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tece26

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1. Kylie felt uncomfortable as she struggled over the icy sidewalk with the tray of Christmas treats.
2. “Tell me again why you are doing this Kylie?” Mike asked in disbelief. “Why are you even bothering with the Stevens family?”
3. Kylie looked back at her boyfriend and smiled. “Because it’s Christmas! Come on Mike, show a little love. If anyone needs it, it’s the Stevens.”
4. Mike snorted in disgust. “When was the last time the Stevens showed love to anyone? They don’t even love their own family! Common Kylie, I don’t want to start any problems and Christmas was yesterday.”
5. “Exactly! Mike, every time I looked out the widow yesterday I saw one of them. No tree, no gifts, no food,” she shook her head sadly; “I don’t care who you are or what you have done in the past they deserve a little happiness on Christmas too.”
6. Mike took Kylie by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “Kylie…” he sighed, leaned in to give her a kiss, “This is why I love you.” He took her face and looked at her. “You are the sweetest most caring, beautiful woman ever, but you just aren’t smart are you. You’re asking for trouble here!”
7. Kylie stepped back as he leaned in for another kiss. For a minute Mike’s hands tightened then he loosened his grip and let go. “Thank you, I think.” she said.
8. “If you insist on the stupid idea of yours I’m not going with you.”
9. “That might be best considering your attitude about the whole thing.” Kylie said, and then regretted it immediately. He was just trying to look out for her right? “Sorry Mike…” but he had already turned back across the street toward her house. Great, she thought, I will deal with that later.
10. She turned and looked at the house in front of her. She could see how at one time it had been a cheery bright yellow home, with flowerboxes along the windows and a small flower garden along the sides of the driveway. But now, the paint was faded and grimy, chipped and pealing. The flower boxes were falling from the windows and the one that stayed had nothing but weeds in it. The flower garden, along with the big front yard was nothing more than a large mud patch. Half covered in snow and the rest in trash. A couple of old tires piled along the side of the house were shelter to a big black dog that barked as she came closer to the front door.
11. The Stevens… she thought sadly, how could anyone be sooo… she lost her train of thought as she slipped on the ice a little and struggled to hold onto the tray. No one in the neighborhood liked the Stevens family. The parents had no control over the three boys and didn’t seem to mind them running the streets, skipping school and terrorizing the neighbors.  Robert, the father never worked and spent most of his time drunk and bullying his sons and wife. Thelma, the mom worked as a secretary for some company and looked very professional, which surprised everybody because she was just as loud and obnoxious as her sons when she was at home.
12. Kylie paused outside the door. Maybe Mike was right, she thought. What are they going to do? She thought back to all they had done in the past. Last week alone they had broken a window in her house, stolen Christmas lights from the house and poured water over all the sidewalks around the block to watch people fall.
13. She was about to turn back around and go find Mike when she heard shouting from inside. “Shut up that stupid dog or I swear to god I’ll kill him!!” Then the door scraped open, one of the hinges along the top was loose making the door fall out. Keri ducked not sure if the door would fall out on her. Then she stood face to face with Jake. Jake was her age and, at 17, was the youngest of the Stevens three sons. He stood there with his dark hair falling over his face and saying nothing.
14. “I... I… uhm” Kylie stuttered. “I wanted to…”
15. “Very well said,” Jake sneered, “what are you doing here?”
16. “What the fuck is your problem boy!?” Robert shouted from inside. Shut that goddamn door now or I’ll make sure you have enough of the cold before you come back inside. Do you remember last year? I’ll take you back to that lake…” Jake stepped forward and slammed the door shut, cutting off the rest of his fathers’ speech.
17.  “Here!” She shoved the tray in Jakes hands. “Merry Christmas!”  Kylie took a step backward and saw Bobby open the door behind Jake.
18. “Great job asshole. You woke dad…” He punched Jake in the arm when he saw Kylie standing there hugging her arms closer to her body. “Well well! What’s goin’ on here? Why is princess pork here?” He let out a laugh and turned to the tray Jake was holding. “What’s this?”
19. Kylie took a deep breath. She told herself she was ready, she knew this would probably happen if she ran into Bobby.  Bobby was her least favorite. He constantly teased her about being overweight, even though she wasn’t. He knew it got to her. “I was just… I…” She cleared her throat. “Merry Christmas.”
20. Bobby picked up a couple of the cookies and bit into one. Then He started throwing the others at Kylie. “Do you think you can make us as fat as you have gotten?”  He knocked the tray out of Jakes hand and Kylie backed down the walkway in a hurry. She hit a broken brick and fell backwards, landing hard on the ground. “Whoa…. Careful! You may bring down our house!” He laughed as Kylie started to tear up, threw the last of her cookies at her and went back inside laughing and calling out over his shoulder, “You better run if you can. I’m calling animal control!”
21. Kylie stood up and hurried back to her house across the street. She thought she heard a small “Merry Christmas” from Jake, but forgot that as soon as she heard Bobby leaning out the upstairs window screaming “Oink oink!!” Mike was right, she thought, I was stupid and asking for trouble.