and it's mainly manifestations through out the manor once she hit 20 and figured it wasn't worth her time to revel in the excess nature of the houses decorator.
"Seriously, this tree is massive! Where the hell do you even find one if these?"
"Special order from Canada."
Nat did indeed jump and fall out of her seat at the sound of a human voice that was not her own. Someone was actually talking to her. She stood up and came face to face with the fellow who had been glaring at her for holding up the line. His expression had yet to soften and Nat could now see that his green eyes looked almost black in their intensity.
"Oh. Cool."
Nat was unsure of how to respond. She resorted to staring awkwardly back at the man standing behind her. He didn't seemed bothered by it and only came closer. He even handed her a plate of food. She eyed the plate suspiciously as this man's eyes continued to glare down at her.
"Here," he said, gruffly, forcing the plate into her hands.
"Uh, thanks." Nat felt like she had to take it, afraid he might throw a fit if she didn't.
"It's the closest thing they have to chicken nuggets," he replied, running his hand through his hair, his stance remaining rigid.
Nat felt the need to bow and somehow she found herself in between a curtesy and a bow but tried to play it off as just taking her seat again. She was off by a few feet and had to waddle awkwardly to find her window seat again.
When he didn't leave and refused to stop staring at her, Nat looked down at her plate and was pleased to see something that kind of resembled chicken nuggets. She took a bite but then quickly spit back out again, smiling up at her new companion, making some mutterings about it being too hot. His glare continued.
"Do you want to sit?" Nat gestured to the spot next to her and he complied.
"Want some...." Nat looked at her plate of something breaded and fried, holding it out as a piece offering, hoping to calm the deep furrow that now seemed a permanent fixture on his forehead.
"It's shrimp."
"Oh." Nat made a mental to note to throw away that plate of dead little fish the next time she got a moment to herself.
Fish just freaked the crap out of her. No way was she going to eat any more, even if it was the only thing that resembled chicken nuggets.
Nat turned away from the guy sitting next to her and placed her new plate on top of her old one strewn with picked at dinner rolls, both going on the ground near her feet.
She muttered to herself as she straightened back up, wiping her hands on a napkin in an attempt to remove the fish stank, "Seriously, who doesn't have chicken nuggets at a Christmas party?"
"You know Martha wouldn't never allow such food here."
Nat turned around again, her face burning as she realized she had spoken her query out loud. She took a big gulp and tried to play it cool, her mouth spreading in the biggest smile she could manage.
"I assume you're talking about the hostess?" Nat asked.
"Of course, who else? I don't know another Martha at this party, do you?" His tone was challenging and his forehead was still as tight and focused as ever.
"Not really. Actually I don't know anyone at this party."
"Really?" He said, incredulously, staring at Nat as if she had suddenly started speaking pig Latin, fluently.
"No, not really. I mean, it's my dads house and his party I guess. But I only met Martha yesterday, so..."
"Ha. Funny, Cat." He huffed and turned his attention out to the party continuing in front of them. He took a long sip from his champagne flute and leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees.
Nat stared at him for a moment, then shook her head to make sure her ears were working properly and hadn't shut down for no reason or from a lack of use since this guy sitting next to her was the first person she had actually had a conversation with in awhile.
He didn't seem to realize his mistake and just continued to stare out at the party. But Nat had never met this guy before so how was he suppose to even know her name?
Nat decided awkward silence and complete compliance to whatever this guy thought her name was the best course of action and sat back in her seat.
"So what? You're not gonna say anything?" He asked, breaking the silence that had descended upon them. His eyes glowed dark and angry in the soft light of the ballroom.
Nat felt at a loss for words as she had never met anyone so upset that she didn't comment on the party going on around them.
"Uh, I like the poinsettias." This was the only thing she could think of that sounded like a compliment. She did like poinsettias. Not in the extreme that had been used to decorate the room around her, but still, she felt like she wasn't totally lying. Everything else about the party was everything Nat hated about the holidays.
"What's that suppose to mean?" He had turned his eyes back on her. Nat found herself cowering under them once again.
"I think they're pretty?" Nat wasn't sure what this guy expected of her. "I hope you're not allergic cause that would suck. You can't take two steps in this place without running into one."
"You think this is a joke?" He asked.
"No. I think all allergies are very serious," Nat asked, her confusion only rising with his temper.
