Erik's POV-

Ever since Theo started doing drugs, I hadn't liked Christmas. He hadn't shown up for Christmas since I turned fifteen. The first year he was too high to even remember that it was Christmas, and then the next he was dead. It felt incomplete and wrong to celebrate when he wasn't there with us. Our whole family felt incomplete and wrong.

I hated that I blamed myself. Logically, I knew that even if Theo wasn't trying to protect me from T, he probably would have been forced to become a part of his clique somehow. Just like I had, and just like my father before us had. T and his gang really had a way of not giving people any other options.

That was why I was so bitter about my uncles straight up ditching us and basically screwing us over. My mom didn't see it how I saw it. She has always been the type of woman to see the best in others and situations, but what they had done was screwed up and wrong. That was why it has taken them so long to come over for Christmas even though my mother has invited them over every single year... Guilt will do that to you.

You see, my parents never married. A whole marriage was just something that they hadn't even thought about. I mean, they were together, and everyone knew that they were together, so they didn't ever see the point in getting legally married. My mom got better benefits as a single mom without them being married, and they were trying to save every cent that they could on getting us out of our neighborhood.

When my father died, he had life insurance that no one knew about. It was life insurance that his mom had gotten for him as soon as he had become a teenager in the ghetto. She had known the risks of living around there while being a young black male.

Twenty-five thousand dollars... Not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but enough to bury him and then move out of our hood. It was enough to change our lives.

When my grandma died, she had each of her kids' life insurance paid on. Each of them had twenty-five thousand dollars for burial costs. She hadn't wanted to leave any of their loved ones with no plan.

The thing was though, she died before my mom had come into the picture. My father knew nothing of his life insurance; none of her kids had any idea that their mother had done that for them and their loved ones. Usually, life insurance is defaulted to a person's spouse. Unfortunately, my parents were never married. So... his brothers were the secondary beneficiaries on his policy. Their mother had done that for each of them because none of them had any families before she had died.

My uncles both got half of the money that my father's death left. Granted, they did pay for him to get cremated. I think that was how they justified the guilt. Fifteen hundred dollars out of twenty-five thousand went to his after-life expenses. They then picked up my father's ashes after he was cremated, gave them to my mother, along with a thousand dollars each, and then got the hell out of our side of town. My father's remains and two thousand dollars was all that we were left with... That was it.

So yeah... I was pretty damn pissed at my uncles. I didn't think that what they did was right, and it pissed me off that they were going to show up at my house and all the sudden act like what they did was okay.

It wasn't okay. Neither one of them offered for us to come live with them, even though they got out with my father's life insurance money. Neither of them offered to pay some of my mom's bills that my dad paid. No... they gave her a measly two thousand dollars out of twenty-five thousand and then left. That left my brother to have to worry about helping with bills at such a young age. They left us all vulnerable.

I couldn't even look at them. They were all chatting it up, telling everyone how well they were doing. Meanwhile, I was just hoping that T wasn't going to go back on his word and pull a Grinch move on us by taking our presents in exchange for our fee that he had waived that month.

"So, Erik... I see you have a steady girlfriend now. That's amazing. Just don't forget that you two are still young," my uncle Reggie said while taking a sip of beer.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I practically snarled and stood up to face him.

"It means... Um- that-"

"He means that we shouldn't be having kids anytime soon. Isn't that right, sir? Because I know that there is no way that you'd be disrespecting both of us right to our faces by suggesting that we should not be serious about each other due to something as measly as our age, right?" Kat said in her very light and sweet 'fuck off, asshole' voice as she stayed sitting and grasped my hand.

"R-right! Exactly! I was just reminding you that you two are too young for kids," he replied, taking the out that Kat had provided him with.

"You might be my uncle, Reg," I told him slowly. "But to me, you're just an asshole who abandoned us. Don't think that you or Andre have any right to tell me what I should and shouldn't do. You two screwed us over. I was too young to understand what happened when it was all going down, but Theo explained it to me quite thoroughly. You two took my father's life insurance and got the hell out of here. All the while, leaving us here to rot. So, fuck off."

"And you're really gonna listen to that crackhead?" Andre interrupted as he came to the side of the porch where Kat and I had been minding our own business before Reggie interrupted us.

"Ooo... You know, Erik, I'm really hungry. I thought that I smelled your mom's amazing cookies earlier. Do you think that we could maybe go hunt me down one?" Kat said quickly while standing up and inserting herself in between me and my uncles.

"You're hungry?" I asked. She had completely taken me off guard with that because Kat never admitted to being hungry... ever.

"Starving," she replied. "And I really want something sweet. You think that we can secretly scrounge something sweet up before dinner without getting in trouble?"

"We can damn sure try," I answered her, stepping right into the trap that she had set for me.

She had wanted me to step away from my uncles. She did so by bringing my attention to taking care of her. It was a dirty trick, but it was an effective one. I'd choose taking care of her over anything.

She grabbed my hand and led me to the front door. As I passed my uncles, I pushed Andre with my shoulder rather roughly. I hoped that it got my message of 'stay away from me and my family' to him loud and clear.

"Hey Ma?" I called as soon as we stepped into the house. I led Kat to the kitchen and stood in the doorway, making her stand next to me as I spoke. "Do you have any cookies ready? I know dinner is soon, but the smell from your cookies is too powerful. Kat and I are practically drooling over just the thought."

"One," my mom said firmly. "You two can have one, and don't show the others," she warned as she held out the plate of Christmas cookies towards us. "Dinner will be ready soon. Don't spoil your appetites," she said before shooing us away.

