Work Text:
Kieran
I hated holiday season at the bar, work was busy, kind of rowdy, people getting worked up with either excitement, anger, or heartbreak; it was too much to be around. Anyway that's all I can really say in my own defense.
I came home from my shift feeling too stressed to be tired despite my aching legs and shoulders. I collapsed on the couch and decided to draw until I chilled out.
In too short an amount of time Mason approached, already talking without even giving me a chance to take out my earbuds, I removed one without looking at him,
"–that family thing tomorrow, my siblings want–" my pencil tip was annoying me, had to look around for the sharpener that got lost in the cushion,
"–for the photos –" where the hell is it,
"–I want to leave at like 10 so–" please don't tell me I have to get up,
"–is that ok?" I found the sharpener.
"Uh ok, sure. Whatever."
"Oh? Alright then. Cool." He walked away finally, possibly noticing that I was too engrossed in my relaxing ritual to have any further conversation.
I woke up the next morning to the sound of Mason and Blake talking, I'd slept late, Cella was probably already at work. I stayed in bed for a few more minutes before getting dressed and going out.
"Oh, speak of the vampire!" Mason greeted me.
"What?" Blake chuckled at him,
"The phrase is: speak of the devil, Mason."
"Hm, my bad." He said cheekily, how obnoxiously careless, I gave him a look but he acted unaffected,
"I was just telling Blake I might have to wake you up, it's almost time to go."
Go where? My mind raced to find any relevant information from the evening before that might remind me where it was we were supposed to be going, Mason obviously seemed to think I already knew and I didn't want to sound stupid by asking. I was coming up with nothing though and hoped I could bluff my way into finding out without him knowing I'd ever been lost.
Thankfully he started taking again,
"Sorry, I might have forgot to say, you can't wear black jeans, we all have to match, it's blue jeans plain black tee. So just change your jeans and you're good to go."
My plan failed, no way I could bluff this, matching? What the hell was going on?
"What." I demanded in a flate tone.
"Well, that's the idea."
"What exactly is the idea?"
"Matching? It's what most families do for professional photos." I didn't like where this was going.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Mason's expression changed to one of irritation as he realized that I didn't know what I was supposed to know,
"The silly family photo shoot that you said you would come to."
"When did I agree to that!?" I had to get out of this.
"Uh, last night when I told you about it!" He raised his voice slightly.
"I don't even remember that! What did I say?"
"You said, 'yeah sure, whatever."
That does sound like what I would say if I wasn't listening.
"Did you just say, 'silly photoshoot'? What even is that?"
Mason smiled then, taking pleasure in my dismay, he leaned back and folded his arms.
"It's a group photo," he spoke slowly drawing it out, "Of awkward, goofy poses." I couldn't even bring myself to imagine what that would entail.
"No. Absolutely not. You got me fucked up if you think I'm going to that." Mason scowled at me while Blake seemed very interested in the wood grain of the dining table.
"You already said yes."
"Bullshit! There's no way you didn't know I was distracted, I would never agree to something like this."
"If I knew or not is irrelevant, not my problem. Maybe this will teach you a lesson about ignoring me when I'm talking to you. I'm going to start the car."
"I'm not coming."
"You will. Because you want my family to like you, so that there won't be a weird tug-of-war situation everytime it's my birthday." He calmly got up and walked out the door with the car keys.
I had a bad feeling I was losing this argument.
I didn't really want to spend winter break arguing with Mason, this was the kind of thing that he would get petty about, 'not keeping your word' he would call it. I figured if I showed up I could avoid him getting too angry with me and then I could maybe sit on the side and not participate.
It was a weak plan.
I went down to the car without changing my clothes, the only way I could think of to maintain any dignity. He looked at me with eyes narrowed in annoyance as I got into the car.
"Just have to be uncooperative I see."
I gave him a look to say that he was lucky I was in the car at all.
We arrived at a tiny strip mall photography studio, I was filled with dread already. What kind of sick, disgusting hallmark shit was this? We walked in to see a very cheesy Christmas themed back drop, giant gift wrapped box sculptures on one side, snowman sculpture on the other, evergreens with red bows in the back drop.
Heinous.
“Mason, you cannot be serious?" I whispered with horror. He only grinned,
"Welcome to the family."
"No." I said through gritted teeth.
All four of Mason's siblings were already there, standing in a group chatting happily and easily.