"This isn't funny, Cat. I don't see you for a whole year. You ignore my texts, you divert my calls but you have the nerve to show up here, looking like that and act like nothing happened!"
Nat froze, her eyes locked on his and her shoulders nearly reaching her ears in awkwardness. What the hell was this guy on?
"Well, aren't you gonna say something?" He nearly yelled at her.
Nat gulped and tried to regain use of her tongue and brain. Yeah, this dude was clearly disturbed. Maybe letting him think my name was Cat was a wrong idea, Nat thought to her self.
"Um..." Nat stammered.
"You really have nothing to say." He shook his head, incredulous and as mad as ever.
"My names not Cat."
The furrow disappeared. He sat back in his seat and looked Nat over, confusion replacing frustration as his primary expression.
Nat leaned forward so he could see better, the light from the chandelier hanging above illuminating her face.
"You're not..." Now he seemed to be the one lost for words.
"I don't think so." Nat said, shrugging, relieved to no longer be interrogated.
"But..." His tongue seemed to have run off without him as he merely stared in disbelief and embarrassment as Nat smiled up at him.
"Who do you think I am?" Nat asked, curious as to who made this guy so mad.
"You're not Catherine?" He finally managed to pull together a coherent thought.
"Nope. The names Natalie." Nat extended her hand as a sign of friendship and that there were no hard feelings for being yelled at for the last 15 minutes.
The guy took her hand and shook it, a shake surprisingly weak for some one of his demeanor. Nat would have guessed he had been taught how to proper shake someone's hand the minute he learned how to walk. It's a sure sign of a proper business man, as her dad always said.
He just continued to stare at her in shock.
"You're not Cat." He said.
"Nope. Never have been, never will be. You're probably mistaking me for my sister. Tall? Long dark hair? Thinks she's God's gift to all of man kind?" Nat asked, leaning forward to help him put the pieces together.
This hadn't happened to Nat in a long time, but the look of confusion and bewilderment remained the same. Yup, it all made sense now. Timmy Matthews in 10th grade was the last encounter of this kind Nat had ever had and had almost forgotten just how much her and her older sister looked. It never helped that their nicknames were so close. Nat personally blamed her mother for that one. But since it was her mother's only flaw in a lifetime of sainthood, she had let it go ages ago.
Nat and Catherine hadn't even been in the same place to get their identities confused in years.
The guy came back to reality and seemed like gravity had just fallen out from beneath him. His forehead had finally returned to its natural wrinkle free state and Nat could see that his eyes actually had the ability to not burn in hatred and actually to have a nice green tint to them.
"You're not Cat." He muttered, as if saying it out loud would help him come to terms with reality.
"Nope." Nat knew the drill now.
She just sat back and gave him space to realize what was going on. After he stared out into space for about five minutes and Nat just watched the people around the continuing to enjoy the party, he sat back in his seat and leaned against the window.
"You're not Cat."
"Nope." Nat just took a sip of her water, happy she wasn't Cat.
"Who are you?" He asked, turning his eyes towards her.
"Nat."
"Oh."
"I don't know where Cat is." Nat replied, anticipating his next question.
"Oh." He replied, dejectedly. "I didn't realize Cat had a sister."
"Most people don't."
Silence fell between them and their gaze fell out to the people before them.
"So that's why you don't know who anyone is." He said, Nat's words from earlier finally catching up to him.
"Yup."
Silence again.
"That includes you, by the way. I'm fine getting yelled at by strangers. Seems to happen on a daily basis sometimes. But most people don't yell at me then continue to hang out with me."
"Oh right! Sorry!" He sat up and turned towards her, leaning forward. He held his hand out to her again.
"The names Daniel."
Nat took his hand and shook it. It was firmer this time and more confident. He even smiled at her, a complete turnaround from his demeanor not 10 minutes before.
"It's nice to meet you, Daniel. I'm sorry my sister's such a hoe."
Daniels mouth twisted up in a smile as his eyebrows raised in surprised.
"You're used to random guys coming up and yelling at you, mistaking you for your sister who probably strung them along until she dumped them for no reason?"
"It happens to more people than you would think. It just hasn't happen to me in a long time. Cat and I haven't even spoken in years, let alone be in the position where we could be mistaken for each other. It's a nice Christmas tradition. I hadn't really missed it all that much but it's good to partake in a bit of nostalgia every now and again. You've given me my dose for the day and for that I thank you." Nat saluted him and gave a little bow, regretting it immediately. Daniel's expression remained amused and silence fell as he stared down at her, laughter in his eyes.