"Oh wait, before I forget, and Kat won't remind me because she won't want to impose... She has a dress that probably needs altering. It needs to be done by the day before New Year's Eve. Do you think you can take a look at it after dinner?"

"That's less than a week!" My mother exclaimed.

"Yeah... you don't need to worry about it. I'll... I'll just take to-"

"Absolutely not," she cut my girlfriend off quickly. "Nia and I will take a look at it after dinner. We'll get it done for you, sweetheart."

"You really don't have to. I hate to impose and-"

"Nonsense," she cut her off again. "You're family. Of course, we'll get it done for you."

Kat was genuinely taken aback by my mother's persistence. She didn't understand that you just do for family. She didn't understand that family helps each other out.

I took Kat's hand and led her away from the kitchen as she stared at her still-whole cookie in her hand. "Eat up," I said when we got to the living room. "You made me get you a cookie, so you have to eat it. I don't care if it was just a ploy to get me to not beat up my uncles."

She let out a long sigh and then brought the cookie up to her mouth. She sighed and then took a tiny nibble from the cookie that looked almost painful for her to do. As soon as she swallowed the small bite she inhaled sharply. "Goddamn, sweets get better and better each time I eat them," she said before taking another small bite. "Too bad they're so bad."

"They're not bad, Kat. Everything in moderation. Two or three cookies is okay. A whole tray of them? Maybe not. You're allowed to have good tasting food, baby. It's okay to allow yourself to enjoy food. Food is one of the great joys of life," I told her honestly.

"You're right, of course," she said with a smile and kissed my cheek. "I just keep thinking about this dress fitting and stuff," she fretted. I could see the panic coming up in her. "I mean, after dinner... That's when I'll be at my biggest and-"

"Hush, love," I cut her off quickly with a hug. "You're healthy, beautiful, and amazing. Your size doesn't matter. No amount that you have to take this dress in or out effects your true beauty. You're beautiful, not because of your size or weight, but because of your gorgeous personality and heart. I promise that beauty is what will shine through, always."

----

"Hey mom..." I said as I pulled her aside.

I waited as everyone else made their ways outside to get a bit of fresh air. We had just finished dinner. Kat had eaten only a little bit, and it was still making her very upset and anxious for her fitting that she was getting changed for. She thought that her stomach was going to be super bloated and ruin the dress fitting all together.

Fittings and trying on clothes were still some of her biggest triggers. She had told me about how growing up her mother never let anyone alter her dresses. She always had to alter her body instead. She always had to fit into the dress, not have the dress fit her.

Now she was finally going to get a dress fit for her. Still, it was raising alarm bells and making her ultra-nervous. She was still scared, even if her mother wasn't here for her to be scared of.

"Can you not tell her how much you'll have to let it out or anything like that?" I asked my mom sheepishly. "I've already asked Nia not to too."

"What do you mean?" My mom asked in a confused voice.

"I know that you usually will discuss how much in needs to be altered and stuff like that with other people. But mom... please don't do that with Kat. Just fix it for her; don't tell her anything," I replied.

"But I have to get her approval. I mean, what if I have to cut a whole panel to add length. It has to be-"

"Mom," I cut her off and touched her shoulder to really get my point across. "Please, don't tell her if you have to do that. I will literally beg you if that will get you to not explain how much or how little it needs to be altered."

"Okay, I won't. But I don't understand... Most women want to know exactly what I'm doing and when exactly I am doing it for their dresses."

"She's just... different. Look, the way she was raised is way different than all this. If you tell her that you're taking it out three inches, all she'll hear is that she needs to lose three inches. And I- She's finally doing better, mom. She's finally starting to really accept herself after being taught to reject herself all her life. I just- I don't want something derailing her. She's been doing so well," I explained honestly to my mom.

"Okay," my mom nodded. "Thank you for explaining that to me," she said quietly and took a long pause. "Her parents taught her to not accept herself?" She finally asked in a whisper. She had obviously caught the double meaning in what I was saying.

I sighed. "Her parents have done a lot of really shitty things to her. Making her hate parts of herself, is one of them," I answered her. "That's why all this, the way our family and neighborhood is, is fascinating to her... She's never had it before. It's all completely new to her."

Kat came walking into the living room with a scared look. I could see that she was on the verge of crying as Nia helped her onto the pedestal that my mom had in front of a few mirrors. As she stood on the pedestal, staring at herself in the mirror, I could see the thoughts coming back to her. The thoughts that she had worked so hard to get out of her brain.

"You are more than the love that they withhold, Kat," I said softly as I went up to her and stood right behind her. "You are beautiful, inside and out." I kissed her cheek. "The world is ugly; not you," I repeated some of the positive affirmations that she had posted all over her room.

"Thank you," she said genuinely and kissed my nose affectionately. She then stood straight as my mom began pinning the dress in the back getting it ready for alterations.

"Where did you say that you had to wear this to again?" Nia said with an eyebrow raised and her nose wrinkled.

"My mother's fashion show," Kat answered and turned back to the mirror.

"You look really good, Kat. Seriously, you could make a trash bag look good," I told her with a laugh.

"Yeah... you look great, Kat," Nia agreed. "This dress on the other hand..." she shuddered. "I mean, it's not bad, but it's definitely not good either. It's kind of plain and boring. Did your mom design this?"

"No, she couldn't be bothered enough to design something for me too. I'm sure it's some generic high-end brand. I think that she didn't want me to take the attention away from her. She obviously still wanted me to look good, but not good enough to outshine her or anything."

"Wowee..." Nia said with wide eyes. "The things that I could do with a blank canvas like this one."

Kat's eyes lit up as she and Nia shared a look through the mirror. "Do it!" Kat said in an excited voice. "Seriously! Do it!"