"Oh great!" His sister, Sylvie, said,
"I'll tell the photographer we're ready to start!"
The photographer came out then, a short woman with an overly friendly and bubbly attitude that made things worse.
"Alright, let's look at a few inspiration shots before we get started."
She pulled up a portfolio of photos that sent a chill down my spine. Not one pose with people standing at a respectable distance from each other, on the contrary, most of them had the participants touching, contorted together like an upsetting crossover of yoga and twister. Mason's brothers were already laughing, pointing out which ones they wanted to do. I was beginning to panic, I grabbed Mason by the arm and pulled him away.
"Please do not make me do this! How am I the only one uncomfortable with this? Are your siblings going to put their hands on me? I'm not even married to you, I shouldn't have to be included!"
"Calm down, don't be so dramatic. Of course you're included, we're mates, everyone knows we won't be breaking up... Again." He threw that last part in to guilt me, I knew it.
"What are these pictures even for? I don't understand the purpose of this!" He looked at me slightly confused,
"For a keepsake gift obviously. For my parents. We're going to print a little album of them and probably pick one to frame."
"I'm sorry. Why the fuck would your parents want me in the photos then? They don't care about me! Just their kids can be in it then, right?" My voice was pathetically desperate.
"Do you not know what being part of a family means?"
"I could ask you the same question honestly, this is so bizarre!" He shook his head to signify that he was done arguing and dragged me back to the group.
The photographer turned to me with an exaggerated frown, I was petrified to have her direct attention,
"Oh no, only one of you isn't wearing blue jeans. That's ok, we can just have you in the center of the photos then." She gave me a big fake smile. I wished her dead right there as I turned to Mason with terror. He was smiling wickedly. I looked at the others hoping to find a sympathetic face but only saw childish amusement in their eyes.
This was officially a nightmare.
"Alright everyone!" She clapped her hands,
"Let's start with something easy, we'll have you all sit on the ground for the train, let's do birth order with the significant others in front, spread your legs as wide as you can whoever is at the back and you'll all have to scoot as close to the person in front of you as you can so you'll fit in one frame!"
Spread your legs- close as you can......
An unrecoverable part of me died as I sat on the ground, Mason scooted right behind me like this was a normal thing to do, his brother Colton sat in between my legs in front of me, looking over his shoulder he joked,
"Alright buddy, that's close enough. I'm not the gay one."
I couldn't reply. I couldn't smile like everyone else. I looked at the camera with an unfocused gaze, consumed with imagining what this photo was going to look like. I think I was having an out of body experience.
"Okay, let's do one of those Baroque style ones. We'll have Black Jeans stand in the center, then some of you can sit by his feet looking up, and a few of you can kneel on the left and right of him reaching out."
No. They're going to touch me. Fucking hell.
"How about a head stacking one? Let's try sidewise heads so, cheek to cheek, you'll have to angle your bodies to fit in as the stack gets taller!
"Ok, next we're doing a double row, split in pairs and one of you sit on the other's shoulders!"
"Well well well, Mason," the oldest brother, Liam looked at us with a criminal smirk that made Mason's look tame,
"Which one of you will be on top I wonder?"
I must have died in my sleep last night. Surely this was hell. Mason only shrugged,
"That's always the question isn't it." I choked on my own air.
After that one I told Mason work was calling me and I stepped outside hoping they would continue without me.
When I came back in Mason swiftly cornered me and took both my hands,
"I'm so grateful that you did this with us. Truly kinder than I expected."
He had a suspicious glint in his eye. I opened my mouth to reply but Mason suddenly pulled a trick, he tightened his grip on my hands threateningly, then raised my arms over my head and crossed our arms, painfully, until I was forced to rotate my body to uncross. He did the same, landing us back to back with him holding my hands in a death grip.
"Say cheese." He chuckled. To my horror I realized it was a calculated move. The photographer was waiting.
Flash.
Humiliation.
I would surely murder him for this.
At the end she let them look at a couple previews on the camera display before we left. I took a slight, grim satisfaction to see that I had basically ruined them. Not one with a smile from me and always a look in my eye that was crying for help. That would show Mason a thing or two about pressuring me into things.
"These are great!" Sylvie laughed,"Kieran's face is perfect." I stared at her. They really did think this was funny.
"Alright. That's enough for me." I walked away from them, especially Mason, and went to the car.
When Mason finally came out I didn't want to unlock the doors for him right away, it ended up being more of a punishment to myself though as he stood there jiggling the door handle rapidly until I got irritated enough to let him in.
