Chapter 5

MCKINLEY P.O.V

This year for Christmas my family all decided that they would come to LA. I was fine with that since my brother also lived here and we would all be able to get together to spend the Holidays together.

I was running around my already clean apartment picking things up. I really didn't need my family coming in and telling me that my life was a mess. My mom, grandmother, and aunt, uncle, and cousin would all be staying with me. Everyone else would be staying in a hotel.

I drove Luke and Michael to the airport yesterday so that they could fly home to see their families so I was in this alone.

My family were all flying in together. Since my grandmother hated flying. She figured that if the plane went down they would all die together. That was the only way to get her on a plane.

I was relaxing in the bath after a long day of entertaining people when Loki and Duke both pushed their way into the bathroom. Since they watched the cat for me when I went away I offered to watch their dogs.

"What do you need?" I asked as Loki stepped into the bathtub with me and plopped herself down. Duke stayed dry out on the bath mat. I grabbed my phone and took a picture of her for Luke. I stood and dried myself off. I got dressed before I washed her and then let the water out of the tub.

Of course trying to drag her out of the tub got me soaked so I needed to change again but at least she had a good time. My family were jut getting back from getting dinner. They insisted I come but I needed some time alone. They were going to be here for a week, that was a very long time and I was the type of person who often needed time to myself.

Audrey was laying in bed with me as we watched Netflix and ate snacks.

"How come you and Luke broke up?" She whispered as if she was afraid to say his name. I sighed before looking at her.

"Just wasn't the right time." I shrugged.

"Did it hurt?"

"Like hell." I whispered. I wasn't over it. No matter how many times I said I was, I wasn't. He was the love of my life and I had lost him. She wrapped her arms around me which made me burst into tears. She held me tighter as I cried. A 12 year old shouldn't have to do that but she did and she loved me and I loved her. And it was okay to show emotion.

"It'll be okay." She commented. "Maybe in the future you can get back together." She added. I wasn't so sure.

I wasn't sure how long we laid there but it felt nice. The noise from the T.V eventually put me sleep. I woke up with Audrey's foot in my face and she was sound asleep. The clock read 9 am. I groaned before carefully getting out of the bed and heading to the shower.

When I was out and dressed I headed to the bagel shop down the street to get some bagels and muffins for everyone. I got myself a coffee before heading back. I set everything down before grabbing a leash for the dogs to take them on a walk.

"Where are you off to?" My aunt asked as she came out of the guest bedroom.

"Just taking the dogs on a walk." I smiled. "There's coffee and donuts and muffins and bagels. Help yourself."

"Kinley." She stopped me right before I opened the door to head to the street. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Lately I've hated that question. After a breakup that question is a big one because I don't know. I don't know how I am. For a year I was with this person. For a year I got to used to him being around and now being on my own feels weird.

"You're not." She answered and all I could do was just look at her. "You miss him."

"Of course I miss him. He's the love of my life and he doesn't want me." I sighed. "I don't wanna talk about it." I opened the front door and left closing it quietly behind me to not wake anyone up. I sighed and looked down at the dogs who were happily waiting for to start walking to the elevator.

Walking around the city always felt so crazy. It was huge, it was busy but it was beautiful and although it wasn't home, it kinda felt like it. I walked the dogs to the park a few blocks away so that they could play and do their business. Duke stuck to my side while Loki ran off on her own chasing ducks.

When I got back to the apartment everyone was awake and eating breakfast. I sat down and joined them with a cup of coffee and a muffin.

"What should we do today?" Audrey asked.

"Well they just opened this ice cream museum thing if you wanna go check it out."

"Yes!" She shrieked before rushing off to my bedroom to get ready. I chuckled a little as everyone else groaned.

"Let her have fun." Just like last year, Audrey's parents were going away so she was going to stay with me while they flew to Hawaii. We always had a good time together and I hated that I had to live so far away from her. Of course she didn't mind because it's just a new place for her to vacation.

"But is it even open? Christmas is tomorrow." My grandmother commented. I looked it up and it was in fact open.

So we all got dressed and headed down to the street to wait for our Uber.

"So this is what you always do? Wait for an Uber?" My mom questioned. "This is how you get to work?"

"No. I have a driver that drives me to work." I commented casually as I checked to see how much tickets would cost.

"You have a driver?"

