"Alex,Hurry up!" Shawn screams from across the hall. "You are going to make us late for the Christmas party. That will upset grandma!"

I roll my eye."Calm down. I'll be done in a second!" Why does he always have to rush me? Doesn't he know that it takes time to get ready? It's like he expects me to wake up and be ready. Suddenly I hear foot steps behind me.

"Hurry or I will carry you down those stairs." He threatens. I almost let out a laugh but I knew that would make him do it.

It turn to look in my mirror. "Alright I'm finished." I grab a bag of presents I had and walk past Shawn. Once I reached downstairs, I noticed that Shawn wasn't behind me.

"Shawn, hurry up!" I mimic his voice and then laugh at myself.

"You are really annoying." Shawn trudges down the stair case. Quinn follows. I had almost forgot she was here. She's really quiet.

"Yeah, yeah. Now help me carry these gifts to the car." I place almost all of the gifts in his arms.  They were all really heavy. I had 3 small boxes for myself.

"Why did you give me all the heavy ones!" Shawn whines.

"Because you're stronger and I didn't want to carry them." I smirk.

"Ugh, do you treat your roommate like this?" He uses his leg and pushes up the boxes.

"Nope, him and I don't really go shopping together so." Now that I think about it, Mason does most of the shopping. I've only bought things for the apartment a couple of times. We are going to have to have a talk when we get back.

"Wait, him?" Shawn raises an eyebrow. My eyes widen and I freeze in my place. Uh oh, here comes protected older brother. I shouldn't have said that. It was too late to take it back now.

"Um yeah, the dorms were full and there was only one apartment left. His names Mason and he's really-"

"Is he nice to you?"

"Hey, it's rude to interrupt," I scold." And to answer your question. Yes, he is nice to me." Am I lying? I mean Mason is nice to me now, but before he was really mean. I'm not going to count it as lying, that was in the past.

"You aren't dating?" I blush at his question.

"No."

"Okay. You aren't allowed to have a boyfriend remember that." Shawn says.
"Now get in the car, we are seriously going to be late."

I slide into the passenger side. I guess it's not a good time to mention Cj. Shawn would surly mess him up since he technically cheated on me.

About 20 minutes later, we arrived at my grandma's house. There were a lot of cars parked in the drive way, meaning that my whole family was there.

"Hey, Shawn and Alexandria are here!" Someone shouts. I cringe as I hear them use my whole name. We hug and greet a bunch of family members as we make our way to the tree. I placed my gifts under it and back up so Shawn could put the rest down.

"Dinners ready!" I recognized my moms voice coming from the kitchen. Everyone races to go find a seat in the dining room.

I decided to go help my mom carry the food into the room. It was nice when we were all seated. Apart from the yelling and the food constantly being throw around.

We all talked about work or college. We also talked about baseball. My family is really big on sports, especially baseball. A lot of my cousins play. It's fun in the summer because there's always a game to go watch. From little league games to college games. Maybe someday one of my cousins will be in the MLB. Or possibly Shawn.

After dinner we moved on to presents. The kids couldn't wait any longer. If we did wait, I feel like there would be a riot. I can imagine a bunch of tiny kids taking over the house. That's a really scary thought.

As we were opening gifts, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I quickly grab it. I had revived a couple texts from Mason.

"Hey, are you home?"

"I'm at a party right now, is everything alright?"

"I'm fine just needed to get away from my family."

"Im sure my family wouldn't mind if you came over. Here's the address. I must warn you though, I have a big family. Expect a lot of questions."

I gave him the address. I could tell from his messages that something was wrong. I'm sure my family won't mind one person extra. I just hope they don't give him a hard time.

"Alex open your gifts." My grandma smiles and passes me a couple boxes. I thank her and open them.

Soon the door bell rings. "I'll get it!" I yell before anyone else tries to open it. Everyone looks at me questionably. I jump up from my spot and run to the door, ignoring all the weird looks I got. I open the door to see, Erica?

"I know I'm not the person you wanted to see." She sighs. "But I need your help. Can you come with me for a little bit?"

"Alexandria, who is it?" My grandma calls.

"No one, I'll be back in a few."I call back to her and then slip out the door.

"Is everything alright?" I ask.

"Get in the back seat and see for yourself." She points to the back seat of the car.

"Okay?" I open the door and get in. Next to me is Mason. He's passed out and I can see that he has a large cut across his face.

"What happened!" I shriek. I look at Erica who was now in the front seat. Her face was hard and unreadable.

"He went to a party without telling anyone. I'm guessing he got into a fight." She shrugs.

"Ugh, I bet it was those idiots from the beach!" I growl.

"Wait, what idiots from the beach?" She questions.

"They other night. We ran into a few guys at the beach. They knew Mason." I answer. The thought of the guy being so close to me sent a shiver down my spine. That was awful.

"How many of them?" She proceeds to ask.

"Four I think?" I say unsurely. I couldn't remember how many exactly.

"I think I know who did this." She mumbles.

"Who?"

"Look, I can't take him back to my house. Can he stay with you tonight?" She ignored my question. Him? Stay with me? At my house? With three brother?

"Um I don't know if that is poss-"

"If you don't my aunt will probably kick him out. Please." She begs. She knew I couldn't let that happen.

I thought about it for a second then came up with a decision. "Fine." I couldn't let anything else happen to Mason. I cared about him too much. I knew that if he got kicked out, he wouldn't be able to see Rosie again.

"Thank you. Now what's your home address."

We made it home. Erica and I both carried Mason down the stairs to my room. He was quite heavy. We placed him on my bed. I let out a sigh of relief. Carrying him down the stairs was a work out.

"Alright, I've got to go. Thanks for this." Erica didn't wait for my answer, she just left quickly.

I sigh and look at the Mason sleeping peacefully on my bed. I felt my heart ache in my chest. I don't like seeing him hurt.

I took out my phone and texted my mom telling her that I had a friend bring me home because I wasn't feeling good. After I sent it, I looked at the time. 11:00pm.

I decided to just go to sleep. I changed in the bathroom just to be safe, then I laid down on the free side of the bed. Soon enough, arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me close. My cheeks instantly felt warm. I started to think.
How am I going to explain this in the morning?