Nat felt her cheeks burn under his gaze and was about to make some random comment on the state of the Christmas season and all the nonsense now tied to a random day in December but Daniel spoke before she could.
"This used to be a Christmas tradition for you?" He asked.
"Of course. Happened every year, without fail, from about 5th grade until my sophomore year of high school."
"Why? What's so special about Christmas?" Daniel leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, fully interested into what Nat had to say.
"Well, it was the one place all the sons of my dad's business partners were bound to be in the same place as me and my sister. And every year, there was one lucky guy who got to kiss her under the mistletoe and another who got the the chance the year before and was pissed to be replaced. It was an endless cycle. I just learned to sit in the corner and try to keep a low profile. The rejects always found me but I let them vent until they realized I wasn't Cat and that Cat was already moving on with someone else."
"So while I've been sitting here yelling at you, she's got someone else under the mistletoe." Daniel said.
"Most likely, yeah. Although, I don't even think she's here. Last I heard, she was spending the holidays in Paris with her new older boyfriend. Sorry." Nat shrugged.
"Nah, its fine. It's probably best I don't see her anyways."
"Yeah, you really don't like her, do you?"
"Do you?" Daniel asked.
"No, but she's my older sister, I get to hate her for no reason."
"Make sense." Daniel nodded in agreement and his attention turned back to the party. But a thought seemed to strike and he turned back, pushing the hair dark hair out of his eyes that fallen down.
"Wait, why haven't I seen you before? I would like to think I would have noticed two Cats walking around these Christmas parties."
"Ah, so not only are you going to yell at me on Christmas Eve for breaking your heart, allowing you to release all pent up fury towards my sister, free of charge I might add, you're going to make me dig up my crazy family history?"
"You got anything better to do?" Daniel asked.
Nat shrugged, "Eh, not really." She sat back in her seat and got comfortable, Daniel following suit.
The Christmas music filled the room played on around them, intertwined with the sound of every classic Christmas party ever. Nat and Daniel sat back in their quiet hide away as the party carried on and Nat began to divulge her family history. He was right, Nat didn't have anything better to do. This wasn't her party. This wasn't her scene. This wasn't even her house. It was merely the house of her father and his new wife and they had only sent an invitation out of pity.
Nat still wasn't sure why she had accepted and further yet, why she had shown up. Maybe it was curiosity, the chance to take a peek at her fathers new life without her and her mother too perfect to miss. Maybe it was fate, dragging her to that party, so she could end up at that exact spot, sitting on that exact window seat with that exact person.
As Nat talked and Daniel listened, Nat gave up trying to figure out why she had ended up where she was and was just happy she had gotten there.
After hours of quiet whispers back and forth, Nat was the first one to realize that the party had already ended.
"You should probably go." Nat said, glancing at the time and wincing at the lateness of the hour. She never stayed up that late. Mainly she never found a reason to.
She got up and dragged Daniel to the door. She didn't know who he was related to but she imagine it wouldn't help her already rocky relationship with her dad if he came down to find his estranged daughter up late with the son of one of his business partners.
"Wait." Daniel paused, half his body already out the door.
"You need to go. Now."
"Not yet."
Daniel leaned down and kissed Nat, his arms slowly wrapping themselves around her waist. It was shorter than she would have liked but just as sweet as it needed to be.
He pulled away and stared down at her, Nat finding herself once again at a loss for words.
"Can't fight tradition." Daniel whispered, gesturing skyward.
Nat looked up to find a nest of mistletoe hanging above the doorway and for the first time all night, Nat was grateful for the eccentric tendencies of her stepmother's decorator. The poinsettias were a bit over blown but Nat knew there was never enough mistletoe at these things.
Nat glanced back down at Daniel as he started to pull away. She gave a wink, blew him a kiss and whispered, "Merry Christmas." Before the shutting the door and kicking him out into the night.
**
😂😂😂😂
Don't you just love her?!? Both my sister's writing and Nat!! She's hilarious!! I think my favorite line is about the chicken nuggets, I die every time!! It's so brilliant!!
What did you think?? Do you ever feel out of place like Nat??
Vote, comment, follow! Share the love with my sister!!