"Almost ready to go babe!" He said cheerfully diving toward me, and then passed me as he reached for the button to pop the trunk.
"What now!?" I shouted.
I jumped out to see the youngest brother, Drew, previously my favorite, stuffing the pieces of a Christmas tree into the back of my car.
"Drew?"
"I'm sorry, Kieran! Mason asked me to bring it." He winced, "Good luck and, use scissors if you can." Then he hurried away from the scene of the crime.
I didn't actually hate the idea of having a tree in the apartment, but I was suspicious of this particular exchange.
The second warning was when we tried to get the thing out, there was a tangle of cords connecting everything, like stubborn ligaments preventing the severed pieces from fully separating. Mason tried to hurry up the narrow slippery carpeted stairs with only one piece as I struggled and tripped over the two I had, the cords straining dangerously. I shouted at him,
"Will you slow down! It's going to rip!"
"Why are you struggling so much? Keep up!"
"Watch it!" I shouted with heated aggravation as a cord got caught on the hand railing jerking my arm backward.
When the tree was finally inside, Mason plopped it right in the center of the room, and attached the pieces. The sight was horrific, this tree was an abuse survivor, it's branches twisted and deformed making some kind of lumpy mummified silhouette, the lights were frenzied, spiraled around but also up and down, crisscrossing and displaying tags and plugs in all their glory.
"Why does it look so bad?" I frowned. I'd always had a curiosity about Christmas and it's extravagancies, a master class of overindulgency. But the only feeling this tree evoked was pity.
"Well it has to be fluffed out you know."
"I can't wait to see how you manage that."
"Actually," he batted his eyes at me and my recently departed aggravation returned, "I think you would be so good at that job."
"Why?" I narrowed my eyes, "I've never decorated a tree before."
"It's just that it takes a certain competency, an artistic eye, you know what trees should look like don't you?"
This certainly didn't look anything like a tree that's for sure.
"Don't you want to help it?" Mason rubbed my shoulder.
"If we just unwrap the cocoon of plastic cords I think it will easily improve." I said, not able to stop myself from wanting to fix this disaster, it would probably be quick work.
An hour later I found myself in a desperate battle with the evergreen beast, plastic 2D pine needles littered the floor, clinging to my clothes and skin, my fingers were becoming raw from the scratching of the tree as I clawed at the strangle hold of cords. The wires were alive, unruly demonic tendrils with murderous minds of their own. It took hours to decipher where one ended and another began, they were strewn around the ground, occasionally causing me to stumble. Marcella was doing her best to wrangle the ones I had freed, Mason wasn't allowed to breathe in our direction, we were both fed up with his commentary and had banished him from the area.
I let out an angry cry of frustration at the knot I was stuck on, it compressed the tender fronds of the branch like crushed fingers,
"I swear to hell, why does it feel like a serial killer decorated this tree?" Marcella laughed,
"Accurate. It's the BTK tree."
"I don't know what that is."
"Who." She corrected.
"Why do you know a serial killer's name?"
"A girl's gotta be informed, Kieran!"
Once the lights were off I found it a bit relaxing to straighten the branches, it was much more rewarding. When I finished Cella came back to restring the lights in a way that made earthly sense. Mason hazarded poking his head out of the bedroom,
"I haven't heard any shouting in awhile. Does that mean I can come out?"
"Only if you come bearing generous praise." Marcella replied. He came over and stood next to me to admire our work.
"Wow, it looks like a real Christmas tree again! No one thought it could be done!"
"What do you mean 'no one'?"
"My family called this the Mason special, it hasn't left the basement in a decade." Cella popped out from behind the tree and chucked a plastic ornament at his head.
"You're such a jerk." I sighed, too exhausted to give him the reproach he deserved.
We all crammed onto the couch to admire the tree, the others drinking from mugs of nauseatingly sweet hot cocoa that Blake had made. It was cheerful after all, twinkling in the corner and lighting the whole room with a warm yellow glow.
"Well, was it worth it?" Mason asked, leaning over to kiss me on the cheek.
"I don't know. I thought this holiday was supposed to be fun? It's actually like... Torture?"
"Yeah. It is. Wait until you see the list of things we have to do before we can show up at my families party tomorrow. And how crowded the stores will be. And how expensive everything is-"
"Can you stop talking?"
"One more thing?"
"What?"
"I love you."