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She storms off, up the stairs to her room, slamming her door shut.
“I need to leave.” Nova runs off.
“Nova, wait!” I run after her, following her to the basement.
She stops at the door to her room, gasping when she sees the tree. It’s about four feet fall and decorated with sparkly white lights and pink and silver ornaments.
“I told you,” I say, pulling her into my arms.
Her back is to me, her gaze on the tree. “I can’t believe she did this,” Nova whispers. “For me.”
“You’re like part of the family now, and everyone in the family gets a tree.”
“But I’m not. I’m not… part of your family.”
“Do you like it?”
“I love it.”
I turn her around and see tears going down her face. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
“Because I have to go. I can’t stay here. I’m ruining your family.”
“You’re not ruining anything. What are you talking about?”
“You all got along before I showed up. You had a perfect family, and I ruined it.
“Nova, stop it.” I lean down to her, my hands on her shoulders, my eyes locked on hers. “I didn’t have a perfect family. I had a family who lied about who I was and where I came from, who made me be someone I wasn’t, and who took me away from the person I love most in the world. We might’ve looked perfect to other people, but we weren’t. Having you come into our lives just exposed how messed up we are. My dad only cares about himself and his job. My mom is pretending to be happy when she’s not. Jenna’s a selfish brat who will do anything for attention. And I was living a lie to make my parents happy. Does that sound like a perfect family?”
“I’m just making things worse. I can’t stay here, Easton. I have to go.”
“Go where? Live in your car and freeze to death? I’m not letting you do that.” I hug her to my chest. “You’re not leaving. And none of what’s happening with my family is your fault. Things needed to change. We weren’t happy. We were all just pretending to be. If you left now, things wouldn’t get better. My family is broken, and you leaving isn’t going to fix that.” I turn her toward the tree and hold her against my chest. “My mom went to a lot of work to decorate that. If you left, there’d be no one here to appreciate it.”
“I feel really bad for your mom. She’s trying so hard to make everyone happy and things just keep getting worse.”
“But that isn’t because of you. I think my parents have had issues for a long time. They just tried to hide it. Maybe this fight they’re having will force them to work out whatever it is that’s wrong. Why don’t we go up and finish the tree?”
Nova follows me back upstairs. I hope I convinced her to stay, but I don’t know if I did. When she gets an idea in her head, it’s hard to change it. If she really believes she’s the reason my family is fighting, she’ll take off and I may never see her again. She better not do that. I might have to steal her keys so she doesn’t.
“Would you two like some cookies?” my mom asks, bringing us a tray of sugar cookies.
“Sure.” I take one. “Thanks, Mom.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Nova says, taking a cookie.
“I’ll just leave them here.” She sets the tray on the coffee table and heads back to the kitchen.
“Aren’t you going to help with the tree?” Nova asks.
She turns back. “I’ll just let you two do it. I’m sure Easton doesn’t want his mom here, getting all sentimental about the ornaments.” She laughs, but looks sad.
“Are you kidding?” I say. “Your stories are my favorite part. And Nova’s never heard this stuff. Tell her about this one.” I hold up the tree ornament I made at camp using twigs and red yarn.
My mom smiles. “I love that one.
“Before you tell me,” Nova says, “thanks for putting a tree in my room. I love it, but you didn’t have to do it.”
“It was no trouble. And I didn’t want you missing out. Everyone gets a tree in their room. We’ve had that tradition since our first Christmas with Easton.”