"Yes. My boss set me up with a driver." I commented. I found it so weird that I had someone drive me to and from work everyday but sometimes it was nice. It was amazing when I had a long hard day at work and I didn't need to walk or drive home, someone did it for me.

"You're rich."

"No. I was given all of these things for moving out here. Including everyone else that came with me. I am the boss of everyone though." I commented. Being the boss of everyone, stresses me out. I don't like bossing people around so I try to do everything in my power to give them the days off that they need and to finish the work that they can't finish on their own. I gave them an extra day off of work so that we could have a Holiday party and they all really seemed to enjoy dressing up and doing a gift swap.

All in all everyone at the company were doing amazing and so far I haven't had to fire anyone.

Once we got the museum we all piled our money together to pay for tickets before Audrey and I took off running in the same direction while everyone else followed behind us. There were tons of different things and area's. We enjoyed the ball pit the most. At the end I treated everyone to ice cream before we headed back to my place.

"Wanna go swimming?" I asked Audrey.

"I didn't bring a bathing suit. I didn't know there was a pool."

"Yeah, its on the roof. I haven't gone yet but Ashton and Calum said it's nice." I shrugged. "We can go buy you one." I commented grabbing my wallet. "I'm taking Audrey out."

"Where are you going?" Nick asked looking up from his phone.

"To American Eagle to buy bathing suits. Do you wanna come?" I asked and he jumped up and got his shoes on. We walked to American Eagle and I bought them both bathing suits before we went home and went swimming. Tomorrow was Christmas so it was nice to just have a day to relax and swim.

*LUKE P.O.V*

Spending the night in the hospital sucked. My family thought that we should try skiing as if we've done it every year of our lives. It ended with me having a broken foot. I would spend Christmas in a cast. I had no idea how I was going to get on a plane and fly to L.A like this but I guess it was going to have to happen.

Sleeping on the couch was the worst since I couldn't get up and down the stairs. I huffed as I leaned over and tried to grab my water off the coffee table.

Christmas dinner was change to our house so that I couldn't have to leave and I wasn't looking forward to it. The last two Christmases I spent with McKinley and this year she wasn't going to be here and it felt weird. It felt as if I was missing something.

I did buy her something for Christmas but I wasn't sure if I was going to give it to her. I had bought it in a friendly way but I knew she wants get back together and I didn't want it to come off as that I always wanted to get back together. Maybe someday in the future we would but I think we both needed to focus on ourselves.

Family started flowing in but I wasn't able to get up to greet them. Every person who came in asked what happened and then questioned where McKinley was. They clearly didn't get the memo. Every time I had to tell someone that we were no longer together made me question why we never even tried to make it work.

"How are you doing?" Ben asked and I shrugged drinking a beer. "Foot or her?"

"Both." I sighed. Eventually everyone was here and my younger cousins wanted to open presents so I sat up and rested my foot on a pillow on the coffee table.

Once the younger kids had their gifts open, we decided to give our parents the presents that we bought. Jack and Celeste decided to go first.

Mom screamed as she opened the gifts and flung the box on the floor to stand up to hug them both.

"Jesus Christ." I mumbled picking the box up and on the front was an ultrasound picture that said 'hi grandma' with what I was assuming was Jack and Celeste's baby. "You're pregnant?" I asked and Celeste nodded. She leaned over to hug me. "Congrats." I smiled.

"How far along are you?"

"14 weeks." I had no idea what that meant but I was excited to become an uncle. Of course I most likely wouldn't see the baby much but I was planning to fly back when the baby was born so that I could meet them. This Holiday season was a crazy one.

Once the Holidays were over, Ashton picked me up so that we could fly home together and thank god that we had seats together because I would have been extremely uncomfortable with someone else.

"What the hell happened?" McKinley asked as she picked us up from the airport with Audrey.

"Skiing accident." I grumbled as she took my luggage from me and put it in her car.

"Damn." She commented. "Stick to the guitar."

"Yeah, great advice." I got into the back with Audrey while Ashton and McKinley got in the front. The car ride was quiet besides the music playing on the radio that I would sometimes hum to. "Thank god we have an elevator."

"Yeah that's true." Ashton commented. "How are you going to work?"

"Well I'll be getting an air cast in two weeks and I'll be able to put pressure on it so I should be fine."

It was so good to be home.